[thefly]

Well the wife went on some errands so I took that as my cue to load up the fly rod and float tube and head to the closest lake. That lake happens to be Bitter Lake for me and it is the first time fishing it. I was in the water at 7:00. Started kicking out through the lily pads at the south end of the lake by the baseball fields. As I was moving through the pads I happened to look down and saw an absolutely massive albino koi or carp. This thing was as round as a football! Probably someones pet that got too big for the tank at one point and now it just cruises around the lake. I trolled some different leech patterns and the tried and true olive woolly bugger in attempt to find the fish. At one point I tried working a patch of lily pads on the east side of the lake and a monster bass cruised right under me as if to just check me out. That got my heart pumping and I continued casting the woolly bugger and stripping it in slowly through the pads to no avail. Shortly after I tired of that I just began trolling as I made my way along the east shore to the north end of the lake which is when I got my only two hits of the night but couldn't get a hookup. As I turned around to make my way back to where I started I saw a small stocker leap out a good two feet out of the water and that was the only surface feeding action I saw while on the water. That surprised me because there was really nice hatch of some kind occurring but the fish were not keyed into surface feeding. There was a slight breeze though so that may have been a contributing factor to the fish not rising. However I worked some calm spots on the lake where the hatch was more prominent and still saw no surface feeding.

So it wasn't very eventful but I feel like I gained a bit of an understanding for the lake and will probably be back, after all, any day fishing is a good day. Please post your experience with this lake if any. I plan to try Haller Lake as well soon because it is only a couple miles from Bitter Lake.

Thank you,

Drew

 

[kvannice]

bitter,haller,echo.I live 10 min from these i have always made me look but never to touch wish i knew more about the lakes.

 

[thefly]

From the reports I read on washingtonlakes.com these lakes are productive for some stocker fishing early in the season as they stock em in march I think but since they are year round fisheries they get fished out very quick. Still though, being that they are so close, whenever I have free time after work one could probably find me floating one of them.

Thank you,

Drew

 

[kvannice]

thanks for the info i would like to know the hp of the water now i will have to stop on my way home from work and shake some weeds & roll some rocks. found some old post you should check out about bitter lake good bass fishin by the docks crayfish patterns..

 

[thefly]

I'll have to try working some crayfish patterns near the docks and lily pads.

 

[SeanM]

I know this is an old report, but I was curious if anyone has hit this lake recently.
I've only tried it once - and it was under duress as the wife was giving me a small window to do something outside of the house.
That rule still holds up today - so extended distant lake trips are few and far between.
I've wanted to get a bass out of this lake as I've heard they've had some good size.
My guess is the big boys are looking for something with size (like a leech or minnow), but I've seen splashy rises to big bugs.
Anyone had any luck recently?

 

[Stonefish]

I'm just glad they fixed the sewage leak. The lake was becoming over populated by brown trout and Coney Island whitefish.
http://www.king5.com/news/environment/Sewer-line-sewage-leak-Bitter-Lake--151702565.html