Northwest Fishing Reports

Is there any lakes that rent out boats? I want to take my two sons crappie fishing or just to catch anthing because the dock fishing is just not cutting it for them!

I was told Mineral Lake does.

yes they do. just about any lake with a resort on it will have boat rentals.

lake Kapowsin does . At least till they sell the place.. nice people to .. ITs just alittle past the new boat launch .. Watch for the driveway after the boat launch there is a sign there as well ...

The Cove at Fish Lake in Chelan Co. Pontoons for $18 (or maybe it was $15), 12, & 14' motorboats $10, and rowboats ($??), All per hour. No Crappie in that lake though...

Several years ago I was in the same boat "or should I say not, since I didn't own one" I just wanted to get 3 nephews out on the water to catch fish. No real need to keep and eat, but just see the look in their eyes when they reeled something in. I started our "Trash Fish Derby" Sorry if this is not in keeping with the freshwater portion of the forum this post is in ..... but

I rented a boat at Point Defiance which will accommodate up to 4 people. Plenty of room especially when 3 of them are kids. We just went out and fished off the bottom. I gave away prizes for "First Fish, Most Fish, Least Fish, Smallest Fish, Largest Fish and Ugliest Fish" So everyone won something. If your familiar with the Sound, you can imagine the variety of fish they pulled in, and lots of them. It was all catch and release since even the edible species do not look very appealing from the sound. Still at the end of the day, they already start talking about doing it again next year, and did so throughout the year. At that age, being from 8 to 14, they wouldn't have enjoyed themselves more if I had spent thousands of dollars and taken them Marlin Fishing on a Private Charter.

Cost was around 80 bucks for a full day though current rates show to be $100. You just fish rather close to shore, away from the main channel to avoid other boats if it is the time of the year when many are fishing for salmon.

gordonbair wrote:Is there any lakes that rent out boats? I want to take my two sons crappie fishing or just to catch anthing because the dock fishing is just not cutting it for them!

What area are you intrested in fishing? The have rentals at spanaway, offut, american, deep, mineral, fish, potholes resevoir to name a few. There is a lot more lakes as well all over the state. Let me know and Ill give you some more locatations that rent boats.

Hey GPC,

Yeah, I live in Auburn so really any lake close to that area. The most I am looking to drive right now is about two hours travel time. We went to Tanwax on Sunday. I caught three small bass, and three small crappie but unfortunately the kids didn't get a single one. There were a couple of ski-boats there as well which really upset me. I did notice two guys in a small boat that caught a couple of good sizied large mouth bass. Looked like they were jigging.

Let me know of any good lakes. I really appreciate it.

Gordon

gordonbair wrote:Hey GPC,

Yeah, I live in Auburn so really any lake close to that area. The most I am looking to drive right now is about two hours travel time. We went to Tanwax on Sunday. I caught three small bass, and three small crappie but unfortunately the kids didn't get a single one. There were a couple of ski-boats there as well which really upset me. I did notice two guys in a small boat that caught a couple of good sizied large mouth bass. Looked like they were jigging.

Let me know of any good lakes. I really appreciate it.

Gordon

Thats the bad thing about Tanawax, way too many people on personal water craft. Your best bet would probably go to mineral. This lake is in lewis county and only takes me about 1 hour 20 min. from sea tac. The lake has rainbow and browns planted in it, but it also has a nice population of perch bluegill and bass that arnt supposed to be there. But trolling wedding rings and worms will work pretty good, also3 power eggs, 2 orange and a yellow will do the trick. Or just a worm and bobber will catch the panfish. The boats cost $20 for the entire day. American is very close, havnt fished it for years. But there is planty of types of fish in there. Offut lake is in thurston county right past olympia and is right next to deep lake. Offut has pretty cheap boat rentals, but for the trout during this time of year, you have to get pretty serious. But there are tons of small bass perch and blegill to get any kid excited. Deep lake is only about 5 miles from offut. Millersylvania state park is on deep lake. The rental rates are a little more expensive, but this would be the lake that I would recommend for kids. There are trout bass, perch, bluegill and bull head. And just full of small fish, I have a lot of memories growing up fishing deep lake, not to mention some huge bass and trout. There is also a snack bar, swimming area, play area, you know the stuff to keep kids occupied.Fish lake is in Chelan county, and is one of the top 10 trout lakes in the state, but is a little further than 2 hours. Potholes reservoir is in grant county, it is my favorite lake and is one the top 10 best fishing lakes in the state, but will take around 3 hours to get there, in fact I am going there this weekend and not even bringing my boat. They have a HUGE dock and just tons of fish hang around the dock, so I am perfectly content with dock fishing there. I am not 100% about this but Lake sawyer in covington has a campground and boat rentals. Lake wilderness in mapple valley has a camp ground and might rent boats. Good luck, and if you have any more Questions be sure to let me know