My first trip to orca's island this year did not disappoint. My family and I decided to get some R&R at Leiber Haven resort, but I was raring to fish down at Cascade Lake. Saturday yielded bad fishing on my part. My brother and cousin hit their limit on trout, but since I was bass fishing I wasn't having as much luck. just 1 that fell off at the dock. about a pound, so it wasn't that bad. After that experience I decided to try out Mountain Lake for the first time. So on Sunday we went up to Mountain, and I was just astounded at the natural beauty of the place! I thought the view of cascade from the road was incredible, but this beat it by a long-shot! The water was crystal clear, the surrounding forest was a vivid green, and the air just felt great.

Since I am still boatless I was only able to fish from the public dock but that was alright. I spoke to a man who seemed like a local around the island, and he told me no bass inhabited the lake that he knew of, but the trout and kokanee fishing is phenomonal, especially since it was just stocked with 6,000 of the slimers. There were also 600 or so triploid stocked at the same time. I began fishing with some chartreuse power eggs, but with no bites after a half hour or so i decided to try a more activce approach by throwing a plain silver spoon out as far as i could. After a few casts i managed to hook into a nice 12 inch kokanee. Upon releasing it, my cousin got a huge hit from what we suspect was a triploid that was living right under the dock. We saw it bite and let go almost immediately. It must have been at least 20 inches! We never caught it though, but it occasionally came out to search for food around the dock. after another half hour of casting i hooked into the smallest trout i've caught that wasn't a fry. it was about 5 inches or so, a little over twice the size of my spoon! And it bit the spoon as soon as i was about to pull it out of the water to recast.

This was definitely not a wasted experience on this lake, seeing as even if there was no action from the fish the pure splendor of the lake is something to treasure. Will definitely be coming back when I come camping at Moran in July.

Goneshootin

6/3/2009 3:52:00 PM

You are absolutely right.Moran is in my opinion the no contest,hands down best park in the state.Too bad it costs so much to get there.Did you go up Mt Constitution to the lookout?Phenomenal view.Tons of trails,abundant wildlife such as deer,a few waterfalls,great views and best of all 5 lakes!!!!Cascade lake is one of my favorite lakes in the state.Its loaded with fair to good size rainbows and kokanee.You can easily catch a limit of the cliffs on the lagoon side of the lake.I think the rainbows might even be wild.Never did figure out Mountain lake very well,caught some cutthroat and some tiny kokanee there.Both these lakes are pretty deep and hold up well into the heat of the summer.I think we pegged 110 feet deep on the depthfinder in Mountain and 80 plus feet in Cascade.Both these lakes have boat rentals although kinda priceyAlso for as much of a zoo it can be in the summer there arent very many people fishing.

linesider33

6/6/2009 5:31:00 PM

I second comments made by Goneshootin.. i camped there for 4 days in late may and had a blast. i fished both lakes and caught browns, rainbows, and koakanee. biggest was a 16" rainbow from the pier on cascade. they bite best on salmon eggs. good luck.

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