Northwest Fishing Reports

Whats the best lake around pierce county or surrounding counties for catfish. I fish ohop quite often for cats but the biggest ive got is about 2 pounds. I would love to go after some big boys around 10 pounds or larger. Do they exsist and if so what lakes have them. I know harts used to have channel cats stocked but havnt herd about one being cought there in years.

I've investigated the options of Wet-side catfishing and determined if I do manage to actually catch one it will be less than exciting. The biggest one over here that I have heard was about 4 lb Channel cat taken out of Gissberg ponds in Snohomish county.
There was an article from last year http://nwsportsmanmag.com/2011/10/18/25 ... -wa-lakes/ to quote:

From the top, the waters include:

Terrell, west of Ferndale, 5,000

Fazon, south of Everson, 500; has been planted 10 times in the past

Campbell, on Fidalgo Island, 4,000; has been planted seven times in the past

Gissberg Ponds/Twin Lakes, in Smokey Point, 500 each; have been planted eight times in the past

Green, in Seattle, 3,500; has been planted seven times in the past

St. Clair, southeast of Lacey, 3,500; first ever planting

Lawrence, south of Yelm, 4,000; first ever planting

Chambers, west of Lacey, 800; has been planted three times in the past

Swofford, southeast of Mossyrock, 2,000

Kress, north of Kalama, 500

You may find cats elsewhere but its mainly going to be bullheads that just don't get that big.


The Eastside is really where its at. The state record cat came out of a really small lake/pond (like maybe 30 acres) that was a reclaimed gravel pit from the I-82 highway construction project I-82 pond #6 http://www.washingtonlakes.com/LakeInfo ... d=8539&t=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . Other than that you'd be looking at other Eastside lakes or rivers like the Tri-Cities area where nice cats can be taken on the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia rivers.

There was a pretty long thread about this a while ago here http://www.washingtonlakes.com/forum/vi ... =2&t=13812

Yeah. Snake, Yakima, and Palouse seem to be where it's at.

Texas, Georgia, Anywhere in the Carolina's and Oklahoma are big cat country.. LOL

Harts or Swofford Pond

I formally lived in Ferndale, near Lake Terrell and saw several photos of channel catfish in the 20lb range taken from the lake. One very good catfisherman used orange PowerBait to catch them and the large rainbows present in the lake. Catfish have been stocked for years in Lake Terrell; so some very large fish are possible. Boaters catch the majority of the fish, but one of the big catfish photos was by a dock fisherman in the Spring.

For Pierce County,I would suggest Harts Lake http://www.washingtonlakes.com/LakeInfo.aspx?id=52&t=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Swofford Pond by Riffe(Mossyrock) might be another great option