Books to find Washington State Small Trout

[Greg Price]

Bless Old Man,RIP. He was a constant evangelist for getting out to explore the little blue lines.

I have an interest in chasing sea run cutties in small streams in the hood canal. This book has been an enormous help on locating streams that may or may not hold sea runs.

It is not a fly fishing book, but gives an indication on what may swim up the streams.

The author feels that if the stream does not produce steelhead to bonk, then it is a waste of time to fish - ha ha. I had that mentality when I used to chase winter hatchery steel with corky and yarn.

 

[Greg Price]

This fly fishing book was given to me in the early 2000's by one of my former Yakima river fishing buddies. Man she could lay line out and was accurate.

Rainier had limited value because the park does not allow dogs, a deal breaker. Today, however, my lab mix is too old to hike, especially the technical creeks.

Now I am free to explore. Friday she saw me gather my creek gear and whined with anticipation.

 

[Greg Price]

Here is best trout of Friday. I fished a Mt Rainier area creek and lake. This fish attacked a large stimulator that I choose to match an October Caddis style bug I saw pop out of the riffles leading into to the lake.

From my angle, I could see under the riffles into the deepish drop off to the lake. I saw the fish emerge from the deep and hammer the fly, setting it's own hook as it turned on the fly and tortured my 2 wt.

This was in a small creek and mountain lake I found through the book.

 

[jeradjames]

I have a book by the author who wrote the Mt. Rainer and South Cascades book you have but focusing on the Central Cascades, you may already own that one as well. It's been pretty helpful and fun to bring along whenever I'm over that way and see what's near me. The first book you posted seems interesting, I'll have to take a look at that one. I went deep on the Entiat River on Sunday and found so many amazing little streams with nice 10-12 inch trout hungry and willing to bite on dry flies. The closed portion of the Entiat River for restoration/steelhead rehabilitation looked really promising of course and did see some guy who pulled over on the side of the road gear fishing.

 

[Greg Price]

Oh cool. I will have to check out the central cascades book.

Sounds like you found my nirvana. Small streams, largish trout for the small streams. A 9" rainbow puts a huge bend in my 2 wt.

Thanks Jarad for the heads up on the book. Always fun to read especially in winter and dream of hot weather wet wading small creeks for small wiley trout on a small rod. My fav!

 

[Dave Westburg]

I consult Shorett's books frequently when trying to find places to fish.

 

[CRequa]

I consult Shorett's books frequently when trying to find places to fish.

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WIsh i woulda read a hiking book also to go a long with his description of Mildred lakes, i had way to much gear for that hike

 

[Dave Westburg]

Here's what Doug Rose says about the 4.9 mile 3,850 foot climb to Mildred Lakes in Fly Fishing Guide to the Olympic Peninsula: "For anyone over 50, getting up to Mildred Lakes is harder than catching its fish...there are some grueling patches on the way up...you want good knees, good lungs and a sense of balance

 

[CRequa]

Here's what Doug Rose says about the 4.9 mile 3,850 foot climb to Mildred Lakes in Fly Fishing Guide to the Olympic Peninsula: "For anyone over 50, getting up to Mildred Lakes is harder than catching its fish...there are some grueling patches on the way up...you want good knees, good lungs and a sense of balance

It was a doozy with a full big pack, creek company odc 420, fins and waders tied on to pack

 

[Dave Westburg]

How was the fishing. Doug Rose says there's scuds and healthy trout in all three lakes with the biggest trout in the biggest lake.

 

[CRequa]

this was about 15 yrs ago, fishing was dynamite, was brand new to fly fishing, had a 10$ no name fly rod from gi joes and a floater with a sink tip, trolled back and forth over a big Boulder small black bugger i believe, scenery was great never went to find the 3rd lake, i remember going super cheap in a sleeping bag that was basically two fleece blanket about 5ft long since it was mid summer, i barely slept i was so damn cold

 

[Russell]

The lakes of Washington v1I used "The Lakes of Washington vol. 1&2" back when I was allways looking for alpine lakes no one was fishing. All of the lakes of washington are listed and what fish species are present.. Was able to find some great places for trout.

 

[Greg Price]

I consult Shorett's books frequently when trying to find places to fish.

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Wow Dave, those look like gems. Oh gonna have to get my hands on them!

 

[Dave Westburg]

Shorett was making noises about doing an update of the books. Not sure how far along he is.

 

[JackJester]

Here's what Doug Rose says about the 4.9 mile 3,850 foot climb to Mildred Lakes in Fly Fishing Guide to the Olympic Peninsula: "For anyone over 50, getting up to Mildred Lakes is harder than catching its fish...there are some grueling patches on the way up...you want good knees, good lungs and a sense of balance

Ha!. I have all of Doug's and Dave Shoretts guide books and used them often and wrote trip reports in the legends. I went to Mildred lakes in the OP way back in the late 90s after reading the books. Dragged my wife up there with the dogs. It was a brutal climb and it was early July and the mosquitos were brutal. We set up camp and were eaten alive. After doing my best to throw a fly I said the the Mrs.. "lets get out of this hell hole". Wrong time of the year to be there for sure. I'm older now and look back on that with fond memories and glad I learned that there are better lakes to hike to with better fishing. You just gotta get out there and experience things. My favorite lake is in the Mt Rainier area and is not mentioned by Dave in his book... thank you Dave. But still I also thank him for pointing me to a few 'go tos' I still do every year.

 

[Greg Price]

I consult Shorett's books frequently when trying to find places to fish.

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Thank You for posting the pics. I copied it and sent it to my family as request for birthday or Christmas gift ideas!

 

[Brian Miller]

I consult Shorett's books frequently when trying to find places to fish.

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I have Rose's Olympics guide and Shorett's Rainier S Cascades and Central Cascades guides. I have perused the Shorett books so much that pages were falling out so I had them spiral bound (recommended, they stay open without over-stressing the spine). I wish I could also say I've visited a vast number of Shorett's locations but I am pleased that a few "Curtis Creeks" I've fished extensively since the mid-1990s are not in the books.

 

[Brian Miller]

The lakes of Washington v1I used "The Lakes of Washington vol. 1&2" back when I was allways looking for alpine lakes no one was fishing. All of the lakes of washington are listed and what fish species are present.. Was able to find some great places for trout.

(Hmmm, maybe this should be in the Lakes forum)
I think but don't know for sure that the WDFW (high) lakes stocking database is still current and linked to the ARC GIS database. At any rate the "High lakes fish stocking" webpage and linked Arc GIS map can be (or used to be) good trip planning tools.
NOTE: "Users of the data should be aware that it takes a minimum of 2 years for fish to grow to harvestable size post stocking. Armed with this advice choose wisely which waters you intend to fish".

High lakes fish stocking

This stocking information is intended to give the user ideas where different species and quantities of fish have been stocked by WDFW and volunteers into high lakes across Washington. This fish stocking information is from the year 2000 to present. If there is no stocking data represented for a...

wdfw.wa.gov

Do a lookup by county, year stocked ("any" shows history), species, and select a lake.

I selected Little Pratt Lake (in King County) then clicked on the "View Larger Map" link taking me to the Arc GIS map. Note the fun facts in the legend...

Some magic happens when I zoom out with the - minus button at the top that makes it a nice multi-day trip planning tool.

I also created a community member account on the Arc GIS db to get to the map without going to the High lakes fish stocking webpage first.

 

[Dave Westburg]

One caution about using the WDFW data base. Sometimes lakes can winterkill. I've visited some small lakes a couple years after they have been stocked and have not caught or seen a fish. You never know about small high lakes without spawning potential.

I remember another small lower elevation lake in the snoqualmie drainage is stocked with a couple hundred fish every two years. Last time I fished it I caught nothing and noticed a family of 3 otters. My biologist daughter tells me small animals like otters can eat 10 times their weight in a year. That means 3 10 pound otters can eat 300 pounds of fish in a year...A huge impact on a small stocked lake without spawning which gets 200 fish every other year.