Any info/recon on Crescent Lake in Pend Oreille County?

[iveofione]

This little known lake about a half a mile from the Canadian border is no big secret or zipperlips lake, it is a long way from anywhere-especially at recent gas prices, has no boat launch and not very big fish. I can't find any stocking information on the lake although allegedly it is stocked. In fact, I can't find recent information on the stocking of any of the 57 lakes in the county. I have fished it occasionally over the past 20 years and don't recall any fish over 14'' although one year they put brood stock in and it was heavily fished. It is not a real pleasant lake to fish, it is small, only 20 acres, and it drops off rapidly to a depth of 80', very little shoal area. Containing mostly rainbows and cutthroat, I wonder if the WDFW has started screwing around with tiger trout stocking yet, so many other lakes are getting them now.

I have seen mayfly hatches on the lake in June that looked like fog over the water so it can be fun fishing with light fly rods and tiny tippets. Because it has a paved road right to it I'll drive up there after the rain stops and give it a try. With so much mud and standing water around my usual lakes it should be easy access, I'll gear down to the size of the fish using 2 and 3 wts and hope I can time up a callibaetis hatch.

Small fish are better than no fish..

 

[dflett68]

the dataset i use from is from wdfw and shows 45 planted lakes for pend oreille. the cutts are planted about 60/40 yearling/fingerling. the bows are all fry except some legals in '95/'96.

 

[Old406Kid]

The 2022 Stocking Plan shows the same numbers as 2021, all fingerlings.

 

[Merle]

I just checked it out on Google Earth and thought it looked like a cool little lake. (Even though it's right on the highway, I'm guessing there's not a lot of noisy car traffic. At least less than say, Pass Lake on a Sunday). I really want to try to get up to that corner of the state for some lake fishing.

4400 fry plants seems like a lot for a 20 acre lake, unless they all get eaten by bigger fish or birds.

Eager to hear how it fishes Ive. let us know.

thanks, andy

 

[iveofione]

Those numbers defy logic. Why would they put so many fingerlings into such a small lake with a marginal riparian zone and sudden dropoffs ? And drive so damned far to do it? And do it year after year despite light fishing pressure? It doesn't add up and as far as I can tell it hasn't added up to even average catch rates. I'll try again and maybe use a type VII line with a boobie to see if there is something bigger lurking in the 80' depths.

Last fall I was test fishing a lake in Stevens County that has fallen on hard times. It used to be a great producer but I seldom fish it anymore due to the high skunk-to-success ratio. After a couple of hours without a bite I gave up in frustration, put a boobie on my Type VII and kicked down the deepest part of the lake to the takeout. On the way in I landed a deep bodied 19-20'' rainbow-the only bite of the day and biggest fish I ever caught in that lake. The boobie seemed like an outrageous selection for such a veteran fish.

 

[Obsessed]

the dataset i use from is from wdfw and shows 45 planted lakes for pend oreille. the cutts are planted about 60/40 yearling/fingerling. the bows are all fry except some legals in '95/'96.

View attachment 18345

Is that data available for download from WDFW? Or did you consolidate all of that from their PDF reports?

 

[dflett68]

x

 

[Divad]

Is that data available for download from WDFW? Or did you consolidate all of that from their PDF reports?

You can download it from WDFW. Updates frequently then do what you will sort wise

 

[Guy Gregory]

Those numbers defy logic. Why would they put so many fingerlings into such a small lake with a marginal riparian zone and sudden dropoffs ? And drive so damned far to do it? And do it year after year despite light fishing pressure? It doesn't add up and as far as I can tell it hasn't added up to even average catch rates. I'll try again and maybe use a type VII line with a boobie to see if there is something bigger lurking in the 80' depths.

WDFW fisheries guys will tell you, if asked, that they stock several northern NE WA lakes, including ones a county or two to the west of you, with unreasonably large amounts of fingerlings, at the behest of the Loon lobby.

Not that loons can't eat bigger fish. But, just sayin', a data point.

 

[iveofione]

I haven't made it up to Crescent yet, I got rained out the day I wanted to go. And with the price of gas I'm pickin' the low hanging fruit for now.