Help Mike & Aaron out with dubious Fishing Reports

[Marc Martyn]

We are starting to get the "moment of fame" web browsers that are posting bogus fishing reports. If you see a fishing report of a lake that you know well, with a picture that looks a little "fishy", contact Mike. I caught one today of Amber Lake with an A-Frame house on it (no such house) and the guy claimed to have caught a 5# bass out of it.[-x Mike caught that the water was also moving .
There are hundreds of lake reports coming in and Mike and Aaron can't possibly know all the lakes. The ones they don't know, they have to post the reports on good faith.

[gpc]

This really upsets me. Do people really have nothing else better to do? I can understand a fish story but this is a flat out lie. Hopefully this isnt a trend and just a fluke. Maybe someone lives on a river and took the fish home to take the picture or they were confused about the name of the lake. It might be something as simple as clicking the wrong lake when they made the report. Well I sure hope thats the case and Im not making excuses for these people

[Marc Martyn]

Do people really have nothing else better to do?

Some don't. I've seen it before. Not too often, but they do show up.
The guy that posted the Amber report was not registered and had no other reports. Also in the picture, the bass was alive.

[Mike Carey]

This was a good "catch" by Marc. It's possible the report was mis-entered, but because it wasn't from a registered member we have no way to contact him. Definately was not Amber lake! So thanks Marc, and yes, any help guys can give is appreciated. Over the years this has been an infrequent problem.

[Jay S]

I saw that report and thought somethng was fishy when it said amber lake to my understanding its a trout only lake but i just thought it was the work of a bucket biologist.

[raffensg64]

Also, some knucklehead posted a report last week on Hog Canyon lake.....this lake is a "winter-only" lake and has been closed for nearly 2 months! The guy claims he was in search of perch and bass. Must be new to the area....all I've ever seen from Hog is rainbow trout and bullhead.

[Marc Martyn]

Here's another post that I find dubious. First, I believe the fish is a Cutthroat (some are in Amber)
Second, 'Fred' is not listed in the members.
I have caught cutts in Amber that are in full color like that, however the fish in the photo looks like it has had a rough life in a hatchery holding pen.
www.washingtonlakes.com/ReportList.aspx?id=1

[Marc Martyn]

Also, some knucklehead posted a report last week on Hog Canyon lake.....this lake is a "winter-only" lake and has been closed for nearly 2 months! The guy claims he was in search of perch and bass. Must be new to the area....all I've ever seen from Hog is rainbow trout and bullhead.

Can you say"dumb poacher"?

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

I think your "amber lake" fish is a winter steelhead caught in March or later. Looks like a river bank to me.

[gpc]

The points you guys are pointing out lead me to believe this wasnt an accident it was done on purpose. I think they guy just didnt want give up his "secret spot" so he clicked on the first lake in the county of wich he was fishing. What an idiot, its not like there is a special section in this website for that exact reason](*,)

[Aaron]

Here's another post that I find dubious. First, I believe the fish is a Cutthroat (some are in Amber)
Second, 'Fred' is not listed in the members.
I have caught cutts in Amber that are in full color like that, however the fish in the photo looks like it has had a rough life in a hatchery holding pen.
www.washingtonlakes.com/ReportList.aspx?id=1

Let's not start a witch hunt guys.

That report is from the old site so you are not going to find a corresponding member. Even if it was from the new site we don't require you to be logged in to submit a report so the name on the report is irrelevant. It looks like a very nice rainbow to me. As well, it looks exactly opposite of what I think a hatchery fish looks like... take it or leave it, I don't have a problem with that report.

Also, people do make mistakes when submitting reports. I read the report (sometimes), spell check it (sometimes), and post it. Mostly I look for reports like this:

went fishin cot nuthin uesd pwerbait on number 6 hooke went home

Missing: grammer skills, punctuation, correct use of capital letters, spelling skills.

I pay no attention to what lake they were at, what the rating was, what the rules for that lake are or anything else for that matter.

What I guess I'm trying to say is that I would rather not see you guys bashing the posters, even the ones that make mistakes or are intentionally posting bad reports. We find a bad report, we remove it and move on.

[Marc Martyn]

Aaron, you are absolutely correct. I am guilty of being "overly protective" of one of my favorite lakes. The post itself was not out of line nor offensive and no harm was done. It was just one that made me wonder.
Abuse of the website to some degree will always be a possibility, but it is watched closely by the editors.
There is a difference between being vigilant and looking for wrong.

[bigastrout]

The Hanson Ponds in Kittitas County were breeched to the Yakima River a few years ago for off channel spawning. Doesn't that make them fall under the Yakima River Rules? The Ponds are on the river between Roza Dam and Easton Dam which is the catch and release section of the river. If it does than the fish in the report on Hanson Ponds dated 3/17/2007 should not have been harvested. Although I don't think that those fish even came from there unless they came from the Kiwanis Pond which is Juvenile only and does get brooders stocked once in a while. If you have seen the Hansen Ponds lately I think you would agree. I think this report is probrably a tall tale. I ran a search for the poster and the Hanson Pond post is the only one by that name. I think we have been duped. Just my two cents. What do you think?:^o

[gpc]

The Hanson Ponds in Kittitas County were breached to the Yakima River a few years ago for off channel spawning. Doesn't that make them fall under the Yakima River Rules? The Ponds are on the river between Roza Dam and Easton Dam which is the catch and release section of the river. If it does than the fish in the report on Hanson Ponds dated 3/17/2007 should not have been harvested. Although I don't think that those fish even came from there unless they came from the Kiwanis Pond which is Juvenile only and does get brooders stocked once in a while. If you have seen the Hansen Ponds lately I think you would agree. I think this report is probrably a tall tale. I ran a search for the poster and the Hanson Pond post is the only one by that name. I think we have been duped. Just my two cents. What do you think?:^o

Yeah bigastrout is right. One of 2 things happened here A) they were poaching by keeping trout from a C&R only pond/river that only allows C&R rules (Yakima river) or B) they were poaching for fishing in a juvenile only pond. I fished these ponds my whole life and have never seen fish of this quality. So either these guys are totally clueless to the rules or in fact this is a dubious report