Northwest Fishing Reports

Thomas: Welcome aboard! I am glad to see another poor soul is going to be sucked into the wonderful world of muskie fishing. Ha ha! In all honesty, I think you will find some really nice and helpful people on this forum and they all like to get new people started. I will give you my opinion and expe...

The bass are in the shore line wood, active fish are on top and inactive will be down by the base. Down south they are barried in the weeds. I've been told a jig and pig is the best bait for bass on this lake. But I know from experience that they like rainbow trout swimbaits like the "Charlie" by me...

Hey guys; I was glad to meet all of you and it was well worth the gas prices! I thank Aaron for tossing up those pics. Now I've got some pics that didn't come from a camera phone, thanks Aaron! And I've got to attach a float to my cutters and new longnosed pliers, thanks Mark. Should have done that ...

Wilkstr; you have picked a good lake to try for your first muskie. The small lake on the north side of the road is actually "north silver" and is a selective gear only lake, being limited to fly fishing from float tubes and pontoon boats. I've yet to hear about any muskies being caught by the fly fi...

Yeah, this wasn't really written as good as I could have, I was under a bit of a time crunch. I didn't mean for a species specific rule for muskies only. I understand how that would effect other anglers and I said "unfair" advantage. Also, please put up your own suggestions about regulation changes ...

I was thinking of submitting a rule change proposal to Fish & Wildlife but I wanted some feed back before doing so. What does this group think about allowing tiger muskie anglers to use 2 poles while trolling? The population density of these fish would negate any unfair advantage for the angler. I k...

I like fish!! HA HA!!!

tmusky1: Welcome aboard! Are you East or West side? Knowing this will help us give very specific information. I'm on the East side, out of Spokane. I tried the leaderless super line fishing for about 2 days. Then I got bit off by a small muskie in a figure 8 and that was the end of that business. I ...

Oh, ok. I don't know that guy. I think I'll still put a kink in the other guy's leaders though, I'm sure he deserves it for some nefarious deed.

I'm not opposed to a catch and release only restriction for our tiger muskie fisheries. But I think I would rather see a minimum length resriction of 48" instead. You get all the life span benefits of catch and release but it would allow someone to remove the current "snagged" record on the books. A...

I think it's time to get organized in our respective fishing clubs and ask for, or demand, some sollutions to the problem we are facing. Get together with your fishing buddies and get active in your local clubs, if this issue gets this many people hot here, then there are obviously far more people w...

On the East side, Silver and Newman lakes both start producing fish in early April. Curlew, for me, hasn't been very active until mid May. I start with 17 - 20 # floro on my reels for Newman and Silver with Husky Jerks , 1 oz. spinnerbaits in black, white & yellow and my new favorite micro bulldawgs...

I think Don write's a fair report as well, very detailed. When I fish Merwin, I'll take a print out of his reports and the F & H news with me. Maybe I'll catch that state record out of there too! Ah, won't keep it but I'll be able to say I caught it! Jmay, what kind of boat did the fella with that b...

Well, I agree that Mr. Don can be a bit long winded. But even if you get a bit miffed at some things in life, you can't turn away from it if you really love it. And I really love the muskie fishing in this area so I guess a few aches will have to be medicated with liberal quatities of large lures. S...

Well, some times you just have to go against the grain to be successful. I caught my 8th muskies since April 15th this weekend while fishing from the shore (4th from shore) of Silver lake, and I did it while using light muskie tackle that would, in other circles, be called bass gear. I mean, if a 7'...

I agree entirely with your stance on spinnerbaits, I'm of the same opinion. I've been chasing these critters for about 10 years now and while I'm no new fish, I'm no pro either. I've got a good understanding of my favorite lures abilities and how to bring out their best qualities. But I'm always gla...

Sound good. I hope I'll be able to fish at all this summer, my job is going to be BUSY!

It's also nice to get a letter from them telling you some of the progress they are making. I send mine in each month and they send back blank pages quickly. Put your phone number and email address on there too. A very worthy program indeed.

Nice write up Don. I'm curious about your statement that Mayfield has relatively little shore line wood. The area around Ike K. state park is fairly barren of wood. But the whole shoreline on the south and east side, starting at the bridge working north, is covered in downed trees. There are fish al...

First off, thanks to Don for another very detailed posting, good stuff. Second the Mayfield resort has been sold and the new owners did not have the resources to have the planned spring tournament. I called them as well and was told that the summer touney is still on. We asked for, and are getting a...