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Those sorts of in-between elevation lakes are kind of hard to find. The lakes in the Chuckanuts might be open. Or Smelling and Julia. Something like Pine or Spider Lake in the Olympics might be an option this time of year.
One option for a hat might be to use one of our existing patches. They could be sewed on the hat of your choice.
I pretty much only pack fish out if there is snow available. That worked for us a couple weeks ago. Of course snow can be hard to come by in some places. I’ve had fish do fine with no extra cooling if it is not a hot day and they are wrapped in as many clothes or other insulation as possible. Old school Thermarests used to be perfect for that. Freezing a disposable water bottle full of water would be a good source of ice, but I don’t now how long it would last on a hot day.
I’ve never been to any of those lakes so I can’t be of much help. Lakes in Olympic National Park are not stocked so any high lakes with fish are naturally reproducing populations left over from early introductions. That should be a fantastic trip. Have a great time!
I didn’t realize they had that program. It does seem like a good idea.
Fun facts: I’d have to check back in my notes but I’m pretty sure I caught a sunapee trout larger than that 10″ state record. LOL. I’ve fished the lake where the record grayling was caught, but didn’t catch anything large.
Lonesome has fish but isn’t terribly deep. It has a population of naturally reproducing brookies. There is an experimental plant of tiger trout there. If you fish Lonesome we ask that you measure all fish you catch and release any tiger trout (but feel free to keep any brookies!). If you catch a tiger check for an adipose fin. Half of the tiger trout had their adipose fins clipped. If you could report back with whatever you catch it would be really helpful!
Hell Lake has no trouble holding fish. They can be hard to catch at times, but they do fine there. Ginnette is trickier. The first time I stocked it with MWRB they never showed. We tried TLCT and started to get returns. The lake is small and seems shallow, even if it is 25′ deep. I suspect that it winter or summer kills on occasion.
In general rainbow are best able to utilize copepods because they have a finer gill raker structure than other species of trout and char. I have seen populations of westslope cutthroat that feed almost exclusively on copepods, but that is unusual. When rainbow are feeding on copepods they are often out in the middle of the lake where you need a raft to access them.
You are correct that lakes in Oregon are stocked by air and that many lakes have been stocked by air in Washington. Last I checked in on Oregon high lake stocking was decades ago, but at that time they were using helicopters. Most high lake air stocking in Washington was done with fixed wing aircraft. WDFW used to have a Beaver with a hole cut in the bottom to drop fish through. But they sold their planes to the State Patrol some years ago.
Fixed wing aircraft are only useful for stocking larger lakes. It is just too easy to miss small lakes. Really, you could stock any lake with a helicopter, but there are a couple issues. The most obvious is cost. Less obvious is a restriction in designated wilderness that limits the ability to air plant lakes that weren’t air planted prior to wilderness designation.
One major advantage to hand stocking lakes is that it puts someone on the ground at the lake who can evaluate how the management plan is doing. We’ve seen major issues in California where they were air planting in lakes whether the lakes needed fish or not and the over-stocking was contributing to the decline of the mountain yellow-legged frog. Thanks to our hand stocking program, survey program, and some very dedicated WDFW biologists the state of Washington was way ahead of the curve in reducing quantities stocked and identifying lakes with reproducing populations that should not be stocked.
All that being said, WDFW is talking about bringing air stocking back and that would bring some welcome relief to volunteers who have been stocking some of the larger lakes.
Derek, it is so great to hear from you! Myron was a Trail Blazer from 1934 to 1939. 1934 was the very first year the Trail Blazers stocked fish so he was basically there from the very beginning. We don’t have any records of Myron going to My Lake, but we do know that he helped stock the Melakwa Lakes in 1934. If you remember any old stories Myron told, or have any old photographs we would love to hear and see them. Let us know how your trip to the remains of the cabin goes.
The governor released his budget this afternoon and we have good news. Revenues were better than projected and none of WDFW’s proposed cuts were adopted.
I have a potential stocking opportunity this coming Saturday, if you are available.
By mid-October the stocking season is just about over, but there are normally a handful lakes that are stocked late in the month.
I’ve hiked and fished high lakes a fair amount in the Bitteroot Mountains south of Missoula. It is really nice country with some great fishing. I’ve never fished rivers, only high lakes.
And Bozeman should put you close to some nice high lakes, too. I’ve never fished anything super close to Bozeman, but I’ve hiked many of the wilderness areas just but further afield. You can’t really go wrong.
