I spent three days here prospecting for the elusive tiger muskie, and came up
empty. The weather varied from hot and clear to cloudy with a sprinkling of
raindrops, and the lake was in full algae bloom, which made it difficult to
visually locate weedbeds and forced me to resort to the weed-snagging method.
Muskies like warm shallow water and relate to docks, weedbeds 6' to 10'
deep, brush shorelines, underwater stumps and logs, and points and bars.
Curlew Lake has more of this type of structure by far than any other
Washington lake stocked with tiger muskies, and except for its hilly
surroundings, bears quite a bit of resemblance to a typical Wisconsin muskie
lake. But the big draw here is trout and few, if any, people fish this lake
specifically for muskies, although some incidental catches are made by bass
fishermen working the docks and shorelines. The only local lore I could dig
up is that tiger muskies are seen around docks, and the north end of the lake
near the railroad trestle is supposed to be a good area. At 870 acres,
Curlew is big enough to support a good population of tiger muskies, but is
larger than I can efficiently work from my cartopper and I would prefer a
larger boat to fish this lake. I spent my time pounding the shorelines and
shallow weed areas around the trestle, east shore, and islands in the south
end of the main lake with bucktails and jointed plugs. After all this
effort, the muskie's existence here remains theoretical as far as I'm
concerned, but that's muskie fishing! These fish don't come easy anywhere,
you have to work for them, sometimes days on end. I would recommend a small
bucktail (such as a #5 Mepps) as a high-percentage lure, matched to a 7'
bucktail or flipping rod with an oversized baitcasting reel spooled with 30
lb. mono or superbraid. You use both hands to cast with these rods, one
above the reel and one below. Use a wire leader, keep hooks razor sharp, and
if you feel a strike hit the fish hard, several times, to drive the hook
through its bony mouth. You catch muskies by casting to specific targets
(such as a downed tree) or fan casting a bucktail over a weedbed area. With
bucktails, use a fairly fast straight-in retrieve, and it's essential the
lure be in motion from the instant it hits the water. Jerk the rod tip to
get the blade turning and start cranking--there can be no pause, because
letting the lure go dead in the water turns off the fish, and many of the
strikes come on the first couple handle turns. I'm right-handed and like to
use a left-handed reel with a thumb bar. Muskies often follow a lure right
to the boat; I wear polarized glasses to spot these followers and
figure-eight the lure (with rod tip in the water) alongside the boat to
attempt to trigger them. Always figure-eight because you won't always see
the "deep follows," and these fish that stay deep under the lure generally
are more likely to hit than the fish just under the surface following out of
curiosity. Despite its distance from Seattle, Curlew is a popular recreation
lake. Although it has quite a bit of undeveloped shoreline, it also has
cabins and upscale homes, a state campground, two private RV parks, and
several resorts, and gets a lot of water skiing and jet skiing activity even
during the week. There is no free camping or boat launch here; the state
park, at $15 a night for a non-utility site, is the cheapest accommodation but
it's a pleasant campground with plenty of staff in evidence, no rowdies or
hooligans, and you can get a shower for fifty cents. As far as coming here
for tiger muskies, it's a big lake with plenty of hiding places, and the odds
of catching one might be better elsewhere.

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