Northwest Fishing Reports

im planning a trip up to coal lake in snohomish county in about late july early august anyone been up there? if so hows the fishing ?

so where the heck is "coal" lake in snohomish county???

I thought I had hiked to every alpine lake in that area but haven't heard of coal lake and can't find it on my green trail maps...


my recommendations for good fishing in that neck of the woods would be Blanca or Twin Lakes..... access road to blanca was washed out this winter though so definitely want to check that status before going....

Twin lakes is accessed by taking the loop highway up to barlow pass.. theres a parking area on the left just before the pass...

when I was a kid you could drive into monte cristo and park but there's a big gate there now and you have to walk the four miles of road from barlow to monte cristo and then it's another 4 or 5 miles up over poodledog pass on the way to twin lakes...... fishing was always good in these lakes and from what I can gather from trail reports at WTA.ORG the bite is still on....


a long, long time ago (when I was young) the fishing was also really good in the high lakes along the eastern most boundary of the county (i.e. top lake, pear lake, glasses lake, valhalla lake, etc., etc.) but I've found the fish populations to be way down the last 5 to 10 years I've hiked in that area........ the crest trail and crest access trails are heavily used by the horsers now and they seem to be doing more and more fishing... so if you are primarily interested in fishing I would tend to avoid any trails that show evidence of frequent horse travel......

if your heading up the mountain loop highway the road to the coal lake trailhead is on the left hand side just past
the road you would take to get to the big 4 ice caves the trail into the lake is only a tenth of a mile and from what ive been told this little lake contains brook trout also you can find info on this lake on this wegpages alpine lake section

Cole,

You are talking about my lakes! I know Coal lake well. Unfortunately I have only caught little fish in there, i.e. 7-8 inch. What you want to do is go up to the end of the road, maybe a 1/4 mile. Take the 1/2 mile stroll into Lk. Independance. Quite a few years ago this lake was really good. Of coure you probably know alpine lakes usually equal smaller fish do to being froze over 1/2 the year. But Independance gave us plenty of fish that must have been 12 inches or so.
The is another trail head (very short) to a lk. about 500 ft. up from Coal. I've never been in there though.
And another lk. over the ridge past Independance.
I don't know how old you are..... but when you I look back at the best fishing memories of my early days Lk. Indepenance was one. The absolute best one you should check out was Lk. Josephine. This is located from an access road just over the Stevens summit, on the rt. hand side. It is a road for back country access to ski area repair stuff. You go in there and pick up the Crest trail. It's probably 3 miles to the lake, in a nice bowl.
The lake is glacier fed and drains into what is the very head waters of the Icicle Creek. The lake is a jump point for other lakes, i.e. Suprise lake. Josephine was da bomb in about 1978. But I've been there since in the mid '90's and it was fair at that time. In july the cutt throat were spawning in the mouth of the creek.

anyway, sorry for the ramble. But I must say Coal lake was bunk. Leave the time in your day to catch another lake in the area. ( also try Goat lk. in that area.)

Chris

chris thanks for the tip i havent been up to this lake since i was 5 im 22 now my parents and i would go up there and collest fossils i tried to go uplast year but the road still had alot of snow on it for early june i plan on checking it out this summer and want to check out severla lakes in the area thanks again and if you ever want someone to go up there with ya give me a buzz