Northwest Fishing Reports

April 26th is right around the corner and I cant wait. I still dont know what I am doing yet. Either make the treck over to Sun Lakes or just stick around and hit Steel, Geneva and North lake.

In the F&H news it listed the top 25 fish per pole avaerge lakes. Heart lake is #1 for the opening lakes with 4.3. Most of lakes are in chelan and spokane. Not 1 lake in King County last year Geneva and Langolios were up there. Some Snoho lakes and Peirce county lakes though.


So Whats everybodys plans for the opner?

well i will either hit up beaver or fight the crowds at pine and fish it in my boat

Fighting the crowds at pine is always fun, not too bad if you have a boat tho.

I think I'll be hitting up Toad or Padden with my 12 pack of Carona's up in Whatcom County!

yeah i may go to pine and catch and relese the planters and then target browns

I will be at local year-round lakes, and fishing for stocker trout that have already been planted and/or for panfish that are moving into the shallows. Never understood the fascination with going to the opener on the opening-day lakes, particularly when you can fish year round on other lakes and avoid the crowds.

Shad_Eating_Grin wrote:I will be at local year-round lakes, and fishing for stocker trout that have already been planted and/or for panfish that are moving into the shallows. Never understood the fascination with going to the opener on the opening-day lakes, particularly when you can fish year round on other lakes and avoid the crowds.

It's all about going for the sake and spirit of "opening day."
Fishing is usually phenomenal out on boats for stocker trout (30-40 fish days easy) and sometimes its cool to be out there with dozens of others...
Everyone's got their own opinion about it, some like the crowds for a day outta the year, others can't do it and see no point in it.

thats y i am gonna go to pine on opening day it will be a blast

fishingmachine wrote:thats y i am gonna go to pine on opening day it will be a blast

You already told us twice](*,)
Please make better use of your posts....

Is anyone else on this site gonna fish pine opening day it would be nice to put a face to a name

SmokinAces wrote:Fighting the crowds at pine is always fun, not too bad if you have a boat tho.

I think I'll be hitting up Toad or Padden with my 12 pack of Carona's up in Whatcom County!

Toad lake is tied for 6th, 4.13 fish per rod for opening day. Martha lake had about the same average for the March 1st opener, but we caught WAY more than that. Should be pretty hot there for the opener.

I'll probably fight the crowds at mineral lake again. I cant decide if i want to bring the boat or not though. The line to get your boat out is exhausting, I might just rent a boat just to get away from the line.

Awoods wrote:I'll probably fight the crowds at mineral lake again. I cant decide if i want to bring the boat or not though. The line to get your boat out is exhausting, I might just rent a boat just to get away from the line.

Mineral lake on the opener is an experience all in itself. I havnt done it for a couple of years now, but every fisherman needs to experience this. Camping for the weekend is also one hell of an experience. Get there thursday night just to get a tiny spot. It snowed and flooded the last opener I was there. I will be down there either the weekend after the opener or the weekend after that.

I lived in Mt. Vernon for a couple of years as a kid, and we always hit up McMurray and Erie. So for the last 4 years I've gone to McMurry and it feels like old times! I always do great there.

And on a side note, I grew up keeping more fish then the limit. We would limit at one lake, and then go to another and limit there. We always ate all we kept, so I never really felt bad about it. That is until about 4 years ago. I made a spiritul change in my life and started living right. Now I have kids of my own and we follow ALL the laws. Also because of sites like this that keep me posted on regs, and share fishing tips I catch more fish than I know what to do with, so I'm not so desperate.

If you see a brotha in a Livingston, it's me.....say hello

Sorry for hijacking the thread

going to fish friday thru monday over on the eastside oif the state this week-end, and, miss the crowds/ i usually hit the opener on potholes with my nephew, but, im going a week early this year, to try for some wally's. have to skip the opener for honey-do's, but, if you have kids, i would recommend the "GO PLAY OUTSIDE" event at potholes. they are going to give away 100 rods and reels to the first kids there, and, have other events, besides the net-pen release for the opener. wish i could be there with my nephews, but, "your not going fishing" has already laid down the law about her honey-do's!!!:-&

gpc wrote:

Awoods wrote:I'll probably fight the crowds at mineral lake again. I cant decide if i want to bring the boat or not though. The line to get your boat out is exhausting, I might just rent a boat just to get away from the line.

Mineral lake on the opener is an experience all in itself. I havnt done it for a couple of years now, but every fisherman needs to experience this. Camping for the weekend is also one hell of an experience. Get there thursday night just to get a tiny spot. It snowed and flooded the last opener I was there. I will be down there either the weekend after the opener or the weekend after that.

I will never ever forget my first trout opener on that side of the mountain, it was at mineral! WOW, gpc you are right. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and that was over ten years ago. I grew up in the northeast of the state with much much smaller crowds and when I go fishing the opener here and I hear people coplain about the crowds then I laugh. I will say this I enjoyed that midnight opener. And when I see a cartoon with someone walking boat to boat I am reminded of mineral.
:bom:

For me on opener I don't know my favorite lakes are for the first time in recent memory are to frozen over and they say some of them will be for a while? I will figure something out I might hit the Twin lakes on the Colville Res if there not frozen?#-o

I prefer to avoid the "combat fishing" of opening day and will probably wait to hit the newly opened lakes until Monday, the 28th.

I have to work on opening day. But, I start 10 days of vacation on the 29th.
I will be out every day then. At least till the wife gets home from work

I'll go to a lake that's been open, or possibly to a Montana river.....no way you'll find me on any lake that opens on April 26th!!! Coffeepot, Medical and Amber all are eastside lakes that will see a lower turnout on the opener.

This year I will follow through with tradition and go camp out the night before opening day with a few of my buddies.
the funny prt is that practically half my town shows up at heart lake. we call it amature day

I will be out at Lake Margret in my boat with some friends.