We hiked into Chester Morse in the Cascades today to see what kind of fishing the lake would have. Couldn't beleive there were not very many good trails for such a big lake.

Had a banner day fishing from shore! We bonked our limits of rainbows up to 30+inches!!! Nailed a couple browns too. Great pristine lake with good fishing.....


um...ya right.


Anyone ever hear of any old good fishing stories from this lake? Saw an article on the news last night about the lake and wondered to myself, I wonder how many fish she holds?

Wouldnt it be great to have a lottery which anglers could buy tickets for a one day pass, once per year?

were you using red and white spoons ?, they work great in that lake.

A friend of mine that sells commercial door hardware has benn to the dam on business.While he was there he looked down into the water on the lake side and saw trout in the 3 foot range feeding along the dam.I asked him if the folks that worked there ,fished in the lake He replied no and it was against the law to fish in that lake.

Growing up in Renton in the 60's there were lots of stories of guys trying to fish Chester Morse. Most got caught , lost their gear and had some pretty heavy fines. The reports were always tempting, rainbows as long as your arm but...........not worth the risk.

So if I may ask (not familiar with that lake), why is fishing not allowed if it is full of Trout?

MC

Well, not quite as long as your arm.

A friend of mine did his Masters Thesis on the fish populations of Chester Morse Lake. It contains lots of native Dolly Varden (bull trout nowadays?) and rainbow trout. As part of his research, he had to sample the fish - poor guy. As I recall his stories, the fish averaged more like 16", with some larger of course, and some smaller. They are abundant, and because they are not fished on, quite dumb, and they came to any small spinner, spoon, or streamer fly. Yeah, it would be cool to fish there, but it is very closely patrolled by Seattle City Water Department, and they don't mess around with tresspassers, apparently.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I have allways wanted to fish Chester Morse Resevouir. But the fact that it has allways been illeagal to do so stopped me. I am pretty sure it has to do with the fact that it is where alot of people including myself get our drinking water. I believe they call it a watershed. I sure wouldnt want a bunch of fishermen taking a leek where I get my drinking water. ITs nice to dream tho.

Rainbow trout don't live long enough to attain 3 foot lengths unless they are able to spawn or are steril. In lakes and res that is. Certain strains are able to attain that weight in large bodys of water where the have ample fish to forage on ( like priest lake or others in that area) Also some large ones ( browns) in the great lakes. Fish that don't spawn, have to re-absorb their eggs, and a couple of years of that and it kills them. A brown trout will live much longer and can reach that size..

Remember, I am not talking about steelhead, I am talking about your avg rainbow trout.

these rainbows could spawn in the upper reaches of the cedar river.
Guess they'd be a sort of a freshwater steelhead then.