Celebrate America’s 250th anniversary at waters that are red, white and blue through and through.
BY ANDY WALGAMOTT, NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN MAGAZINE
America turns 250 years old this month, and what better way to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence back in July 1776 than fishing at patriotic-themed waters across the Northwest?
From the far Upper Columbia to the heart of the Basin, and from tarns speckling Northeast Oregon and the Washington Cascades to suburban lakes, there are myriad places to wet a line this semiquincentennial year.
Fish one, fish ’em all while considering what two and a half centuries of freedom means to you and for the country in this day and age.
AMERICAN REACH
OK, this isn’t an official name you’ll find on a topo map, but the free-flowing Columbia River just below the United States-Canada border is sometimes referred to as the American Reach. And it just might be the biggest little trout crick in the world, a place where native redband rainbows with the fighting instincts of their sea-going relatives lurk along monster gravel bars and eddies, safe from the depredations of the Leadpoint, Onion Creek and Wedge Packs.
It’s most well known by flyrodders. While fishable from early spring through midfall, with the possible exception of snowpack runoff season, high summer fishing is often done in the evening after the heat of the day begins to dissipate, when anglers haul out Parachute Black Drakes, a fly described as “large, dark, and Wulffish” by famed author John Gierach in a book excerpt about the fishery we published in the June 2020 issue:
“It was going on midnight; the shoreline was only a little blacker than the water and the sky was full of stars. Our big johnboat was fitted with a 60-horse outboard and we were flying downriver faster than Iíd have gone in the dark. I could tell the Drakes were still hatching because they kept hitting me in the face, but by then it was impossible to see a dry fly and you couldnít fish by sound because the river was too loud to hear the rises. It would still have been possible to swing a big wet fly downstream on a tight line so you could feel the takes, but it was late and Vince and I had been into our backing more times in the last five hours than in the whole previous season, so we were happy enough to call it a night and it was somehow comforting to know that this would all go on without us for a few more hours.” –John Gierach, Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers
MORE AMERICAN WATERS
While geogeeks will quibble about the American Reach nomenclature, not so with two other Washington waters – American Lake near Tacoma and the American River, a tributary of a tributary of a trib of a trib.
The former is known for its “beloved” kokanee fishery (as well as a walleye spotted here in 2022, though none have been caught since then by state netting crews), while the latter is … well, OK, maybe not everything American rocks.
“Fishing reports describe the American River as ‘sterile’ with anglers not encountering many fish or bugs,” reports the Yakima Basin Fish and Wildlife Funding Board. So maybe skip that one, unless you enjoy dud firework shows. (Neighbors’ dogs raise their paws.)
LIBERTY LAKE
Just as America offers a little something for everyone, so too with 706-acre Liberty Lake just east of Spokane.
Trout? Rainbows, browns and brookies.
Bass? Smallmouth and largemouth.
Panfish? Crappie, bluegill and pumpkinseed.
Species with two names? Signal crayfish and brown bullhead.
Spinyrays? Walleye, perch and catfish.
Indeed, Liberty is one of very few lakes in Washington lucky enough to receive channel cats, including 2,000 half-pounders this May and another 2,000 1-pounders in June 2024 that should be fair-sized by now.
The latter release was the first for the species in a decade, and at the time it had Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife warmwater manager Kenny Behen “extremely excited to get this ball rolling again.” Their numbers can be controlled better than other nonnatives due to the fact that water temperatures typically don’t reach the level needed for catfish to spawn.
Liberty is also part of WDFW’s statewide trout derby, and at press time three tagged ’bows had yet to be caught and prizes claimed. While trout fishing slows in summer, it picks back up in early fall.
INDEPENDENCE LAKE
The Declaration of Independence was huge; Independence Lake, not so much. Yet it’s big enough to be part of the Evergreen State’s high lakes stocking program, and every July for the past five years, some 250 rainbow fry have been hauled to the 6.10-acre pothole set at 3,700 feet north of Silverton up the South Fork Stillaguamish River.
The Washington Trails Association calls Independence “a great first backpack for kids,” and truth be told, Coal Creek Road/Forest Service Road 4060/4062 does almost all of the legwork, depositing hikers less than a mile away from the lake for a nice, easy sidehill stroll.
Declare your independence from the tyranny of switchbacks! (Just don’t forget a Northwest Forest Pass for parking at the trailhead.)
GEORGE, WASHINGTON
The only town in the entire 3.8 million square miles of the United States fully named after a president is most well known for a certain stunning summer music venue, but a nearby lake can be just as bumpin’ during a much cooler time of year.
Upper Caliche Lake is described as “extremely popular” when it opens in March for stocked rainbows. The banks of the 7.3-acre lake are fishable, and there’s a rough ramp for carrying a boat down to the water.
Other great planted lakes in the immediate vicinity include the Quincy complex – which is actually closer to George than Quincy, but go ahead and have your day, town named after the middle name of the sixth or seventh or whatever number president John Q. Adams Jr. was – while the windy Wanapum Pool has walleye and bass.
FOURTH OF JULY LAKE
You’ll want to skip this Channeled Scablands lake on its namesake day because 1) it’ll be hot as a firecracker; and 2) it’s closed to fishing now. But come Black Friday – that other great patriotic American holiday – it lights up like a Roman candle.
Speaking of, you might need one to melt a hole to ice fish through if late fall’s cold enough, but it will be worthwhile, thanks to good fishing for rainbows stocked as fry and “decent” carryover from year to year.
OREGON’S RED, WHITE AND BLUE WATERS
Betsy Ross could never have imagined that someday a hook-and-bullet magazine would riff off her famed flag, but here we are – specifically, in the verdant Oregon Cascades, home to Red Lake, White River and Blue River Reservoir.
Red, perched on a severely singed plateau above Breitenbush, is reported as stocked every other year with brookies and on a trail described as the “main east-west thoroughfare” in the Ollalie Butte area, making it a good jumpoff point to more backwoods angling adventures.
The White, a federally designated wild and scenic river flowing off the southeast face of Mount Hood, is host to a “genetically distinct” strain of redband rainbows above White River Falls, which even legendary leapers like summer steelhead and coho can’t crest.
And Blue River Reservoir sees near-weekly late spring visits from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s trout stocking truck that this year has delivered 20,400 legal-size rainbows to the impoundment east of Leaburg.
“Lots of great trout fishing to be had there” and in the Blue River, reported Willamette Valley-based contributor Troy Rodakowski, who alerted me to a pretty patriotic triad of Oregon waters. He says there’s also kokanee, bass and panfish in the system.
EAGLE CAP WILDERNESS
The national bird – no, not that one; the one that tries to look all noble in pictures but we know actually lives in a van down by the river where it scavenges dead things – lends its name to the 555-square-mile wilderness that forms the towering roof of Northeast Oregon. Underneath, a wealth of streams and lakes rife with native and introduced trout courses through this lofty landscape.
In our June issue of the magazine, David Johnson shared wisdom from 59 years of fishing Bear Creek, a lesser known stream that cuts into the core of the Eagle Cap Wilderness and Wallowa Mountains (which in early days of settlement were known as the Eagle Mountains). He reported that Bear “has the best food base of any high-elevation stream” in the wilderness, and while the trout aren’t huge, they’re great fighters and bite flies you’d use in any freestone stream in the West.
Meanwhile, ODFW stocks eight Eagle Cap lakes – Crater, Hawk, Hobo, Legore, Mellard, Prospect, Swamp and Unit – every other year with rainbows, and Crater and Unit also boast natural production. None are easy to get to, and Legore, situated at an eye-watering 8,954 feet, also has the distinction of being the highest lake in Oregon.
All the better perch to ponder 250 years of American history, progress and what’s still to come.
USA! USA! USA!
