Northwest Fishing Reports

Please tell me if im crazy or what. I grew up fishing in Iowa and Puerto Rico, so this year is my first on the water in Washington. Are catfish here usually only 3-5lb? I used different methods than everyone else out there (Banks Lake) was using, single size 8 hook, with a piece of nightcrawler and sourdough ball around the leader. Anyhow I saw guys pulling in some very small catfish and when my first of the night was about 14lbs, well I didnt think it was big (used to pulling out 20-40lbs brown *flathead* catfish back in Iowa) was about to let it go, when a couple guys on a boat told me they wanted that whopper, so was it really that big for WA?

I am enjoying Rainbow trout fishing here, talk about a fight! 2 days ago I pulled in a 16in (unknown weight) out of Sun Lakes state park, and awkwardly enough.... a turtle!

My friends tell me crank bait and spinners work out here, but none like mine (said my stuff looks weird). Got a lot of learning to do I guess =)

I know nothing about catfish, but if you want a fight hit the rivers up for some salmon or steelhead fishing this year.

Yeah they'll usually run a few pounds with a few bigger ones. You gotta remember Flatheads get huge compared to Channels for the most part.

A 14 pound cat is really good. I am use to seeing bullhead catfish in western washington

Sorry man but a 14# catfish up here is a trophy. If you want size and numbers try the Polouse (sp?) river or the Snake River. In most of our lakes there is bullheads brown, black, and yellow. But other than that there is only a handful of lakes that have channel cats, and none of them really have a decent population. So a 14# cat is about the average size, but there is just so few up here (other than bullheads) that it seems like a trophy fish. But on the Polouse River around June 100 fish days is pretty common, I heard they are so thick that guys have acctually hit them with their props

We have some very nice catfish lakes on both sides of the state. Some of our lakes produce 20+ lbs. in Region 5.

stace