Favorite Fishing: WA Edition

[ar addict]

Today at Pacific City

 

[MakarovManiac]

Today at Pacific City

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Nice lings and blacks. Freakin huge greenling too. Good haul

 

[Caveman Jim]

I forgot all about this thread while I was up in Kodiak Alaska last week. I am slipping aren't I?

There was more planned for the week than just fishing every day, say it ain't sooo.

For my birthday my son rented a 23' Pacific from the USCG and took me, his FIL, his best friend and his daughter for a 1/2 day on the salt.
I had the hot rod that day hooking 7, landing 3 and handing off 2 others.
I was able to cross off halibut from my bucket list, thanks son! Although I didn't get a pic with it we ate half of it the next night.
Fish tacos with the cod was excellent but the halibut baked with breadcrumbs, sour cream and Dukes mayo stole the show!!!

 

[JohnnyMac]

I forgot all about this thread while I was up in Kodiak Alaska last week. I am slipping aren't I?

There was more planned for the week than just fishing every day, say it ain't sooo.

For my birthday my son rented a 23' Pacific from the USCG and took me, his FIL, his best friend and his daughter for a 1/2 day on the salt.
I had the hot rod that day hooking 7, landing 3 and handing off 2 others.
I was able to cross off halibut from my bucket list, thanks son! Although I didn't get a pic with it we ate half of it the next night.
Fish tacos with the cod was excellent but the halibut baked with breadcrumbs, sour cream and Dukes mayo stole the show!!!

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Very nice! I lived in Kodiak for a few years (stationed there in the CG) and it really was the best fishing I've ever encountered. My biggest halibut, king, silver and ling were all caught during my time there. I have a picture somewhere of my daughter when she was young with a cod that she caught that was longer than she was tall.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Very nice! I lived in Kodiak for a few years (stationed there in the CG) and it really was the best fishing I've ever encountered. My biggest halibut, king, silver and ling were all caught during my time there. I have a picture somewhere of my daughter when she was young with a cod that she caught that was longer than she was tall.

I didn't mention the other stuff that I had planned to do while up there, the main reason was for my son's retirement ceremony from the Coast Guard on Kodiak.

 

[BigDan31]

So like several of you I'm not from here either but from So. CA and fished all bass species and the rest minus trout. When we got sick of driving at least two hours to any lake to get skunked due to shy fish from overfishing and tourny's we switched to inshore saltwater. There were more areas open before 911 then there were afterwards. We fished Long Beach Harbor from the back of the Queen Mary to the Oil Islands and around the other side by the Mole Hole and out to the entire 9 miles of Breakwater. We used the same gear for freshwater bass with 10-15 pound test and live bait if we wanted it or 4" grubs on weedless jigheads tipped with squid.
Then I moved up here and seeing almost every lake in Western WA surrounded in houses it turned me off to fishing. When the coof hit and they ordered the lockdowns I said" Screw That!" and started road tripping Eastern WA and the rest of the West too. It was nice finding lakes with just scenery and not much else. Over here in Kitsap there are tiny lakes with bass you cant eat because of pollutants and there are two more near Quilcene where I target shoot as well. On my list are Banks, Potholes, Yakima River, Columbia River, Riffe Lake, Mayfield and Alder Lake.

 

[BigDan31]

I need to keep adding to this as I find them. I was down towards Grapeview and passed a sign to Mason Lake...I went back to it and found a long narrow lake that has the same species I target plus the odd depth to it of 90 feet and average depth of 48 feet. I will say going weekdays will probably be best and before summer hits as its loaded with vacation homes. The main plus is it has at least a 50 Mph sign and its 1000 surface acres.

 

[ar addict]

32 lbs Neah Bay
also caught a 35 lb one on the second day.
Daily limits of ling cod and bottom fish.
Going back in August for tuna.

 

[Catfishmoon]

I was thinking about my favorite fishing in WA. This is based mostly on entertainment value, sport, and a little nostalgia. Here are mine, feel free to post yours.

Sturgeon on the Columbia...
Steelhead in many rivers...
Ling Cod for best eating fish in Washington waters followed by halibut (in my opinion). Enjoyed fishing the kelp beds near Sekiu.
Salmon in saltwater.
Fly fishing Central Washington.

And something that is less common. I was raised nearby and I have fished the Columbia Basin irrigation system of canals since I was a child, mainly large trout and walleye. It starts where the main canal leaves Banks lake...
My avatar is a photograph of that canal cascading over a falls about five miles downstream from Banks Lake. The falls is no longer there, the water was diverted to a hydro-electric plant to create electricity.

 

[No_Regerts]

I've been getting out every week for the last couple of months, mostly bass fishing the lakes around Olympia and at American Lake. It's been hit or miss with only a couple 20+ fish days, but some of the fish have been pretty big. Partly because I've decided to throw bigger lures to avoid the dinks and focus on getting a big bite.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I've only been out twice this year due to the lake was too low to launch. First trip there was a lot of debris in the water and fish were scattered.
Second trip went really well while targeting my favorite area, limiting by 11:30.
Yeah, there are only 9 fish there, math was hard for my deckhand that morning.

 

[somatic]

Cooking rainbows that you didnt have to carry up with you while backpacking at an alpine lake.

 

[MakarovManiac]

Cooking rainbows that you didnt have to carry up with you while backpacking at an alpine lake.

View attachment 1753256

Gorgeous rainbows. Where did ya get em?

 

[DirectDrive]

Gorgeous rainbows. Where did ya get em?

Lake Notellum ?

 

[MakarovManiac]

Lake Notellum

Lol fair. I just need to find some good spots.

 

[somatic]

Its a lake out in the Goat Rocks. One way I have found alpine lakes around here is by searching WTA trip reports for key words like "Trout" or "fish" etc

 

[MakarovManiac]

Its a lake out in the Goat Rocks. One way I have found alpine lakes around here is by searching WTA trip reports for key words like "Trout" or "fish" etc

Awesome thank you man, I really appreciate it. Ill see about going there sometime! Those trout looked great.

 

[somatic]

Awesome thank you man, I really appreciate it. Ill see about going there sometime! Those trout looked great.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/locations/high-lakes/stocking is also a great resource.

 

[MakarovManiac]

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/locations/high-lakes/stocking is also a great resource.

Awesome, what county is the goat rocks?

 

[Nosferatu]

Awesome, what county is the goat rocks?

https://wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/mgu_54.pdf