Northwest Fishing Reports

I know some of you know of this spot but probably more don't. Tukwila Park Pond is located behind value village and next to target in the southcenter mall area (tukwila). The lake is small and theres only 2 "docks" which are actually viewpoint things. Anyways theres catfish here...and I think thats all thats there. It's a little difficult to cast out there with more than 2-3 people since theres lot's of tree's to get snagged on.

We caught about 6 total in about 2 hours the biggest one being about a foot long. We came back later in the night (without a light source) and hooked about 2 more before deciding to head out. It's a fun spot and very quiet. I'm thinking about taking a raft out one day and get deeper in the water. My line broke on a big one out there a few weeks back and I need to find out where he is

Man you shouldn't eat those. That pond always has a huge oil slick covering the whole thing.

Just out of a general rule, anything that close to so many cars, runoffs, and general polluting crap, I would not eat anything out of there....

Nice looking pics. Can you say how many inches the largest was? Hard to tell with mag. factor from photo. I second the urban bottom fish polution issue.

Whenever I go to Target in Southcenter I see the Tukwilla Pond. All I really see is all the garbage dumped over the side wall. Catfish are like crows. They keep the area clean of critters.Nice looking Catfish. I always wondered about that pond.

Nice job finding a new place and sticking to it!
Yeah, I've wondered about it as well - only I was wondering about bass, not catfish. Like others have said - I wouldn't eat anything out of there..

This is going to sound strange but I'm actually allergic to seafood. I never eat anything I catch. It's either catch and release or I give it to my girlfriend or family.

With that being said I took those catfish to a BBQ and people seemed to like them but I probably won't be giving those out anymore. Thanks everyone.

The biggest one we has was about a foot long. Somethjnf bigger in there broke my 8lb line tho.

Not strange at all. I dont eat fish from the Duwamish river or Elliot Bay. Those are giveaway fish after I secure the eggs. Puyallup the same. Our river mouths and inner city bays are so nasty.

Went here to fish today at around 2pm - 5pm, interesting location. It's almost semi-secluded, with a few people walking through the park. The sign seemed very worn out and luckily google maps managed to find it. Parking was a bit confusing as it's shared with Target.

After reading the first post on this lake, I thought "Wow, I'm gonna kill it here". I brought a long this catfish bait that I purchased from a local big5, it stunk like you couldn't imagine. The stench from the bait reminded me of driving down I-5 from SF to LA, passing all those slaughter houses. It was so putrid I thought it'd work great. I tried from below the 'decks' in the park first, and got nothing, then I went up on the deck and cast out, still nothing. The strange thing, was that I kept noticing the line and rod being tucked. It was like witnessing the bait being nibbled away.

My last hour there, I ended up giving up on catfish. I figured, while I was there, I'd try for some panfish or bass. Rigged up my neon green grub jig and tried a slow retrieve. Almost immediately, I was getting hit with small pumpkin seeds. Sadly the hooks were too big to hook them. Kept getting missed hookups, eventually I gave up and heading home.

Thought I'd share some photos of the lake, so people have an idea of what it looked like. Also, any advice on the type of bait I should be using for catfish here would be greatly appreciated.

With all the beautiful rivers and alpine lakes around here... I still just love urban junk pond fishing. Thanks for re-awakening this thread. I don't have advice beyond what you already through out there. I suppose you could down size your hook, use a small maggot bait, or slight bit of worm, and those panfish would be all over it.

lol, my plan is really to try and conquer one lake at a time. I'm explore various lakes that are within an hours drive from where I live near downtown Seattle. Most of these lakes are urban places, once I manage to figure out what works and what doesn't in these lakes, I'll branch out to more of the picturesque places and try those out. Thus far, all I've caught are black bass from various local lakes.

You've referred to "Black bass a few times. Can anyone else on here clarify if that is another term for smallies or largies?
Have not heard that in NW, but u know how it is...take bluegill in the South they call them Brim,

yes, but mostly largemouth.

From my understanding, 'Black Bass' is an umbrella term for largemouth, smallmouth, and sometimes even rock bass. In the past, I mainly fished for largemouth so when I see baby smallmouth or even rock bass, I get confused by the way they look. So rather than mislabel them I just call'em black bass.

Hey Ralph,

Just curious, why not eat salmon from the Duwi or the Puyallup? They aren't residents...they are just passing through. How much toxic build up could they really get just passing through? Now the catfish in a polluted pond, I get that.

Eating salmon and steelhead is fine just nothing else. Some will disagree but oh well.

just following up for bait. worms work best for the catfish at this pond! don't ask me why! haven't been here in a while just wanted to follow up.

Thanks, Blake! I have also wondered about this pond. No my son and I have something to do the next time my wife goes to target, lol.

So catfish and sunfish. Any other species?

Thanks.

-ib

I was messing around with hot dogs once on this lake and ended up catching what I assume is a box turtle which was released back.