Northwest Fishing Reports

Anyone fish this before? I know they just planted it. Is the water very clear? I went to lake Ketchum last week and the water was horrible.

I planned on taking my float tube to either Martha or Gissburg... Which one would you do?

I haven't specifically fished Martha but I have hit about every other lake in a ten mile radius. I would say, skip the ponds and hit Martha. I'm sure you'll have a good time. Troll a woolly bugger or do slip sinker setup with PB or P Eggs and just sort of drift along in in your tube. You'll knock 'em dead.

i saw that this lake is 70 feet deep in some spots... never fished a lake that deep. What color woolly bugger? I have a few olive ones and a few black ones.

They should be just fine. To tell the truth, I've never found much of a difference using any of the colors. Well maybe white. The Trout are not deep, you don't need to go to the middle. They'll be in the top 10' of the water. Just work your way around the edges slowly. That's where the food is and where the food is, the fish are too. Drifting along with PB is killer but you'll have more fun with a fly. =) I like to fish from my tube, just you the water and the fish.

Yeah, the tube is super relaxing. I like it a lot. I never saw one fish lift at Ketchum. It was really weird. The visibility was terrible, though. How is the visibility in the lakes around Martha?

My buddy fishes there a lot and catches a lot of nice trout. He got a nice 5lb brown a couple weeks ago

Wow! Any idea what he uses?

Goodwin and Ki are the only clear water lakes in that 7 lake area.

troutfinatic wrote:Goodwin and Ki are the only clear water lakes in that 7 lake area.

How about just KI? Goodwin and Shoecraft share the same springs......

He usually uses worms. He was trolling one when he caught that brown.

I might have to give that a try. As far as water clarity, is Martha bad? or just not as clear as ki?

should be some bass hitting at Martha. I haven't fished it for several years but the last time I was there I caught several small largemouth bass.

bodofish, Lake Shoecraft and Goodwin do share a creek and you say a spring. I didnt know that.
But the water in the 2 lakes is very different, as far as, how far you can see down into the water.
You can see down 10 plus feet in Goodwin, not in Shoecraft.
I was answering chromers question on which lakes have clear water in that area, and Goodwin qualifies, not Shoecraft.
As for Martha vs Ki in water color.
I would say its like putting your drinking water next to a cup of coffee.
These stained water lakes in this area, are good for fishing, it just takes awhile to figure out how to catch them.
Some color lures work much better that others.
Martha gets planted with brown trout and rainbow.
Very few lakes in this area get planted with brown trout and Martha has been getting this plant for several years, some of those fish should be getting pretty big.
Chromer if you fish this lake, ive heard of cars being broke into, so dont leave any thing in your car in plain sight that would attract a robber. I fished this lake a few times, never caught a brown trout there, but I dont target them, when fishing. Some of these lakes dont open till the end of the month in that area. Ki being one of them.

Well i fished Martha today, and managed to catch 3, including a triploid and a brown. The other was just a normal stocker. All caught on a gold kastmaster.

hell yea, good work

I LOVE that lake. Troll Rapala, weeding ring/worms , a hook and worm, beadhead or conehead olive woolley buggers. Troll near shore on the wooded side of the lake, browns cutts bows and triploids.