Northwest Fishing Reports

panfisher wrote:three lakes in malaga, several Rock Island ponds, those ponds you see on the left of the highway heading to entiat. A great place is the winchester wasteway out of Quincy. tons of them in there thru the whole system. try the dam at the beginning of this system. or from the I-90 area behind the rest area.

baitrunner wrote:
I don't want to seem to preach but you would probably have a lot more fun if you went after them with rod and line.Once you had your arms tested with a couple of 20 pounders you would never be interested in bass again.OK so I'm exaggerating a little,but it is really time we all stopped regarding carp as trash fish and recognized them for what they are,a really tough,challenging quarry and probably the largest and most powerful fish most people are ever likely to catch.Having said that,each to his own thing there are plenty of carp here so a few won't be missed but a fish that is held in almost holy regard by half the world is not a trash fish.If you want to know how go to the carp anglers group site.
Good Hunting.Baitrunner.

Fish On! wrote:Hey that's great you are out exploring the water world that most don't see. It's great way to learn about fish that will educate you far more than surface fishing. Potholes Res. has many areas that hold carp. The N side off M Rd across from the Dam is thick with carp. May-June when the lake level starts to drop there's often times potholes that get isolated that are full of carp. Try hand catching a 25 lb carp in knee deep water for a good time.....

Long Lake and many in the Seeps Lk area near Othello have carp. Look at a map and follow the Potholes Canal downstream from Banks Lk and there will be plenty of carp. Banks Lk is loaded with carp too. There's a WDFW access site on Banks Lk just past Steamboat Rock SP that is full with carp. The side section off the main Banks Lk is crystal clear in Spring, so would be an awesome spot to dive. I've heard about people diving at the N. end of Billy Clap Lk near the waterfall, but it's very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Once the canal is shut down at Banks Lk, usually about late Oct. it's safe. The actual canal is full of carp too as well as the side lakes. You're not allowed in the canal till the water is shut off. All the carp get trapped in pools or migrate to the side lakes or into the Bacon Tunnels. I was told you can access the tunnels after the water is shut off, but I haven't had the nerve to do that. Diving that with a light and sling would be super creepy, but very cool.

Little D wrote:Went to Daroga State Park....Seen several large grass carp and only discovered one common carp and he was nice enough to swim right to me almost as if he knew what I was there for, I am proud to say he didn’t make it home for dinner that night. In the 3 hours that my buddy and I were in the water we seen countless bass and the ever popular northern pike minnow. If anyone is on the hunt for northern pike minnow I can with 100% certainty say that Daroga State Park is the place to go. The fish I seen in that area were aggressively feeding on small bait fish and several times throughout the day I found that the small bait fish were schooling around me and my buddy. The northern pike minnow's were attacking at high speed and were picking off the poor little minnows around my fins but the fish closer to my head seemed to be safe it was incredibly fun to watch the feeding frenzy. The bass we had seen were extremely skittish and once they noticed us they were gone, they were all in the 2 to 3 pound range and were almost all holding in the edge of the weed beds in around 10-12 feet of water. After realizing that the carp were not going to cooperate with us we headed to Walla Walla Point Park. We dove there for around 3 more hours and spent that time recovering several hundred dollars worth of super baits, large vibrax, assorted spinners, planner boards, flashers, hundreds of feet of snagged lines, bare hooks and lead weights of every size and shape. Other than the gear we recovered, we went face to face with several large salmon and one large steelhead. Among all the rocks we found quite a few crayfish and the suckers were a out in force and seemed to be in large schools.

Fish On! wrote: Yes, I saw what type of gear you were using. I've always had mask, snorkel, fins along on my camping/fishing trips. All the places I mentioned would be fine for free diving. Amazing what you can find out there under water!.... I heard about Banks, but haven't been over there this year. Barker Flats on the N. end of the lake is full of carp, but may be dry now? Water is about 5-10 ft. deep for about a mile out. How much was Banks drawn down?

Kfedka wrote:The east end of Osborn Bay on Banks Lake is full of Carp in the summer and very little to no boat traffic. Is spear-gun fishing legal in the state of WA for Carp and only Carp?