Northwest Fishing Reports

So the wife & i bought a house up in darrington and should be moved in by the end of february. I've never done any fishing in the area and know next to nothing about any opportunites nearby. Looking at googlemaps and checking with regs/fishwashington site, i'm still pretty clueless. Anybody got a few leads to decent fishing in the area? not looking for secret holes or anything...just a starting point or two.

What type of fishing do you like to do? For lakes, Riley and Armstrong are close. I've never fished them, but a friend fishes Riley and every so often pulls out a real nice rainbow, one went 9lbs. Both I think are April-Oct lakes. The Stilly and Sauk are close for rivers, but both are fairly barren. I think the Stilly actually has been completely closed (I might be wrong). If you head west on 530 hit I-5 and go a few miles south to Smokey point, then head west you get into the 7 lakes area. Lots of opportunities there and more year round lakes. I fish Goodwin almost year round for trout with good success. Deep winter months are tough, but it's good late winter starting about March through November.

Ah yes, Lake Riley.... Affectionately know as "Drunkards Hollow", The "Camping/Community/I'm afraid to add anymore.... names", that surrounds most of the lake used to be a fine display of humanity every weekend. A good friends family has a weekender on the lake. Spent a few opening days there. Good sport and entertainment, not a weekend goes by there aren't a couple stolen / borrowed boats. They always come back and sometimes with someone passed out in the bottom........ No where for them to go, they just end up at home eventually.

Hi Josh. I don't really know anyone in this area who fishes but it would be nice to meet others to fish Armstrong or even Riley with. I might fish the pier at Warm Beach when the weather picks up. Would you be interested to fish any of the places I've mentioned? Not much fun fishing solo.

JoshH wrote:What type of fishing do you like to do? For lakes, Riley and Armstrong are close. I've never fished them, but a friend fishes Riley and every so often pulls out a real nice rainbow, one went 9lbs. Both I think are April-Oct lakes. The Stilly and Sauk are close for rivers, but both are fairly barren. I think the Stilly actually has been completely closed (I might be wrong). If you head west on 530 hit I-5 and go a few miles south to Smokey point, then head west you get into the 7 lakes area. Lots of opportunities there and more year round lakes. I fish Goodwin almost year round for trout with good success. Deep winter months are tough, but it's good late winter starting about March through November.