When the Thanksgiving turkey is getting cold, the trout fishing is just heating up across Washington State.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has stocked more than two dozen lakes in time to offer some great fishing for anglers who would rather cast a line than score a deal on Black Friday.
“The holidays are great to spend quality time outdoors with family and friends, avoid the mall shopping madness and maybe even catch a fish,” said Steve Caromile, who manages WDFW’s Inland Fish Program.
Not only will the agency stock roughly 64,000 trout, they will be large fish stretching the tape measure up to 17 inches long and hitting the scales at 1 to 3 pounds.
The Black Friday fish are just part of the 230,000 trout WDFW is planning to stock throughout the fall. The popular tradition boosts fishing at a time when opportunities to catch trout are beginning to taper off in many locations.
Be sure to read the regulations, because some Washington waters closed at the end of October, while many others are open all year. A few lakes actually close to fishing during warmer weather but open up the day after Thanksgiving.
Below, I’ve grouped the recently stocked and newly opening lakes by regions and counties to help you find a fishing lake for Black Friday. Note that for some of the following lakes, some of the stocking occurred earlier in the fall.
Where available, I’ve listed the number of trout WDFW expected to stock at each location. If there’s a link, see our article with more details about fishing that location.
Puget Sound Region
Island County — Cranberry Lake, 4,000.
Jefferson County — Leland Lake, 500.
King County — Lake Alice, 1,000; Beaver Lake, 2,500; and Green Lake, 5,000.
Pierce County — American Lake, 2,000; and Tanwax Lake, 1,350.
Snohomish County — Ballinger Lake, 3,000; Blackmans Lake, 1,500; Gissburg Ponds, 1,500; Silver Lake, 3,000; and Lake Tye, 2,000.
Thurston County — Black Lake, 3,000; Long Lake, 1,000; and Offutt Lake, 1,000.
Southwest Washington
Clark County — Battle Ground Lake, 2,000; and Klineline Pond, 2,000.
Cowlitz County — Kress Lake, 2,000.
Klickitat County — Rowland Lake, 2,000. (I listed this in both SW and Central because it’s a reasonable distance for anglers in both regions.)
Lewis County — Fort Borst Park Pond, 2,000; and South Lewis County Park Pond, 2,000.
Pacific County — Cases Pond, 300.
Central Washington
Chelan County — Roses Lake, 20,000
Klickitat County — Rowland Lake, 2,000. (I listed this in both SW and Central because it’s a reasonable distance for anglers in both regions.)
Yakima County — I-82 Pond #4, 2,000.
Eastern Washington
Note that for the following lakes in Eastern Washington, they only open to fishing for the season starting on Black Friday. They were stocked with trout fry in the spring as well as larger trout in the spring and/or fall and should offer excellent fishing at the opener.
Stevens County — Hatch Lake, 15,000 fry were stocked in May, and 600 good-sized trout were added in October; and Williams Lake, where 12,000 fry were stocked in May, and 1,500 legal trout were planted in April. (Note that there is a different Williams Lake in Spokane County.)
Adams/Lincoln County — Fourth of July Lake, 60,000 fry were stocked in May, and 18,000 legal trout were stocked in April.
Spokane County — Hog Canyon Lake, 20,000 fry were stocked in May, 10,000 legal trout were stocked in mid-April, and 1,600 trout averaging 1 pound apiece were added recently in October.
Find more information about Fishing in Washington on the Best Fishing in America website.
Source: Much of this article’s information is from this WDFW news release.