Northwest Fishing Reports

Hey i am just wondering if there any certain winter trout fishing techniques that are productive.What kind of bait is good to use for the winter? should i soak my worms in warm water? what should i do and how should i do it?Any feed back would be great thanks.

Soaking bait works just as good in the winter... Try shorter leaders if you run the long ones as fish tend to hang closer to the bottom most days:salut:

Taz said it. Well thats how I do it anyway. Shorter leader and slightly bigger bait.

But why would you soak your worms in warm water?

well i kind of thought that if i were to soak them in the warm water,once they hit that cold water it would make them very very active. I.E. attract more fish like bam

try american lake off bill's boathouse. i've done really well over the years during the winter there. there's not a ton of fish caught there during the cold months but the fish are usually really big. i like cocktail shrimp an eggs out there. the basic rig is a small egg weight, barrel swivel, and a four or five foot leader. drop it straight down of the dock an barely tighten your line and count three or four cranks on your reel, that'll put you in the money zone there. fyi during the winter it's usually between 25 and 30 feet deep straight down off the dock.

They defiantly dont go up on shallower gravel flats were a worm under a bobber gets them good
I normally just tie on a bobber, egg weight, barrel swivel, and a size 4 hook slide on a worm and play with the depth until i hit some fish

i neer do bobber fishing,only in rivers and creeks.normal i tightline,i almost always catch somthing tight lineing.do you hae to pay to fish off of bills boat house,cause i think ive herd that around some place,but i was thinking about trying stelicoon lake and spanaway lake.i would go over to the north park at american lake but the police will not allow you to fish off the docks,witch is soo stupid,i mean if any boats come in get ut of the way untill they leave.thats what i used to do,untill the lakewood police drove yelling at me on the loud speaker.but oh well,

it cost like 4 bucks to fish off bills. it's worth it because it's a quality fishery and during the winter most people stay home. the boat launch in tillicom produces some good fish during the winter (when we get a couple days of warmer weather) it's mostly a gravel / small rocky bottom that'll get fish moving thru looking for food. steilicom lake put out a ton of big fish this year (at least from what i seen personally) during the winter i'd try fishing the boat launch down towards where chambers creek flows out. i havent done the spanaway lake winter thing for a long time mainly because that lake just gets hammered all year. if you watch for the stocking reports, the dept sometimes stocks it in january or february.

I second bills. I'v had some really good luck there in the past couple years. I usually use the same rig spokey mentioned, though I like to use worms and eggs, sometimes a little smelly jelly.

Does anybody know of any good winter lakes near or north of seattle? Didn't want to start a whole new topic thought I'd add it here.

Ive fished lake stevens plenty of times during the winter and ive never left without catch a few trout. Its a bit north of seattle though, me and curado can both vouch for norm of success we have fishing it. Black mans in snohomish isnt as good IMO but i havent put as much time on it as stevens but i what time i have spent has produced some trout.

Lake stevens from a boat or lake stevens from shore?

Nate,

Does your raft have a motor? I would get into the Lake WA. or Samammish cutthroat fishing if you have a motor to troll with. I am not sure of the size and seaworthiness of the raft you have... It might be doable to launch out of that launch which is 1 mile S. of Seward park (? the name) You could troll around the mouth of the cedar or launch at Coulon and do the same. The water isn't bad. Another option is launching from Mercer island and going down the West channel. Ive caught cutts in there, and staying out of the main inner part of channel.

Certainly I think that Samammish is mellow enough this time of year for your raft (less speed boats now) as you know both lakes have cutts.

Off the shore, the few times i do get out in a boat catch fish too. But wyatt park (if thats spelt right) on the west side has a good dock with a cover to fish off of (bring a lawn chair) i would start there if you make you way up here.

I just fished Sammamish today for cutts with a couple buddies, we boated 10 and long-distance-released several others including one that was quite large. Course you gotta have a boat for that....

I haven't got a motor for my raft yet, I was going to wait until spring when it warmed up a bit. But lately I've been getting tired of chasing steelhead around when they are so hard to find and some lake action sounds like a more relaxing alternative. Heheh. I just tried green lake for trout and got skunked.

Nice fish Matt! Yea, my boat does pretty well in swell, it's about 14' long and will handle a motor well when I get one. I haven't tried to take it out on the big water on lake washington yet, but I did riffe lake on a windy day with jet skiers and motor boats running circles around me and it was fine. I've rowed almost the whole length of Cle Ellum this summer.

I am going to try Beaver lake near issaquah to see if anything is left in that lake tomorrow for some trout worth a shot. this time I am going prepaired with my folding chair lol last time my feet were beat from standing most all day. bank fishing for me!

i live right near the lake
I may head out there tomorrow depending on weather in my livingston
What side r u fishing off?

on the opposite side of the dock in the main open beach type area. you will see a silver buick with stickers on the side can't miss it lol when you get down there just yell Jay I will answer lol

ill be launching off the gravel launch if i head out/