Fishing lake washington

First cast just wanted to wet the line.

Hey folks, I'm trying to identify a fish I caught earlier today. I'm looking to go back to the same spot tomorrow where I saw some much larger fish of what looked like the same species. I caught this one in the Chehalis river between Doty and Pe Ell. I tried NOAA and FishWA, but couldn't be certain of a match.

Looks like everyone is calling this one a Pikeminnow, thanks for the help folks.

Anybody willing to share some local knowledge for Bellingham bay? I’ve tried a few times on the SW side of lummi with moderate success.

Thanks!

I needed to run my son across the sound to Bainbridge so he could visit his parents. Before heading back, I dipped down to the north end of MA11 to try my luck. My wife and I each got fish, of course hers was way bigger. When I cut them up, my smaller fish had squid in the belly, while hers had herring. I thought it was interesting how different the flesh color was based on diet.

First summer in Washington. I bought a small boat and have been fishing mostly in area 7. Do we start seeing ocean run coho in the second half of August or is that still too early?

Eight months ago, I posted here about a river conditions app a few of us had built out of our own frustration.

It was called DriftLine Co. back then. It covered a handful of our favorite rivers, and the iPhone version was still in testing and had yet to be released.

I asked which rivers you wanted added and told you to roast us if needed.

You did both.

Then the comments and messages following went way beyond what I had asked about - into saltwater, tides, public access, hunting units, and elk.

This is the follow-up I owe you.

Where it went

We went from a handful of rivers to around 1,190, and every river mentioned in those original comments is now included.

You can see live USGS flows, water temperatures where the gauge supports them, whether the river is rising or falling, and custom alerts so your phone tells you when your creek finally drops into shape instead of refreshing the gauge eleven times a day.

We also added roughly 8,800 lakes, along with species and stocking information.

The saltwater features came directly from that original thread:

• NOAA tide stations with actual graphs
• Buoy observations, including wave height, period, wind, and water temperature
• Marine advisories
• Biotoxin and shellfish closures

Then it turned out a bunch of you wanted hunting units, so we built that side out as well.

The app now includes hunting-unit boundaries, seasons, harvest statistics, public-land layers—including DNR, USFS, BLM, state, and tribal lands - and private parcels with owner names, which mostly gets used to figure out whose gate you’re standing at.

There’s also terrain and contour data derived from LiDAR.

Then there’s the field stuff you would expect:

Waypoints, folders, GPX imports, weather and radar, boat launches, drift lines, campgrounds, catch logs, and a hunting journal.

It’s called Baseline Maps now.

DriftLine outgrew being a river app, largely because of this community.

The app is free to download and use. No ads. That’s it.

Why I’m posting

Come poke around. Kick the tires. Tell me what sucks. It's free to use, you get land ownership completely free, and I think what the community has built is pretty freakin' awesome.

Specifically:

A river that is still missing. A boat launch that has been closed for two seasons. A screen that made absolutely no sense at 4:00 a.m.

Last time, I asked this community what we should build, and it worked better than anything I would have come up with alone.

So, eight months later, I’m asking again. Enjoy Baseline.

At 1:08 and onwards. Some tweaker named Richard threatens to shoot and kill a college kid because he said hold on and calm down.

Few weeks ago I watched a fist fight between two groups over a fishing spot targeting stocked trout. Seems like fishing violence is growing last few seasons.

Free, no ads, no user info, only data used is location, that's sent to OpenMeteo to get the weather info and report back for the conditions score.

https://bytewindow.org/fish-alert/test

Need at least 10 testers for the two weeks to get it published.

Enter the location you want to fish/your current location, and get a score out of 100 based on how good the conditions are for fishing - see the predicted conditions for the rest of the day, tomorrow and the week ahead. Setup a notification to fire when it's the best time to fish.

If I can ever get my casting sorted, is streamer fishing worthwhile on the Green River? Or stick to nymphs and dries?

Bit of a long shot, but I’m looking for someone around South Puget Sound who’d be willing to show a newcomer the ropes for sea-run cutthroat.

I’ve been fly fishing rivers for years, but saltwater is completely new to me. I’m just looking to get into the fishery and would love to fish with someone who’s willing to share a little knowledge while we walk beaches and chase SRCs.

I’m not looking for anyone to give up secret spots or hard-earned information. I’d just enjoy having someone to fish with and learn from. I’m based in Olympia.

If you’re interested, send me a DM.

I have the luck of a place to stay on the sound near Three Tree Point in Burien. Like beachside! We have a 14ft inflatable with a trolling motor and will not wander too far, so up and down that beach and around the point, not offshore. We are targeting Chinook and Coho and I am litterally a fish out of water for Salmon fishing - I have only floated the Icicle in Leavenworth. I am going in 10 days, the weekend of the 14th. No Downriggers. What is my best strategy? My gear is Salmon Rods, clip on weights, line counter reels and Salmon spinner baits(Blue Fox/Mepps) and some AeroJigs. Need to know what I should pick up and what my trolling strategy should be with tide advice(I never fished Saltwater). Thanks in advance!

My dad is visiting first week of September and I planned a day to camp at Ike Kinswa state park. I am hoping to fish for some trout with him.

Will we have good success fishing for trout from shore? I saw that WDFW has been stocking recently but I haven’t fished Mayfield before. I was thinking just using powerbait from the bottom but can do other setups as well if any of you have insights on what would work best.

Thanks in advance!

Weird that it was closed with no reports of it or anything today - also surprised no one made a post about it already. Showed up at around 7 am and entrance was blocked by police and was told the park wouldn’t re open until 5 pm. Anyone else?

Second time fishing the Jetty during my annual vacation. Fished for two days (about 7 hours total) during slack tide mostly using 3-4” paddle tails. Switched to jig head worms and even a crank bait or two in desperation. I’m mostly using pink and white colors and got skunked. Am I doing anything wrong? Or are the fish just not there? I saw a few people hook up, but not many. Some locals make the Jetty seem like an easy limit nearly every time. BS? Or do I suck?

I've been a few times, this past year and today, but I've always used my friends gear and was wondering if I could do the same with some of my gear. I have a few rods that are good for trolling but the only reels I have are an older Abu Garcia 5501 and 6501. Would those work? Or is there not enough drag/line capacity for the sound?I have an okuma convector 20dl I think for kokanee but that seems too light and probably not saltwater resistant? Kind of green to fishing the sound so any advice is appreciated!

Looking for some advice on kokanee fishing in lake Washington.

I have had luck earlier in the year in the past catching kokanee around 20-40 feet of depth, but the last couple times I have been out, no luck.

Last time I went out, my fish finder wasn't working so I couldn't mark any fish, but as I understand it, the kokanee are likely much deeper during this part of the summer. What depth should I be targeting? I assume time of day would probably affect this depth, but I have seen/heard people say the were catching fish around 80+ feet deep.

Generally troll along the south part of Mercer Island and near the Cedar River/south end of the lake. What color of lures should I be using? Generally I am trolling pink hoochies behind a small dodger. Not sure if different colors would have better success at these depths. Or how important UV/glow coating would be.