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Do you mean the Golden Lakes in Mt Rainier NP? No lakes in Mt Rainier or Olympic National Parks are stocked. There are quite a few lakes with naturally reproducing populations, but we can’t stock fish in those National Parks.
Edit: I just noticed your other post so now I know what you mean by the Golden Lakes. You should find fish in all those lakes.
There are a couple sets of Eagle Lakes. Do you mean the ones in the Okanogan? They are not stocked but contain naturally reproducing fish.
Hi David!
I put your contact info into our Visitor Contact Info page in Members Only where all members have access to it and I pulled it off of this page so it wouldn’t be publicly accessible.
Are you looking for a hike trip near Chelan? Or a drive to sort of lake? The best early season hike is to take the Lady of the Lake to Lucern and hike into Domke Lake. Fires swept through there a few years ago, but the trail is open again and the fishing is generally good.
Thinking about where I would have a cabin if I could have a cabin anywhere is interesting. It is certainly something I have thought about before. I would strongly consider the coast, if I were to get a cabin. But it would be of limited use as a hiking base camp. If you are too close to ski areas I imagine the cost goes way up. The Lake Wenatchee or Leavenworth area would be really nice. Or even something closer to Skykomish. The Salmon-La-Sac area is fantastic. Somewhere out of Granite Falls up the Mountain Loop could be cool, but probably dark and wet for much of the year. But I wonder if an even more interesting and possibly cheaper option would be something in the foothills of the Olympics. Maybe out of Quilcene or Brinnon. It would be a bit longer because of the ferry but that doesn’t count as much as driving for the equivalent time.
But you should keep in mind that I love spending other people’s money and I have always thought that the problem with owning a cabin is that you will be forced to go to the cabin. Typing that makes me wonder if it would be worth trying to find Air B&Bs or vacation rentals to try out different areas.
That’s a good one. It is about 1.5 acres, but the fishable area is obviously much smaller. You’d be surprised at how small some lakes that hold fish are. Lets see, one that comes to mind is Lennox Outlet Pot at about 0.17 acres. It has a small population of small fish. I’m sure there are smaller ones out there.
Here’s an even smaller one, Larch Outlet Pot #3 at about 0.1 acres (and several others about the same size):
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Nudges for glorious off-trail fishing adventures. That’s a big topic! I’ll start out in the general. If you want longer overnight trips head for the larger wilderness areas: Alpine Lakes, Glacier Peak, Pasayten, or North Cascades National Park (where some fish are stocked). At the same time, don’t forget about places closer to home like the Goat Rocks. The William O. Douglas has tons of lakes and is well worth your time, but it generally isn’t as spectacular as the other wilderness areas.
From Yakima it would be a straight forward shot to head up into the Salmon-La-Sac area where the cross country adventures seem limitless. If you turn left you can head into the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness where there are so many spectacular lakes like Deadhead, Vicente, Circle, Venus, Spade, Shovel, Rebecca, and Rowena. Or turn right and visit the Granite Mountain area where you might visit the French Potholes, The Granite Man Potholes, Phoebe, Shoal, Jungfrau, Swedes, the Swallow Lakes, and on and on.
Or keep going up over Blewett Pass and into the Leavenworth area. You need a permit, but the cross country backside area of the Enchantments is gorgeous. Or find the way trail into Lake Victoria and explore the smaller lakes in that area. The lakes on French Ridge are really nice and that ties you back in with the Granite Mtn. area, eventually. Or head the other way toward Sylvester or the Lady Lakes. You could try for Charles and Knox Lakes.
I’ve really just been throwing lake names out and I haven’t even gotten past the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and just on the east side! You really can’t go wrong.
It sounds like you are already well on your way. Finding the blue spots on the maps and getting out there is exactly the best way to go. And exploring new water is my favorite thing.
Now the rub. The most common question we get is asking where to go catch golden trout. Because the lakes are typically sensitive and can’t stand too much pressure, we tend to not come right out and tell you where to go. Social media posts can put pressure in individual locations. Besides, I think a good portion of the fun is in the exploring.
That being said, here are a few things to keep in mind. You aren’t really going to find tiger trout in high lakes. They are regularly stocked in some Skamania County high lakes, but most are drive to or very short walks. Lakes with goldens tend to be higher elevation and off trail. Just the lakes you are looking for. There are exceptions, but if you keep trying you will definitely find them. Fish are not stocked in Mt Rainier National Park, so you won’t find goldens there, though there are fish in many lakes.
What sorts of places have you been to already? How far afield do you want to drive?
The short answer is no, there is no advantage to keeping the larger fish. If you don’t keep them they will get even larger :-).
In reality, it is probably a bit more complicated then that. Some years plants don’t go as well as others and it isn’t always clear why. Perhaps they were stressed while being carried, or perhaps larger fish in the lake chow down on the fry. But the vast majority of the time the fry will find refuge from the larger fish and will grow just fine. When they are small they have a different diet then the larger fish in the lake so it won’t really help the smaller fish to remove the larger ones unless there are too many fish in the lake and this doesn’t sound like the scenario you encountered.
The guy I ran into said he goes in every year and that he’d never seen anybody there before. So it had to have been someone else.
Some guy cut a new trail?? That is insane. It would be impossible to miss the existing one. Ugh.
That’s really cool. I’ve been thinking about doing this for some years, but haven’t done anything about it. The WDFW bio for King County back in the 80s and 90s went to all the lakes in his area and took soundings with a hand line attached to a weight. He did enough transects of the lakes that way to build contour maps. His map of Blazer had the final contour in the deep part at 55′ so yours at 59′ agrees nicely.
You don’t happen to be the guy I ran into at Blazer back in 2014 are you? I would have been out in a boat.
You would be surprised where fish can live 🙂 I saw some fish survive through the 2015 summer in a little lake that lost so much water I thought it would be impossible. They are really surprisingly resilient.
You should be able to attach photos. There should be a Choose File button below the box where you type your reply. Are you seeing something else?
I talked to one of the WDFW database folks last winter and it sounded like they had plans to update the high lake stocking. But obviously nothing has happened. Unfortunately the data is not tied in to their main stocking database and it has to be updated every year, which they have not done. So I expect it to be updated at some point, but who knows when. I think most of their effort is going into a new regulations app right now.
Don’t forget that the lakes stocked are only a fraction of the high lakes with fish. Lakes with natural reproduction are not generally stocked so they won’t show up on your map.
Talapus Lake is the most obvious choice. The trail is very popular so you won’t be alone. But it is an easy hike to a lake that is open now. Though the water is probably still too cold for decent fishing.
Lodge Lake would be another option. It is also open now, but there is snow on the trail and it will probably be better in two or three weeks.
Snow Lake is a bit more of a hike and not open yet. It is also extremely popular. And for good reason as it is gorgeous. The lake is quite large so it might be a bit intimidating for a brand new angler and the fish can be tough to find at times.
Yes, the Foss Lakes area does get hit pretty hard. But most of the lakes have lots of fish. You’ll have a great time up there.
You don’t really have to worry about whether or not there will be fish. You’d be surprised at where you’ll find fish and you will discover that exploring every single blue dot you can find on the map will generally be worth your while. It doesn’t matter if there are trails or not or how remote the lakes are. The only real exceptions are the national parks where, with the exception of the North Cascades National Park, fish are not stocked.
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