Northwest Fishing Reports

So I just moved to Elma last month and have been scouting and researching the area. Stump Lake has me really intrigued as I like small, quiet waters and and I'm not really loving how every lake around here is surrounded by homes. Anyway, I tried to drive up there today to have a look around and I was stopped by a gate saying private property. In my online searches I found a proposal to take the special regs off of it because it was considered a private lake. But I also see it is on the stocking plan for this year. So what's the story with this lake? Is it open some of the year, none of the year if you don't have permission to fish it? It would be a bummer to have a place that's just what I'm looking for and so close to home be closed to fishing.

What I see is it is on Green Diamond Resource company land. You would need to check on there site and see if they allow access. I know many of the tree farms a charging for access now.

That might be worth it if it’s not too much. Solitude and a lack of ski boats is huge for me as I fish from a float tube. Thanks for the info.

Okay just talked to Green Diamond and it is pay to play. Their passes run September to August so I’m debating if it’s worth it for now. Wish everyone was on a January 1st to December 31st schedule. It’s getting spendy blowing $20 a day to go fishing. Can’t wait for April Anyway, thanks for the info. That was a big help.

$20/day is nothing. I spend $100+/- to fish the salt when i go out. Ice fishing trips run me about $80- $+120 a trip and these are just gas costs mostly..my average fishing trip cost me $50 per trip not including gear. Just terminal daily expenses like gas and food. if you can get $20 a trip for good fishing, do it. Worth it.

Sure, but that’s kind of my point. Where I’m new to the state, I’m not necessarily getting good fishing for my money. I’m still scouting things out and learning the area and the fish in these waters. So to spend $20 every time I want to get some casting practice in a new venue is kind of a poor return on investment. Once I have my year license I’ll feel more inclined to go out even if the weather isn’t great or I only have a couple of hours to fish. Believe me, I’m no stranger to spending money to fish. Last year I switched all my rods to Dobyns and Megabass and I have over 100 of the latter’s vision oneten jerkbaits

Jon just saved a bunch of money on health insurance by switching to Canada.

You can spend as little or as much on fishing as you'd like. I think many of us are like minded in the fact that we don't want to spend $ unnecessarily....especially for stocked lake trout of all things.
In my opinion, if what you said is true and that the lake is stocked by the WDFW, then I believe there should be free public access. Our taxes and license fees go towards the rearing and stocking of these fish, so we should have access to them. If there is none then it should not be stocked or Green Diamond should be footing the stocking bill if they're going to charge for access. I'm curious to know if the state is aware of that.

EDIT: Where did you find info indicating WDFW is stocking that lake? I just looked up the trout stocking plans for 2018 and didn't find Stump Lake in Mason county listed. It wasn't in the 2017 plan either.

You know it seems to be gone now. I had just followed the link from fish and wildlife’s Facebook to see their proposed stocking plan for the year. The Green Diamond receptionist said that they pay fish and wildlife to stock it. They must have listed it because they will be stocking it but then realized their error and removed it. I may just bite the bullet and pay for access. There are some small steelhead streams as well as some resident trout streams on their property that I’d like to check out too. Coming from Utah I miss fishing creeks for trout, and though I’m eager to try for salmon and steelhead, being stuck wading kind of makes the bigger rivers intimidating.

You’re exactly right, I have the money, I just don’t like wasting on things I find pointless. Plus then I have to find a place to buy a license and wait in line to buy it every time I go out. It’s just a hassle. In any case, by the time I have another day off it will April so I’ll be good to go

Try looking into Vance Creek pond #2 (also known as Lk Inez). No houses around it but you do hear hwy 8 although you get use to it quickly. Not to many boats - electric motors only. My boat is to big but I do make a couple of trips each year to fish from shore. Have caught many trout in the 5 to 10 lb range and a few nice bass thrown in. This pond would be perfect for tubing.

That one is super quick to get to. Once it’s open I’ll definitely check it out. It looks to be surrounded by blackberry brambles so shore competition will be limited. I have a feeling it’s going to be a go to spot for quick trips when I only have a few hours.

The ponds off Keys rd have spiny rays. Ive seen bass in the ponds further back, but havent seen them in the bigger one closer to the road. There is sunfish though so the forage is there.

I had no idea those ones existed. Thanks for the intel, I will definitely check those out. I heard there are some sloughs off the Chehalis down towards Oakville that nice bass too. I haven’t figured out access to those though.

Lake Sylvia just North of Montesano is a public park with no private homes and plenty of shore access and it is heavily stocked with trout; including (at times) mature hatchery steelhead. I believe no gas motors are allowed.

Other public opportunities (Lake Aberdeen?) exist as well; check the WDFW website or the WDFW Regional Office in Montesano.

Sylvia looks very pretty and seems like it has some pretty nice trout in it. I will definitely check it out.

I could care less about ensuring that i catch fish if i spend money. I dont correlate money spent to being worth going or not. If i can afford to go and want to try or learn something. I go and don't think twice about it. But i am a steelheader and a fly masochist. Ive spent as much as $400 on a diy day trip into a remote fjord having 0 knowledge of what id find there. I lucked out and caught lingcod, rockcod, beech fished for src and found them crashing bait all over the place and landed over a dozen in the 14"-19" range, then went up the small remote creek and found even more trout and some pinks. The point is the less info there is online about a new spot, the better. You wont find information to the really good places without doing your own homework and footwork. Read government biologist documents, google search the name of the place, if nothing comes up then you might be onto something good. Next ask people you know personally, if still nothing thats good. The cost to getting into places like that can be pretty high, and could call for a float plain or heli transport. In my case it was a 40km rip on a boat each way to a place that cant be reached by road.

Knowing if its going to be "good" will only insure that its mediocre. Spend that money with reckless abandon if you want to fish really awesome places. I barely even consider cost these days.

Occasionally i get skunked as we all do. I take it like man. I wont let that deter me from fishing good places. Thats the cost of admission IMO.

Failor Lake might work for you, as well:
https://wdfw.wa.gov/lands/water_access/30206/

The thing is I don’t always have the time or money for a big trip. I’ve been in Washington for all of two months and right now I just want to catch some fish on some shorter half day kind of trips. I found some lesser known gems in Utah and Idaho, but that takes some time. While I do travel longer distances to fish occasionally (my profile pic is a smallmouth yellowfish caught on a remote section of the Vaal River in South Africa) most of my excursions are within an hour maybe two tops from my house. However, I work a week on/week off, so I do plan on doing a lot of exploring. But if I was spending $20 a pop to fish several times a week I’d have a rather unhappy wife Now that it’s April I can make one modest investment and have the freedom to explore at will.

WDFW has a mobile fishing app. Map shows lakes along with applicable regulations (seasonal, year-round, 2-pole).
https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/washington/mobile_app.html
Site says the app is "beta" before official launch this month, but I've been using it for weeks without any problems.

I just downloaded it and it seems like it could be handy. I do wish it gave a bit more info, but maybe that’s still to come.

Stump Lake use to be a Dept of Natural Resources land and only required a Discover Pass. The Shelton Mason County Journal ran a full one page article on June 20, 2013. in 2013. WDFW stocked over 500 5-6 lb. rainbows. Like Grubowski, I recently drove up to find a locked gate saying it was owned by Green Diamond, would like to know the terms of the change in ownership. The gate also had a sign indicating that "CHEMICALS APPLIED," LV 6 GLYPHOSATE, on jULY 13, 18.