Snohomish County Muskie

[jdimonda]

I live in Snohomish County and have no idea a place where i can fish for muskie that is close. Does anyone know where the nearest muskie lake is to Lake Stevens.

[Don Wittenberger]

The closest lake to you that has been stocked with tiger muskies is Green Lake, located in Seattle's Green Lake Park. You are about 75 miles away from Fazon Lake, a 32-acre pond near Bellingham. However, given that Fazon was a one-time stocking (in 2000) and given the lake's small size, it's questionable whether any tiger muskies still survive there. The closest lake to you of sufficient size to support a good number of muskies, and at which stocking is continuously maintained, is Tapps Lake near Tacoma. Farther away, but also a possibility for you, is Evergreen Reservoir in the Quincy Wildlife Area nar the Columbia River, which you can reach by crossing the mountains on Highway 2.

[jdimonda]

Has anyone had any luck on Greenlake?

[Don Wittenberger]

Dock anglers occasionally reported seeing them, and probably a few have been caught over the years. WDFW stocked them in 2000 to eat down the lake's sucker population. Since tiger muskies typically live 6 to 8 years, any survivors are senior citizens now, but they should be big ones.

I've never heard of anyone systematically fishing for them. Green Lake is shallow (averages about 8 to 10 feet) and very weedy (full of milfoil), so they could be anywhere in the lake. Probably burrowed into the weeds, because the lake doesn't have any other cover or structure to speak of. Green Lake covers 255 acres, so fishing it from a small boat requires some effort, as no motors are allowed and this is a rowing/paddling deal. This is a largely unexploited fishery and possibly an opportunity for an enterprising muskie angler.

Best bet is to take a small cartopper down there on a rainy day and cast bucktails or spinnerbaits over the weed tops until your arms fall off. Green Lake is tailor-made for the fishing kayaks that have recently come on the market. If you have one of those, you could fish the lake with reasonable efficiency, whenever you want to, without competition from other boat anglers.

And, like I say, any muskies still in there likely are big enough now to yank your arms off.

[jdimonda]

Are electric motors allowed?

[Don Wittenberger]

Don't know, you should call the Seattle Parks Department. Here is some more information about Green Lake's tiger muskies:

http://wdfw.wa.gov/factshts/tigermusk.htm
http://wdfw.wa.gov/pubaffrs/1stpersn/mdownen.htm
http://wdfw.wa.gov/do/newreal/release.php?id=oct3000a
http://www.friendsofgreenlake.org/fish.html

[jdimonda]

Thank you very much for the help.

[Deadeyemark]

Given the time frame that they've been in Green, I'll betcha there's some good ones in there. Curlew is another one not mentioned. Due east from you. To far for a day's fishin but probably well worth a weekend trip.
Let us know how you do if you go to Green.

[jdimonda]

Alright. So I went down to greenlake to ask around and see if anyone ever had any luck fishing for muskie. While I was down there noone caught anything but there were a couple of people fishing for them on the shore. They were using spinnerbaits. So I thought I might as well try. Didn't catch anything all day. Oh well maybe another time. If anyone has had luck fishing for muskie or anyother fish at greenlake I would like to know. I am also very interested in catching catfish.