[Jay Burman]

Any recommended lakes for Westside Bassin? The east side drive is getting expensive and time consuming. Something local would be terrific.

 

[Eric B]

I'm going to try Langlois near Carnation tomorrow afternoon. A few years ago, I caught a bunch of small largemouth, but saw a few decent fish that weren't interested. Earlier somebody mentioned going deep for the larger ones. Seemed like if they saw me, I was screwed.
Not sure what is going on w/ the spawn too, so I'm not sure at what depth to start looking for fish. Will post a report w/ the results.

If anyone has any insight on the spawn activity, depth, average water temps on the west side lakes. It would be much appreciated. Lat year I completely missed it. Bummer.

 

[Jay Burman]

Thanks, I'll be watching for your posting. BTW I use a "Fishing Buddy" fish finder mounted on my 'toon. Definetely one of the more useful fishing accessories i've purchased. Provides info such as Depth, Water temp and fish. Gives me a great idea on the depth at which I can expect to find the fish. Check it out.

 

[Dr Bob]

Several years back when I was taking my then, young boys fishing (spin fishing with lures and bait), we fished many lakes here on the west side and caught bass, bluegill, and perch in all of them. Some of the lakes I can recall are Flowing Lake out of Monroe, Lake Cassidy north of Granite Falls, and Cottage Lake in Woodinville. But I am sure you can catch bass in many more of them as I don't think many people on the west side target bass.

Dr Bob

 

[ral]

Lots of good bass fishing advice (not fly fishing specific) available on washingtonlakes.com. I second the advice on Flowing and Cottage Lakes. Also consider Roesiger and Goodwin depending on the kind of baot you have.

 

[Tom Johnston]

IF you want to only stick to the north side of I-90 I dont know many lakes for bass. If you go down towards the Lacey area there is several lakes that you can catch a bass on a fly. I caught about a 7lb bass on a bed one time in about a foot of water in the month of may. That was on spinning gear but it was a crawdad imitation (grey). Here are the names of a couple lakes, Long lake in Lacey off Carpenter road (next to the fair grounds), Patterson lake (alot of 3-4 lb bass in shallow water). St. Clair is near the Red Wind Casino. All you need is a crawdad imitation fly in a greyish color. What I have caught them all on is a Gary Yamamoto hula grub. I know none of these bass were caught on flies but it can be done.
Check this page out. http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReportList.aspx?id=123&t=1

Picture taken with crappy camera phone. Long lake.

Patterson.

 

[Chris Bentsen]

Both Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington have spawning smallmouth bass in May and June. The fish are under the docks. You can fly fish for them with a sink tip or full sinking line with white clouser or other minnow imitation.
It is best from a boat but you can use a pontoon boat, canoe or kayak.
Good luck.

 

[Eric B]

I did go to Langlois on Friday evening & got my butt kicked. Saw a few follows-ups, caught a few really small ones. It rained almost the entire time too. We did see a few decent fish swimming around, but didn't see any spawn activity. That lake gets deep really fast, so I'm not sure about what depth to fish @. I unsuccessfully tried many depths. Did pick up a couple accidental trout near the big log on the south side of the lake w/ a big bead head zonker looking fly (black/white-gold bead head).

Today, I also failed. Tried Lake Washington around coal creek, I-90 overpass to Mercer. Nothing. Talked to a few gear guys who said it was slow too. I might just say forget it for now and wait for the hot weather and warmer water.

 

[speyforsteel]

Since I'm a Eastsider now I will give you a westy
Pine lake-bass browns and rainbows

 

[flyfish_pimp]

Lake Ann is pretty fun, near NB. Lots of little fish...but as we roll into the summer can be fun on lightweight gear. 5wt is really the most you will need, and you can get them to eat poppers though I would fish subsurface stuff most of the time (make sure it's weedless/weedguards). Fish the structure, but also fish the lily pad flats.

If you can't get them to eat anything, try a popper on a full sink/sink tip...good times.

 

[4357]

I'll second Lk. Samammish for bass on the fly - especially smallmouths.
Also used to catch largemouth out of Angle Lk. near Seatac.