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The annual fishing vacation finally rolled around. Normally we go to Minnesota, but thought the finances would be better if we stayed in state. So the first week September 19-26 we stayed in a vacation rental and fished Curlew Lake. (The second week we tried Newman Lake in Spokane County.)

The weather was super, though we had some pretty good rains on some days. Temperatures were normally in the 60's.

We fished hard, no less than 6 hours a day up to 10 hours a day. We threw crankbaits, bobber fished, drop shotted with worms, and plugged for tiger muskies. Our targets were primarly LMB and muskie.

We caught numerous bass especially by the railroad trestle. The bass had moved away from most of the docks and were deeper.

The last three days of our stay we shared the waters with the Muskie Club and Tournanment.
As of Saturday evening, everyone we spoke to said the muskies were in hiding and no one had boated a fish. K. caught an 18" tiger, so maybe we should have been Club members and entered the tourney! However, also maybe we get the prize for seeing the biggest muskie.
We spotted her twice on two different days and she was every bit of 4'. What a beauty.

I think we saw more deer than fish all week long, though!

We had a super week and would likely return.

dougw

10/6/2010 6:53:00 PM

I was in that tournament, and caught the only tiger muskie! It was a 16" baby, that hit on the last 15 minutes of the tourney. Too bad the fish needed to be 30" to enter in the tournament! We saw fish, they just weren't cooperating. But aside from the poor fishing, we had a wonderful time at Curlew. It's my new favorite lake in Washington......

bazzdude

10/6/2010 8:53:00 PM

so the bassing was good, that is y you gave it a 4 out of 5? Just cerious, you gave newman lake a lower score but sounds like more fish at newman for the week. You must be a decated fisher to the lake to go almost skunked and the same day say it is your new fav. lake in washington. That is a pretty strong comment. keep on posting.

Anonymous

10/7/2010 9:06:00 AM

cant wait in eight days i get to go shoot a deer from curlew just not a mullie like you picture i wanna white tail :D

CarpMouth

10/7/2010 11:24:00 AM

Hi bazzdude,

Yes we caught more bass at Curlew during the week, but they were smaller than the few we caught at Newman the next week.
The bass at Newman that I caught and released were a 19", and two 15.5" LMB plus four more smaller LMB.
K. boated two smallmouths at about a pound and a half and two 12.5" crappie. Fewer fish but bigger.
A different poster was the one who said Curlew was their new favorite lake, not me.

dougw

10/7/2010 6:35:00 PM

That was me that said it is my new favorite lake. Yes, I was skunked the first time, and the second time what I caught hardly qualified as a tiger muskie.... But the first time, I saw lots of fish, and 4 of 7 were very large. I love the structure of the lake, and the variety of places to fish. Curlew has monster fish potential due in part to that structure, and relatively light fishing pressure. It is further from Spokane than most people want to drive, and Spokane of course is the largest population center....

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