Northwest Fishing Reports

Starting June 6th you can keep a daily limit of 5 trout at Rattlesanke lake until Sept.30th 2015. The lake seems to be overstocked and fish seem to be on the skinnier side.

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Thanks. I suppose it's different for everyone, but I'm usually C&R for trout and particularly for this lake, but in this case taking is helping?

I believe so,the lake was is over populated with trout which decreases the amount of food. I think WFWD realized that so the want to decrease the population of trout so more can survive.In the most recent report of rattle snake lake the guy mentioned that he saw a few dead fish on shore,id rather have someone take them home then the fish dying off. I usually catch and release aswell,sometimes I'll take a few for the smoker,but I'm a bigger fan of eating salmon:)

Sounds good Alex. Salmon is more my taste too :-p

this also could have been a stocked lake of the " steelhead " fry that the state got sued about so they released in to this lake it is a special rules lake as well

Diverdoyl thats affirmative, rattlesnake lake did get stocked with steelhead in large numbers then stocked again this spring in its usual numbers... i do remember a few reports when the limit was 10, and up until it closed for retention, the reports still indicated that there were alot of fish left. Then they stocked it again.. not surprising that the fish are over populated there..

Sad that fish are dying off and being wasted. Rattlesnake was definitely overstocked and WDFW was a little late in setting the keeper limit back in place as far as I'm concerned. I had a lot of fun fishing there this spring (partly because it was so easy) but would like to see WDFW get it dialed in a bit more before they double-stock like what happened this past year.

Anybody make it up there this weekend? Was it a zoo? I might try to go Wed AM, assist with the population control. Never tasted rattlesnake before

Bow_Slayer wrote:Anybody make it up there this weekend? Was it a zoo? I might try to go Wed AM, assist with the population control. Never tasted rattlesnake before

The last weekend day I was there was a ZOO! So many impolite people determined to have fun at anyone's cost. Parking was absolutely rabid with no concern for boat trailer only parking. Vehicles crammed in every available inch with no regard for anyone parked legally and with a discover pass. The Rangers could have made a mint off of parking regs and the local tow boys could have been busy pumping the economy all day. The fish..... Feel free to go thin the crowd. They would like the last plant cleaned out because, well, the dumb @$$es planted a ton of fish where they shouldn't have. Not enough food in the lake to support half the numbers they dumped. They could have been in a river swimming to sea.... Now they're trying to cover their rears. Plenty of fish dying of starvation and disease. Lots of food for the Eagles and Ospreys, they were busy all day. The average fish is 12 to 13 inches with a girth of about the size of a kids school ruler. Not really too appetizing. But please do go and catch a bunch so we can get the lake back to manageable population with enough to eat. This is totally shameful, a real black eye for the WDFW. Starving animals, I can't believe they're behind it.

Bodofish, very well said.