A true quality fishery 3/22 - 3/23/2023

[Peach]

Wonder what the reasoning is with continuing with the Browns and not the Tigers? Both are fun fish to catch and both are similar with regards on how they fight vs rainbows - but Tigers are just a cool looking fish and even though their fight is similiar to the Browns, to me Tigers are just a bit stronger fighters.

Just kind of cool to have that diversity and have an opportunity to catch 3 different trout. Even though all I have caught at that lake is Rainbows.

Peach

 

[troutpocket]

My speculation on discontinuing the tigers is that they don’t survive as well as the browns. I only fish there occasionally but I haven’t seen a tiger bigger than maybe 15-16”. And they are the species I encounter the least.

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

It's interesting looking at Google Earth, using the older imagery, remembering what the lake used to look like vs. now.
From August, 2006:


From April, 2021:

 

[Matt B]

It's interesting looking at Google Earth, using the older imagery, remembering what the lake used to look like vs. now.
From August, 2006:
View attachment 59747

From April, 2021:
View attachment 59748

That's a whole lot of productive lake area disconnected and/or completely lost!

 

[Long_Rod_Silvers]

That's a whole lot of productive lake area disconnected and/or completely lost!

....and yet somehow that fucking rock right in the middle of the boat launch still remains.....

 

[Bakerite]

That's a whole lot of productive lake area disconnected and/or completely lost!

Sad that the shallows are gone. I had another favorite lake near there. The mini Dry Falls that you would hike down the ladders to. It is basically dried up.

 

[Ron McNeal]

View attachment 59094

View attachment 59095

On Wednesday and Thursday I went to this spectacularly scenic lake in central WA to give it a try. The planting rate was reduced by half several years ago, and although that means that there are fewer fish, those fish have more food and thus are fatter and stronger fish. I had a tough time finding fish, but each day I lucked into finding a small school of fish that provided some good action.

View attachment 59096

(This chart above covers totals from both days of fishing, about 14 hours of fishing altogether. Reminder that I measure from the tip of the nose to the fork in the tail (not the end of the tail as most do), so your fish sizes may be slightly larger).

Almost all the fish fought very well, especially the 17 to 20 inchers. Here are a couple of examples so you can see the nice girth on these fish:

View attachment 59097

View attachment 59098

The water temperature was nice at 47 to 50 degrees, with excellent visibility of around 16 feet and no algae bloom. When the water was calm and I looked down into the water while on shore, I could often see some fish swimming around.

There were about 8 or 9 fly fishers on the lake on Wednesday, but on Thursday there was just one shore fly fisher who only fished for about 15 minutes, so I essentially had the lake to myself that day.

Although most of the fish I hooked were on various leech patterns, I don't think the specific fly pattern matters all that much. Getting the fly down so that it is brushing the tops of the weeds on the bottom is much more important than the specific fly pattern one is using.

Aside from the marginal parking area and almost non-existent launch, I feel this lake is currently a true quality fishery, one to which I would be happy to introduce to my out of state friends to fish.

Rex

THAT, it is.

 

[Engee]

Sad that the shallows are gone. I had another favorite lake near there. The mini Dry Falls that you would hike down the ladders to. It is basically dried up.

I've been down that scary ladder you speak about. It was a little unnerving, but I did catch some nice fish. I don't have any luck finding the fish at the lake highlighted in this thread. Been skunked twice there in the past week, although yesterday was shortened due to frozen toes.

 

[Stonedfish]

Put me in the favoring quality over quantity group.
It is really too bad so many good past March 1st opener lakes now open on the general opener.
That is a good seven weeks or so of missed opportunity on some good lakes. A lot of those lakes also proved you don't need catch & release regs to produce quality fishing waters.
SF

 

[Engee]

Great write up Rex. It was great meeting you out there last week. I can only hope to be fortunate enough to gain a fraction of the fishing knowledge that you have.