If you poke around a little on the WDFW website, you will find a section about alpine fishing and a link to a list of lakes and what types of trout are planted there. This would be a good start.

One thing to remember about alpine lakes, you never know what to expect until you get there. I've been to some where we got fish literally on every cast, then a few years later, you can't find a fish on that same lake. Could be because of winter kill, poaching\over harvest, bird predation, or whatever. Also, some lakes have a population that is able to reproduce nicely in the lake - others rely strictly on stocking. If the lake is over due for stocking, you may find slim pickings - if it has been stocked that year - you may find hot action. (edit - actually they tend to stock these lakes with fry - so they need a year to 2 to grow to any size).

When I plan an alpine trip, I try to find a hike that I've either been to before, and have had luck, and\or find a hike that you can set up base camp at one lake, and have several others within a few hours hike to try if base camp is dead or slow. A stream nearby is a cool alternative too (if legal).

There is a good book out that covers fishing alpine lakes\streams located off of I-90 (same guy did a book a while back on fishing for trout in the Olympics). I found my copy last time I was at Creekside angling in issaquah.

Good luck this summer!

By the way, a light weight trout rod (spinning), casting bubble, and a mix of dry flies, terrestrials, nymphs, and wooly buggers work AWESOME in most high lakes. You don't have to pack a float tube, and don't have to worry about a back cast...

-Chad

Thank you for taking your time to respond!
I will give Creekside Angling a call tomorrow and see if they have it!

If anyone else has any stories or specific lakes in the Alpine Wilderness you had success with please do tell! =)

Thanks again,

Me and a few friends took a hike up to Little Heart lake up on Stevens pass a while ago in july and the fishing was outstanding. I'm not sure where the trailhead is but i'm sure it's pretty easy to look up for directions.

The hike was about 6 miles to Little Heart. Big Heart, a much bigger lake was another mile. And just 1 mile in was fish lake.

There were so many trout in Little Heart it was like a hatchery. Lots of options up there. Lots of lakes also. Very pristine, very beautiful.

several years ago i hiked into dorathy lake off of route 2. it was an easy hike in and out( 2or 3 miles) with plenty of lakeside camp sites. we had a good luck with some nice rainbows. i don't remember which flys we used but they were all fished behind a casting bubble. there was good lake access but would have been great with a float tube or just waders.

Cru,

Here's a couple of hikes you might try.

The Foss river lakes. I've been to some of the back ones and the fishing is fun back there. Lakes are kinda big so take a small raft with you. Some lakes (Trout) are only 3 miles in and the rest start in another 2 miles.

The lake that's right at Aasgaard Pass (Colchuck ??) looked like an easy one to fish from shore. Not sure what the name of that lake is as fishing wasn't our reason for getting up there. It was seeing what the back way into the Enchantments was like. (about 5 miles to the lake)

If you go off of I-90 take a trip to either Joe or Alaska. You should be able to find a scree slide off of the trail that will take you down to either lake. Joe has lots of Twin Lakes cutts in it so even if you wanted to keep some you wouldn't be hurting anything. Joe is a 10 mile hike.

Some others off of I-90 are Pete Lake (5 miles) out of Salmon la Sac. Spectacle lake a little further in (10 miles) used to have an overabundance of brookies and had a 16 fish limit. I've heard the problem has been fixed and the limit is less now.

There is a "hiking" club called the Hi-Lakers that combines hiking and fishing. They meet once a month on the 3rd Wednesday of the month in the Mercer Island community center at 7:30. Most anyone there could give you some tips on where to go and lakes that are shorter hikes than the ones I mentioned. Talapus and Ollalie have a trailhead off of I-90 and are worth exploring. And there's more than just two lakes up in that area. I think the first lake is only about 3 miles in.

you want to wait for more than just the lake to thaw out. You also want the trail free of snow and the camping spots open. At least I do. I've hiked into open lakes that had 3 feet of snow (on the trail) in the treed areas. "Postholing" in the snow gets tiring when you have a 40 pound pack on your back.

You are right that lakes in general do fish well right after the ice goes off. Best places then are in the shallows as the water is warmer there.

Boy is this a timely topic! I received an e-mail today from a reader who was very concerned that I was posting information on Alpine Lakes which he felt should be left off the web site. I won't post his e-mail since I didn't ask him, but I will post my responce. I'd like your thoughts on this topic as I think it is an important one. And like I said in my responce to the reader's e-mail, I think the vast majority of readers of this site are responsable and do not abuse the resource. I get so much enjoyment running this site and hearing from all of you. Here's the letter:
--------------------------------------------------
Thanks for your letter. You raise an issue that I have thought about for the five years I've run the site. It's an important issue and not to be taken lightly.
My concern is the same as yours. I don't want to see quality Alpine lakes trashed. I would hope that everyone would agree with that. Unfortunately, there are always a few bad eggs that will spoil it for everyone if given half a chance. If you've been following the thread on Rattlesnake lake, you will see that poaching and illegal fishing happens on lowland lakes as well as high land.
Your request if I read it correctly is that I should edit or not post certain lakes. The problem for me then becomes, which lakes? Everyone is going to have their own idea of what lake to post information on and what not to post on. And that applies to all the lakes, not just Alpine lakes. Further, I generally trust people to do the right thing. There are plenty of people who post their concerns about catch and release and limiting catch on the web site. So anyone who reads the site is going to see those posts.
Frankly, I think 99+% of the people that read WL are upstanding and have concern about our resource. And the other <1% are going to do what they want to do regardless of whether they see the info on my site or read it in a book. So I'm not inclined to censor information that people send me that they want to have posted on the site. I had a lot of people request an Alpine Lakes section prior to starting it. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear.
I will do this. I will place a LARGE disclaimer on the Alpine Lakes section. Better yet, would you be willing to write a general disclaimer to place on the Alpine Lakes section reminding people of the sensitive nature of the lakes? Whether we like it or not, people are going to find these lakes, as they have been doing for years already. The best thing we can do is educate fishermen in the proper use of these fragile lakes.
Thank you again for your concerns,
Mike

Oh, BTW, be sure to visit VTrail.com. The link is on the Alpine Lakes section. They have a GREAT list of Alpine Lakes to fish on.

Mike, I pretty much agree with you.

I would just request that some commen sense be applied. I'm sure most of us feel a little disappointed when we've just hiked are a$$ off and find our intended destination already getting fished. Unfortuneately, it is becomming harder and harder to find an isolated fishing spot - whether lake are stream. In my opinion, we have 2 choices - get used to company, or work harder\smater to find less pressured spots (hiker farther, start ealier, etc).

I think we should treat lakes like most do with rivers. For a medium to large lake, giving reports and even specific details about where to fish and what to try is no big deal. Same with rivers. Telling someone to try Blue Creek or Reiter on the Sky isn't going to cause any problems. But if you tell the entire internet about your favorite hole on a small stream or your favorite alpine lake full of big fish and never any pressure - well, don't be surprised to find your spot taken next time you go. It's really just common sense.

My personal guidlines for giving out info on lakes and rivers - direct folks to well known spots. Let them know that there are better options if they work for it. Also, don't forget that just because you don't plan on going back to a spot, doesn't mean that others don't consider it a 'secret spot'. You don't want others giving directions to your favorite spots do you?

Anyway, I think this and other sites are great resources, and while not being too uptight about it, we should consider any consequences before giving out specific details.

Thanks for the great site Mike!

-Chad

PP,

Not all places are bothered by pressure. Some of the spots are self-limiting with pressure because of the distance of the hike, or the steepness of the side trip from the trail to the lake. Also, not all lakes have trails to them.

The "sidehill" from Trout Lake to the Copper or Malachite (which ever one it is) keeps some people out if they try that hike either in the afternoon or on a warm day. Same thing with the "side hill" between Pete Lake and Spectacle. That "side hill" is known as the "stair steps" as it's 1500 feet of straight up switch backs. First time I did that I needed two hours to recover at the campsite at Spectacle.

Joe and Alaska are about 10 miles in, one way, and then there's the trail down the rock slides to the lakes. Both lakes are full of fish, and they get fished some, but not as much as if they were closer to the road, or the side trail to the lake was easier.

Sometimes I throw a lake name out as a teaser as I would like to see how committed the person is on good fishing. That lake might be a long hike.... or a steep downhill... or some other quirk that keeps most fishermen away.

One lake I went to was what appeared to be an easy 8 1/2 mile hike, but when the hiking boot met the trail, it proved otherwise. It was an 11 hour hike in. Not sure what the problem was, but I suspect it was the heat as the temps ran 90-100 degrees. There was a nasty "side hill" involved too.

Some lakes put out good sized fish but don't have a large population of fish. I don't pass the names of those lakes out freely. There's some off of the Snoqualmie that are good fishing.... and some over around Lake Chelan, but those I'm kinda quiet about.

Some acquaintances of mine take a weeklong trip each year and do a combo hiking/fishing trip. Usually they don't meet with many other fishermen/hikers when they're out. They do slide shows of their trips for the Hi-Laker club.

Good posts. My philosophy about this issue is that if you have a lake or spot you want to keep secret - then send it as a "secret lake" or don't send it at all. And if someone else posts about your favorite Alpine lake, don't mention it on the forum. It will go away after 5 days on the front page. Definately this is a tricky issue and we all need to be aware of it. I just have a real hard time being put in a position of "post this, don't post that". There is no way everyone will be happy. And getting rid of the Alpine lake section is unacceptable to me.

Since the "olden" days when many of the lakes in our wilderness areas were stocked liberally
by air by our F&G Dept. things have changed. Wilderness areas cannot be flown over is the word I've gathered.
Stocking in them now is done pretty much solely by the HiLakes Clubs backpacking them in or by "Mule Train" stocking and is sporadic at best.
Fortunately many of the lakes have spawnable outlets and many others are inhabited with
Brook trout which usually can spawn without running water in pristine lakes.

A good sportsmanship rule in the Alpine water is if the lake/stream seems to be inhabited by numerous,small eager to bite trout, take a few for camp breakfast/dinner. If fishing is slow or of bigger fish only, C&R everything with barbless hooks.

I think this is an extremely important topic and I'm sure glad to see the excellent discussion. Just for your reference, I'm one of the acquaintances that Zen Leecher mentioned who goes on an 8-15 day hiking/fishing trip every year. I'm also a Trail Blazer which means I am a volunteer for the WDFW backpacking fish into high lakes.

Alpine Lakes are more fragile then low lakes for several reasons. The growing season is extremely short. Only a month or two in some cases. The lakes are not as productive as low lakes, so it takes longer for fish to grow. That means that the lakes have to be planted with very low densities of fish and they need a long time to grow to any size. So the fishing in high lakes tends to me more fragile. It is also more hit an miss then typical low lakes. Some lakes are only planted every 10 or more years. The vast majority are planted every 3 to 6 years and many are small. I've planted as few as 25 fish into a lake. That creates opportunity for someone to go find fish, but it won't be able to handle any kind of publicity and still be a viable fishery. Although you may find fishing great one year, it can be poor the next. I have many stories of lakes where the word got out on good fishing and the lake was fished out soon after. I even ran into a guy who bragged about catching every fish out of a small lake.

Another consideration with high lakes is their wilderness nature. The problem isn't just the fish being caught before they have a chance to grow, but the shoreline impacts by anglers and campers.

I don't have any problem with reports posted on large lakes on trails. I don't like to see reports posted on any x-country lakes (they won't be x-country for long), especially small x-country lakes. I think those lakes should be left for people to seek out. Too many people will ruin the fishing and change the very nature of the place.

If you get me started on high lakes I'll talk all day. I'll force myself to stop for now.

Brian

What you should do is get Brian to "talk all day" on backcountry fishing and then get him to tell the story about fly fishing for rainbows up in BC and the big dollies that tried taking his fly caught trout away from him.

I think names and locations should be left out when it comes to alpine lakes. 90% of the fun is finding that certain spot. Too many people are using the internet as a "hot spot" handout.

I think all of us can relate to one of our "secret spots" being put in the paper or on the internet, only to go back and find it crowded.

I guess this is the price we pay for modern technology.

bank walker, i dont think there are any "secret spots" when it comes to the alpine lakes. there are a few books out that you can get at any major bookstore that lists all the alpine lakes and trails, how to get there, species, techniques, etc.

i think the only way to have a true secret spot is get permission to fish on private land. anyplace that has public access has info about it in print or on the internet. you just have to look around for it.

what i like best about the alpine lakes is that all the littering beer drinkers and yahoos are too lazy to hike a couple miles to get away from the crowds. i think the fresh mountain air scares them away!!

Fortunately, Stifler, not every lake, trail, or route are in any books. There are plenty of places left to find for those who are willing to get off the beaten path. With the most recently available maps there are no more absolute secrets like there used to be when some lakes weren't even on maps, but there are still a lot of lonely places to explore.

Zen, since you asked for my Dolly story, here it is. We were hiking/fishing in the Spatzizi Plateau Wilderness Park in northern British Columbia. Several days in we arrived at a relatively large, shallow lake with a good river running in. It was a perfect spot for fly fishing. There was unlimited back casting room and the RB were holding in the current where the river entered the lake. I was fishing from shore while my dad had waded out a short distance. I was playing a RB that ran about 13 inches when my line suddenly slacked a bit and started to act oddly. I yelled out to my dad see if he could see what was going on with my fish. I pointed out where my line was going in the water and he looked over there and spotted a huge fish that had a tail sticking out of its mouth. I wasn't quite sure what to do at this point, so I gave it some slack as the large fish slowly started swimming away. Finally, I decided I didn't have enough more line to give and I slowly put on pressure. Finally, the fish felt the pressure, it spit the 13 incher out, but the fish was on. I eventually landed a 26" Dolly (or bull trout, whichever it was). There were more of those big fish in there, but they wouldn't look at anything artificial we threw at them. Over the next couple days at the next two lakes down in the chain we were following we had a couple other Dollies go for RB we were playing, but we couldn't land any others.