Good job! Keep at it, the more you catch the bigger they get. Stan Coffin is a good but moody lake, and just before or during a rain is a great time to fish, especially Eastside lakes, since it tends to be a rare event. Nice way to explore a pattern!

Right on Mark

I would retain a mess of the little bluegill every time when fishing out there. They are small because there are so many competing for the available forage. Just my opinion on that. The lake is still C&R only for bass right?

I'll keep at it, usually, I'm easily discouraged when I don't catch any fish. The beauty of Stan is that after failing to connect with bass I can switch to pan fish and get the stink off of the boat and the spring back into my step, so to speak. LOL On my 2 trips over there this year, to SC, I've been able to do just that. Being an equal opportunity fisherman makes it fairly easy to get the stink off of the boat. If I fish a lake and catch absolutely nothing, I evaluate my techniques used, conditions of the lake and decide whether or not I'll go back any time in the next few years. It's always a new ball game a few years later so previous results are not an indication of present conditions.
Anyhoo, I'll be trying Stan Coffin again this year!

Awesome, the first FishNfool tourney entry. Keep it up!

Thanks Christian, Dood & Angler!
Christian, agreed, heavy storms comin in turn on the bite! We used to do our best when backpacking, low pressure comes in and the cutts wouldn't stay off of ANY fly or lure tossed at them.
Dood, I'm looking forward to catching a hawg somewhere/sometime! LOL
Angler, that brings up a serious thought of mine and I actually made a call to Mike Schmuck, biologist WDFW Ephrata, earlier this morning to ask about the very thing that you describe. Essentially, what is the right thing to do for the sake of the fishery, retain all the little or big pan fish that we catch in certain waters, a certain species, perch vs. blue gill? I wish there was a state biologist database where we could look up what it is that the biologists would like us to do at a specific lake. Great idea but very time consuming to update and that equals money that the state just doesn't have. Also, a biologists desire would at times conflict with the regulation against wasting food/game fish. If you ask me, if using some panfish to fertilize tomatoes in the garden is good for that specific fishery, then, it's not wasting that fish. I'm not a biologist or enforcement, so I can't make that decision. We all know that if a great deal of people fish a specific body of water intensely, it can be fished out very quickly. Just a thought, over thinking again LOL, if the state said "if you fish Stan Coffin, retain all perch, all bluegill over 5", release all crappie and bass." would that be easy enough to follow and would there be good results? LOL Of course, there are those who don't read the regs anyway and don't follow them even when they know what they are. They muck up a good fishery plan every time. Wish those guys would target those nasty carp in Red Rock! LOL
If I get a message back from the call I made I'll post it on here, maybe on the forum as well.

Sorry Nate, caught that one on a trolled crankbait.

copied from the lake description:
We manage SC Lake as a C&R largemouth bass fishery and we are also attempting to shift the panfish fishery to one with larger (although less abundant) bluegill. You will likely find several largemouth bass with small anchor tags along their dorsal fin. These tags are used to monitor growth of bass in the lake and should be left in the fish. If you catch a tagged bass and can get an accurate length please feel free to call us at 509-754-4624 ext.227 (Mike) or 222 (Marc).

In addition to big bass you will also find channel catfish in the lake. Some of these are also tagged and can be reported to us as well.

We work hard to provide great fishing for you and look forward to hearing from you regarding your fishing experience at any of our warmwater lakes.

Tight lines!

Mike Schmuck
Warmwater fisheries biologist
WDFW Ephrata, WA
509-754-4624 x 227
Mike.Schmuck@dfw.wa.gov

I'll be there this weekend and i'll try and thin the pop out a little ha. I love the quincy lakes area, its first place I was ever taken on a fishing trip. What is the limit on panfish in that lake? I have never kept any before because of the small size. On a side note does anybody know if they stocked quincy or burke or any of the walk in lakes this year? I can't find if they did on the weekly stocking reports on wdfw?

I'm sure they stocked Burke and Quincy with trout, check under Grant County in the stocking report. Stan is CnR on the bass, and state regs on the pan.

copied from page 27 of the regs...

CHANNEL CATFISH No min. size. Daily limit 5.
CRAPPIE, NORTHERN PIKE, NORTHERN
PIKEMINNOW, PEAMOUTH CHUB, PERCH,
SUCKERS, SUNFISH, CATFISH (except CHANNEL),
BULLFROGS, ROCK BASS, STRIPED BASS
No min. size. No daily limit.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
---------------------------------------------------
Release all bass <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<to a separate listing for Evergreen Reservoir and Dusty Lake. Quincy and Burke Lakes were
rehabilitated in the fall of 2005 and both waters produce nice sized (12-15 inch) rainbow trout for
opening day. Quincy and Burke received catchable-size rainbow trout plants of 15,000 and
18,000, respectively. Most of these fish are between 12-14 inches. Both Quincy and Burke are
open March 1 through July 31. In addition to the west end access, Burke can be accessed on the
east end through the Quincy Wildlife Area off of Road 3 NW. The small seep lakes below
Quincy and Burke will offer fair rainbow fishing this year. Stan Coffin, “H”, and part of the
Ancient lakes provide a warm water fishery primarily for bass and bluegill. All three are open
year-round. Stan Coffin features the only catch and release bass fishery in the state and has a
very high density of largemouth bass. (See Washington State Parks website:
http://www.parks.wa.gov/ada-rec for ADA accessibility information.)