I've been to them all (excepting otter)... and on numerous occasions...
Gotta get your timing right on these ones.... I can recall hitting dumbell 'bout mid july one year and the mosquitos were so thick over the lake that they looked like a thick buzzing, swirling fog...
as soon as they spotted me it seemed like the air above the lake started to clear as they raced to be the first to try the "fresh meat"....... All I could do was run....
I should have known better because my decades of hiking in the cascades have taught me that the first month after the snow melts is mosquito month... 'bout mid august there will be a freeze and that is when our time starts........
so when I talk about fishing any of these particular lakes I'm talking about fishing them after the first cold front in august through mid october when the first snows start to fall........ It's about a 2 month window that varies from year to year, but never by too much.
my first trips into the mountains started in the early 60s and I've been a frequent visitor ever since.... over these long years I've noticed radical changes in the use patterns of the lakes and the peaks and the ridges...... no space to go into the detail here, but
most recreational areas in the cascades now are used by horsers and by granolas... You'll see lots of other folks to, but once you get more than a mile or so from any trailhead you've lost the lightweights, the "golly gee'ers", the people taking their dogs for walks, etc., etc. and it will be mostly granolas or horsers after that....... I am one of the very few who don't fit into either category, but I've learned the cultures of both very well and can blend very nicely when it is required.
so whenever you're scoping out any mountain lake in the cascades you first have to ask yourself whether it's a "granola" spot or a "horser" spot....... Horsers fish and any lake with a recognizable horse camp will probably be fished out. Granola's don't fish very much and I've been to many lakes that took enormous people pressure but where fishing was very good because nobody was fishing them.......
anyways, with that in mind beerman, you must deal with the many lakes north of White Pass as "horser" lakes because they are used primarily by horsers.... the "granolas" prefer alpine ridges and rocky trails with expansive views and the trails and lakes north of white pass are in thick forests. Forests that block views and wind and daytime sun... the blocking of the wind and daytime sun are why mosquitos are so bad in July and early august.. mosquitos hate wind and they hate the sun...
Horsers will tend to fish out lakes where horse camping areas exist but they are rather lazy and tend not to walk very far to find greener pastures.......
Now.. my recommendations....
Cramer --- This is an odd one. I've mostly seen parents with kids and boy scouts at the camping area north of the lake. It's always busy and that's why I've never fished it. It falls out of my carefully described use pattern, but I've walked along the shore of the lake and noticed good sized fish swirling. Not a lot of them, but when there's a hatch you'll see activity.
Dumbell-- definitely some fish in this lake, but from the rises I've watched and the fish I've caught they tend to be on the small size. Always see horsers fishing it also.
Otter-- this one is hard to find. I walked right by it the one time I was trying to find it. I think I know where I was supposed to turn now though and will hit it one of these days. Have heard rumors of nice fish in this lake. Oh yeah, if you want to do any bushwhacking get one of those green trails maps.. the stuff you are showing on your post is not useful at all. Especially if you get off the trail and disoriented. (by the way.. if you are not an experienced bushwhacker.. this is actually a good place to take one of those really loud whistles they sell in the recreational outdoor stores now... forests are thick and it's easy to get lost but during the months of August, Sept, and October there will always be someone within hearing range of one of those whistles.... expecially if it's a calm day....
Most of the rest of the lakes that run north and west and east of the triangle defined by cramer, dumbbell, and otter are pretty much empty. You'll see a few "mini trout" rising from time to time but that's it..
Jug-- This one is on the western boundary of the area and I've always done very well on 8 to 9 inch brookies there. I don't think it takes much pressure because all the horsers tend to bypass it for camps a couple miles further up the trail. Want to fish it with a float tube though. Don't see a lot of rises. The fish hold deep. Use fast taper sinking fly line and any kind of fly that looks small and fuzzy and keep it near the bottom.
Deer- This is another one that get's bypassed by the horsers because it's too close to the trail head. Slightly less than a 2 mile hike. Always see nice fish rising and there is a variety of sizes which is a healthy sign. I like to head up to this one in October and do a couple of quick runs around the lake with my tube and then head out. An afternoon of fishing to close out the high lake season. Always seem to catch at least one decent fish. Some years it's better, some years it's just one or two fish, but there's always something there.
I don't hike into lakes just to fish though. I look just as forward to the walk and the exercise as I do to the fishing and that's why I keep going up to the higher lakes. For the pure fisherman I think the best fishing lakes in this particular area are Leech and Dog and you can park right next to them and cast in your line........
There's an old Yakima legend (William Something) who served on the U.S. Supreme Court back in the 50's, 60's, and 70's who loved this area and wrote a book about it.. was named "The Man and the Mountain" or something like that...... as you can tell by the name guys like that tend to have huge egos.... I mean, you take a few classes, get a law degree, and then pass a test called the "bar"..... after that you chase ambulances for a decade or so and if you are really good at it you get appointed to be a judge. If your time is ordained and you didn't say anything stupid at any of the thousands of social gatherings you attend for the next decade or so you may get promoted to a position on a superior court or an appeals court and from there you join a special pool from which appointment to the grand supreme court is possible.. possible assuming the right hands have been greased and that you haven't done anything too stupid in all your time working cases. So anyways, this guy from yakima gets appointed to the supreme court and serves for several decades and all of a sudden he's the "Man" who gets to be next to the "Mountain".. unbelieveable....... of course then there's the wilderness area named after Henry (Scoop) Jackson... (If you ever met Scoop this one would make you howl. a good talker but totally out of shape.. no way he ever did any hiking on any of those trails)... but let's not go there today...
I haven't read "The Man and the Mountain" but if you are really interested in the area from White Pass down to Goose Prairie (e.g. near Bumping Lake) it might be worth picking up.
Not sure what your range is (e.g. how far north, west, south, or north you feel comfortable driving before you get to the trailhead or get lost trying to find the trailhead) but I will whisper the name of the mountain hike-in lake that, IMHO, is the best for numbers and size of fish in the whole of our washington cascade mountains...
It's castle lake in the Mount St. Helen's Monument area..... and it happens to the the lake in the background of my avatar.... But that's a whole nother story...
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http://lizamoon.comFish doesn't smell "fishy" because it's fish. Fish smells "fishy" when it's rotten.
