I'm heading to the San Juans for the weekend and was thinking about dragging a line. I've never fished up there before so could anyone please give me some idea as to where to try and how deep? No zipper lips, just looking for a good time this weekend. Also, any help on crab spots would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

what island?

Hey, I need some help too. I'm going up to Orcas Isle for a field study for my Geography class. We'll be camping 7/30-8/3 at Moran State Park. How's fishing at Cascade lake or any of the other lakes in the vicinity? Any searun cutty's or res coho off the beaches?

The most salmon always seem to hang around salmon banks, on the southeastern side of San Juan. Eagle Pt. is my favorite.

As far as trout fishing in Moran State park, I've never done it, but there are some interesting pictures of oldtimers carrying out scads of huge trout from that lake in the park.

We will be around/between Orcas and Lopez most of the time.

Buy the fishing map from any tackle shop of the San Juans. They are only $7 and show both fishing spots and depth and what species to expect in spots.
It's early for silvers but you may catch some blackmouth or c/r some nice wild kings.
Thatcher Pass is a great area between the two islands.
Good luck.

Thatcher is a good bet, I'd "c" the kings but I wouldn't "r" them as it is open at this time. At that spot you want to target the bottom of the ebb.

Another good reference is the "Saltwater Fishing Journal", it covers the San Juans quite well, along with the rest of Puget Sound.

BennyBlack, I fished Cascade lake for many years. We always caught trout in that lake, a few big ones occassionaly. I have not fished it for maybe ten years now, but we always had good luck with size 60 and 70 Hot Shots in the perch, trout, and frog pattern trolled behind a boat. I believe you can still rent a boat there too. As I recall the shore access was not too good.

I JUST got back from fishing in the San Juans, and it was absolutely dead. We fished in virtually every "hot spot," which included the east side or Orcas Island in two different locations, during ebb, flood, and in between, all to no avail. We were at it for three days, and during that time we only saw one 18 incher caught. All boats were doing the same thing...downrigging behind a dodger with either a coyote spoon or squid. We fished alongside two charters all day Sunday, and they didn't touch a fish.

When we pulled out the boat, we ran into a biologist doing a check and he said that only one fish was taken at Anacortes and none along the San Juans.

We did, however, catch our fair share of dogfish and cod!!

Regardless, it was a beautiful weekend, so hit it!!

Our family took a trip up to Friday Harbor from Port Townsend a couple of weeks ago. Went in the afternoon after a low tide. Had some big swells on the way up and the winds picked up and we found ourselves in a nasty whitewater rip at the entrance to San Juan Pass off Cattle Point. Real scary for us when waves came in three directions at once and came over the windshield. Probably about an 8 foot wave. My wife was ready to call the Coast Guard and we probably should have. My son was crying. I calmed the family down and said we were going to power through it and we did. Our 22 footer handled it pretty well. We wondered why we were the only boat out there. Make sure you check conditions before leaving, don't go during the rip and file a trip plan. I was praying that I was at the river on the bank fishing for summeruns.

Anyway I went to Kings Marine in Friday Harbor the next day asking for information. They said try Pile Point, Eagle Point and Cattle Point. They said it was pretty rough and best time to go was in the morning before the winds kicked up. I wasn't to anxious to go back to the south side of the island. We went to Roche Harbor and tried the northwest side of San Juan around Smugglers Cove. No bites. Went back to Friday Harbor and caught some rock crab off the docks that my son had spotted. Went back the next morning to PT and it was real calm.

For lake reports, go to http://www.washingtonlakes.com ...look up Cascade, Mountain, and Twin Lakes in the lakes index. There's good information there.

Cascade is right on the main road and has two large swimming areas and can be noisy, even in the evenings--Ah, Camp Humanity! It was pretty generous with its rainbows earlier this year, but I haven't fished it since...uh...May.

Mountain is more secluded and tranquil, and contains ravenous cutthroat. Strip buggers and muddlers or throw black spinners right up along the shoreline. Should be good evening chironomid hatches on both these lakes.

Boats can be rented for either Cascade or Mountain lake--there's a little office on the dock at Cascade Lake.

Twin Lakes are a short walk. The big lake holds little fish (lots of 6") and the little lake holds big fish (very few 14").

It kind of depends what sort of fishing you'd like to do...toss out bait and sit in a lawn chair? or paddle like hell against the wind while shooting out a sink tip and weighted fly?

I've been watching the north beach of Orcas on and off, and haven't seen a thing yet this year, which is odd. Not many boats have been working the Parker Reef-Pt. Thompson troll, either--and this is usually a popular spot. I've tried a couple times and caught only dogfish. Ditto the Hummer Hole. So I get kind of a furrowed brow when I look down at my newly-installed Black Box. "Were you really worth it?" I ask. ".600," it replies. Sigh.

Read somewhere that mild el Nino ocean temps are causing the bulk of the Fraser sockeye run to go around the north side of Vancouver Island--they're not headed up the straits. Could it be the migrant kings will, too?

"I got a lot to learn about this blackmouth thing, don't I?"
".600."