Northwest Fishing Reports

This thought popped into my head and I thought it might be an interesting discussion topic. I know many of you are much more experienced than me, but is there any freshwater (presumably north american) fish that you've never caught that you would love to catch? I really love the idea of experiencing a new type of fish, even relatively common ones. My list of fish I've never caught that interest me are:

Alligator Gar - The king of North American fish. I've dreamed of this ever since I read an article as a kid that described them eating full grown ducks off the surface of lakes.
Sturgeon - Only kind of freshwater I guess. Really hoping I can possibly hook into one of these on one of our river systems this winter, but it sounds pretty hard.
Any kind of catfish, including a Bullhead - Somehow I've managed to fish most of my life and never hook even a measly bullhead. Hoping to head east of the mountains next year to catch some Channel Catfish.
Walleye - I grew up watching fishing shows and Walleye were like this exotic thing to me. One of these days I'll make it to Eastern Washington and give it a shot.
Crappie - Another hard to believe I've never caught one fish. Until this year I didn't even know they existed in Western Washington. I've given it a shot a couple times at Larsen Lake, but come up empty.
Rock Bass - Yea, I've never caught one of those things that you can't even keep off your line. Weirder still, I'm curious to catch one.

So my list is a bit long, but some of you have to have something you haven't caught that you'd like get on the end of your line?

Alligator gar in the NW? Where?

I learned in school that there are Snakeheads in WA state, so thats one i would like to catch.
As well as Small mouth bass.

I want one of these.

Fish_Bait111397 wrote:Alligator gar in the NW? Where?

I learned in school that there are Snakeheads in WA state, so thats one i would like to catch.
As well as Small mouth bass.

No, no Alligator Gar in the NW, I was just speaking of general north american fish. Mostly limited to the southern states bordering the Mississippi River. The wife has some family in Louisiana, so maybe I'll get a shot someday. I hear they're pretty tough to hook into, though.

sturgeon and burbot.

used to live in nc. Huge gar!!! I hated catching them. If there teeth dont cut line it will cut you lol.

#1 Steelhead, #2 sturgeon

One of each:-"

Burbot would be awesome! And anything over 20 pounds lol

Peacock Bass would be fun. There are some in Hawaii. Maybe some Muskie hybred things in Taps, Mayfield, getting closer to be able to try for them. [Tiger Muskies :-) ] Need to go Eye fishing on purpose some day. [Walleye, Banks or Potholes.] Caught a 6 lbder on a spinnerbait during a Bass tourney on Banks back in the early '90s. Yumm

I would like to catch a Musky and a Channel cat both. Probly actually want to catch the catfish more, I've always wanted to catch one! Also, a Steelhead over 20lbs would be okay by me.....

Matt, channel cats are fun !

When i was in AZ , after they would stock the urban lakes every 2 weeks, my uncle and I would go out and catch lots of them !
A 5 pound channel cat, gives up a harder fight then a 5 pound pink would.!

i would love to catch the one that stripped all the line off my real that took a 13" live chub on Lake Koronis in Minnesota.Never did see it. On that note, my brother was spool'd fishing the pend "O" last week. never did see it. Lots of big fish being caught on this body of water. Funny that the only pike he got into the boat was 13"[lol] [lol] [lol]

I would love to go catch some stripers. they look like a lot of fun. Here in the NW, I have never caught a shad. I hear they are great fighters. Every time they are running I say I am going to go catch them and I never make it down. Maybe this year!!!

Matt wrote:I would like to catch a Musky and a Channel cat both. Probly actually want to catch the catfish more, I've always wanted to catch one! Also, a Steelhead over 20lbs would be okay by me.....

I'd love to get into some more channel cats! Them fish are TASTY. I've got a 20 pounder under my belt though, my next goal is 30 hahahahaha It's amazing seeing a 20 pound fish, it's unreal. You get so used to looking at the cookie cutter 5 to 10 pounders.

Peacock bass and Barramundi.

Interesting to see all the channel cat talk. I had some time on my hands a few weeks ago and actually went through all the posts in the freshwater forum going back 4+ years. I didn't read every thread, but one thing I noticed that was asked all the time was where to catch Catfish (not bullheads) in Western Washington. It was probably brought up 20 times. This tells me two things: 1) People don't know how to use the search function and 2) there is a high demand for big cats in Western Washington. Of course the answer is that unless you're very far south you're out of luck, but it made me wonder how the WDFW would respond to a concerted effort to request the stocking of Channel Catfish in selected, isolated bodies of water in Western Washington. I can probably guess that it'd have about a 0% chance of going through since they seem to think the only things worth stocking are apparently 8" rainbows that last a couple weeks of spring that folks catch by the bucketful for a week in the spring, but it's a nice thought.

I've always wanted to catch a muskie or a northern. Peacock bass would be legit too. I've seen bullheads in some urban lakes, but never any channel cats. I've seen some massive alligator gar in kentucky but couldn't get 'em to bite. those are scary fish

SculpinKing wrote:Interesting to see all the channel cat talk. I had some time on my hands a few weeks ago and actually went through all the posts in the freshwater forum going back 4+ years. I didn't read every thread, but one thing I noticed that was asked all the time was where to catch Catfish (not bullheads) in Western Washington. It was probably brought up 20 times. This tells me two things: 1) People don't know how to use the search function and 2) there is a high demand for big cats in Western Washington. Of course the answer is that unless you're very far south you're out of luck, but it made me wonder how the WDFW would respond to a concerted effort to request the stocking of Channel Catfish in selected, isolated bodies of water in Western Washington. I can probably guess that it'd have about a 0% chance of going through since they seem to think the only things worth stocking are apparently 8" rainbows that last a couple weeks of spring that folks catch by the bucketful for a week in the spring, but it's a nice thought.

I've looked into finding some decent sized cats more than once and it's difficult. We don't have many hatcheries that can handle them, and importing them is tough and expensive. Swofford pond in lewis county has 'em in decent numbers, and that's about it. Legend has it that Gissberg twinlakes has had them stocked in the past, and I can attest that there are a couple in Green Lake in seattle. But finding them is like a needle in a hay stack. I heard of a couple coming out of lake washington at log boom, second hand anecdotes. One other lake in pierce county has had them stocked but I don't remember the name. A drive over the mountains would be the best bet though, the columbia and it's lakes has 'em, and I've heard good things about the yakima river. I know that at sometime in the past you could find 'em once in a blue moon in the Chehalis river in lewis county around centralia. But they're tasty fish, it would be nice to have some swimming around close to home.

SculpinKing wrote:Interesting to see all the channel cat talk. I had some time on my hands a few weeks ago and actually went through all the posts in the freshwater forum going back 4+ years. I didn't read every thread, but one thing I noticed that was asked all the time was where to catch Catfish (not bullheads) in Western Washington. It was probably brought up 20 times. This tells me two things: 1) People don't know how to use the search function and 2) there is a high demand for big cats in Western Washington. Of course the answer is that unless you're very far south you're out of luck, but it made me wonder how the WDFW would respond to a concerted effort to request the stocking of Channel Catfish in selected, isolated bodies of water in Western Washington. I can probably guess that it'd have about a 0% chance of going through since they seem to think the only things worth stocking are apparently 8" rainbows that last a couple weeks of spring that folks catch by the bucketful for a week in the spring, but it's a nice thought.

They do stock them in a few lakes, and there are some big ones. A few years back someone caught a 23 lbr off of the dock at Lake Terrell in Whatcom County using powerbait, I know there is a catchable stocked population in that lake. Also, Fazon Lake in WC has a stocked population as well, and a limit listed for them in the regulations. We tried fishing for them once in Fazon but never even got a nibble.