Hutchinson Lake
08/26/2026
Warm and calm, water visibility 8 feet, weeds horrific.
Make a note: late August into September is definitely
too late in the season for this lake. It is only 10 feet deep. Fishing was
difficult due to the stringy weeds lofting up from the bottom pretty much
everywhere. Ordinarily, there are lots of eager perch, bluegills, and
black crappies. On this day, their enthusiasm was lacking, with most of the
responsive fish very small. Only a crappie jig was effective (though I only
connected with one crappie). I landed a couple of worthwhile bass, but
the overall results were disappointing.
I visited the channel that connects Hutchinson to Shiner
Lake, intending to try for larger bass. There was a partial beaver dam,
blocking the main channel, and no watercraft was going to get past this without
considerable effort — and a willingness to get soaking wet. That was
more than I was prepared for.
Lower Goose Lake
08/19/2026
Mostly calm, warm temperatures, thin overcast, water visibility 8 feet
It is difficult to understand why this lake is so different
from the Upper Lake, which feeds it. While the Upper Lake has plenty of chunky
smallmouth, Lower Goose has more of a largemouth/smallmouth mix, with fish tending
to run smaller. Walleyes occasionally show up in the deeper parts of Lower
Goose. Lower Goose has bizarre WDFW catch restrictions on black crappies and
bluegill — I mean, what is the point, when you will never find any of these?
It wasn't like there was a shortage of action.
There were massive schools of micro-bass, ranging in size from 3 to 8 inches,
and I mean they were everywhere. It was almost impossible to distinguish
a subtle pick-up by a hefty bass from a gang attack by a swarm of minnow-bass.
The future up-side of this, if enough of those small bass survive, Lower Goose
might deliver some sensational smallmouth bass fishing in two years.
The bass tended to collect below the steep vertical cliff
faces in 8 to 15 feet of water. It was tricky to work through the submerged
basalt boulders. Worthwhile fish were sparse. I caught two bass running
14 inches, one a largemouth and one a smallmouth, plus a few smallmouth in
the 10 to 12 inch range. Along the more vegetated shorelines I picked up a
few small perch.
The only thing any of the fish wanted to see was something small and brown.
After that, the specifics didn't seem to matter. Unfortuntely, the smaller size
seemed to encourage unwanted attention from the many tiny fish.
Evergreen Reservoir
08/12/2026
Gorgeous fishing weather, good water clarity, weeds minimal.
The only thing keeping this from being a great fishing day
was fish. This seems to continue previous observations of exceptionally poor
productivity this year. Once the temporary reprieve from intolerable smoke
conditions ended, fish activity hovering near zero, I called the trip off
early. In fairiness, I landed a 12" smallie and a couple of overeager
little perch, so it was not a total loss.
I can't understand why this is not a massively productive
lake. I observed multiple schools of micro-bass; for some reason, are these
not surviving? Does that have anything to do with the voracious tiger muskies
that the WDFW regularly dumps in (who knows why?), decimating fish stocks? Does
incessant meddling with water levels destabilize food resources?
Upper Goose Lake
07/19/2026
Light breeze, warm, cool water, visibility to 10 feet
There were smallmouth bass everywhere, but most likely
encountered at depths around 15 feet below cliff faces and broken rocky
slopes. Action started to pick up in the afternoon and accelerated through
to early evening. The bass tend to run small, but I landed five chunky
bass in the 12" to 15" range, and on my light equipment, that size is enough
to make things interesting.
I had some action with just about everything I threw at
them, but dark finesse worms seemed to do best until evening approached. Then
the most in-demand item was an olive green curly-tail. Weighting was dificult
to get right; too little, and you spent forever waiting to get down to the
fish. Too much, and you hung up on the jagged submerged boulders. Using
a "Texas Style" hooking with the points of hooks mostly buried seemed to help
reduce snags.
Beware, on warm summer days and particularly on
weekends, the launch site is starting to become Little Acapulco
(as I call it) because the basalt cliffs over deep water near the launch
site transform into diving platforms. Three styles of Mariachi and Latin
Pop competed loudly for air space. By late afternoon, there were over
20 cars parked in and above the WDFW launch (not an exact count).
I am betting that few had the required Washington Discover or WDFW permits.
Surprise, the "no parking beyond this point" sign was missing above the
boat launch. People were perched on every rock. Though fish along the
shoreline weren't greatly affected by the obnoxious wake from power boats,
being bounced around did not make fishing any easier.
Stan Coffin Lake
07/09/2026
Hot, breezy, visibility bad, water high, water weeds bad.
Though I caught 4 decent fish, the fishing action is
distinctly poor. Visibility is down to about 2 feet (!) which might help
to explain why the fishing action is so slow.
Lyle Lake
06/24/2026
Hot, breezy, visibility to 8', many stringy weeds.
Just try to find this
site listed in fishing or camping guides anywhere. The state's
plans to make this a destination camping site are long abandoned. The rude and
simple boat ramp leads to waters now too clogged with weeds. I chose to hand
carry down the rocks a short distance to the south.
Once on the water, it took little time to find action
using a variety of sizes and generally lighter colors of plastic worms, using
minimal, weight to avoid the stringy weeds that are everywhere. I determined
the presence of some chunky and aggressive bluegills, and they seem to favor
those stringy weeds as cover. I hooked into five largemouth bass from 10" to
16", and roughly the same number of bluegills. It felt productive; but toward
mid-day, as the breeze increased and temperatures rose, action slowed to a
crawl, and I moved on.
That is OK. There are many other nearby beautiful
Seep Lakes nearby to explore.
Stan Coffin Lake
06/15/2026
Warm quiet weather, green murky water, weeds proliferating.
Stand Coffin is showing a definite pattern of being
an evening lake (closes at dusk.) After a tough, slow day, the clock
struck 3 PM, and suddenly it all changed. Though most activity
was small perch and sunfish, a pair of largemouth bass of size 16" and 17"
hit me in quick succession just off the edge of ropy weeds at depth about
7 feet, really challenging my light panfish gear. The only combination
that worked consistently was a golden yellow panfish worm (for visibility)
on a tiny #10 jig hook (for hookup) with one very tiny split shot (to
sink without snagging).
My most memorable catch was a dragonfly. That never
happened to me before. The poor thing tried to snatch my bait out of the
air, tangled in the line, and then was nearly drowned and crushed. I
successfully got it untangled and dried out. Though there was no obvious
damage, I'm still not sure it was going to survive, poor thing. What
amazing beautiful creatures they are.
Evergreen Reservoir, east launch
06/08/2026
Mild breeze, light overcast, some drift weeds, water clear to 10 feet.
I had just the morning hours, with unsettled weather
due for the afternoon. By any other standards, action was very slow. I
guess I did OK as Evergreen goes, landing three scrappy bass from
11.5 to 15 inches. They would only take a pumpkinseed or brown finesse
worm. Very light weight was required to avoid snagging the many irregular
bottom rocks.
Something strange is going on at Evergreen. Is
it related to high water levels and unusual clarity? Whatever the reason,
the perch were totally missing. Usually, perch run the
show, growing almost as long as the bass.
Lower Antillon Lake, central access site
05/27/2026
Unsettled, breezy, variable overcast, moderately cloudy water
The unfriendly weather conditions didn't make
much difference. Crappie were running nonstop almost everywhere, but
particularly off the stony shorline of the west side. There were a
few aggressive tiger and brown trout, and a few small but hungry
pumkinseed sunfish. I used panfish worms exclusively, with very light
weight, working slowly. Usually the strike was with the bait motionless
but just above the bottom.
Warning: The WDFW has really fumbled the ball
(boat?) on maintaining the north end public launch site, which at
present is nowhere close to usable. I was prepared to get a little
wet and dirty dragging my boat in there, but the muck and thick rushes
were seriously too much for me. And that is really bad.
Warden Lake, north launch
05/17/2026
Unsettled light breeze, mixed overcast, moderately cloudy water
The locals were stacked along the shoreline, happily
catching hatchery trout on their power-baits. I worked my way between
them fishing along the north shore. I found smallmouth sitting just
off the reeds in 6 to 10 feet of water, at all of the undisturbed
locations. The trout were out deeper, apparently, and I did not
bother them. Finesse worms or curly tails in watermelon to brown colors
were all sufficient for the bass. Though the action was intermittent,
whenever I connected with them, the bass were energetic and the sizes
ran good, in the 12" to 15" range.
As an experiment at the end of the day, I explored the shallow bay
running NE of the launch site, and was surprised to find bass there too...
plus a feisty 12" perch that fought almost as hard as the bass.
Stan Coffin Lake
05/11/2026
Calm conditions, mostly clear, moderately cloudy water,
increasing weeds
A slow day — I caught under 20 fish through the afternoon.
That was partly because I concentrated on jig fishing, hoping
to cash in on a rush of eager crappies. Well, I did get a few,
but not what I had hoped for. Except for the crappies, most fish
were running small. For a while, when other activity was slack,
I switched to a finesse bass worm, which caught the attention
of two minor largemouth bass and an 18-incher. Just to see
what would happen, I also played around with a floating micro-minnow
lure; it got plenty of attention near shoreline reeds, but mostly
from sunfish too small to actually hold anything.