I went to a few lakes up in Eastern Washington after the 4th... The trash and firework debris made me sick. The least they could do is pick up after themselves... I went down to Omak lake to fly fish off the bank for some of those BIG SHALLOW Lahotan Cutties and instead saw a mess of explosive equivelent to WW2!! A few people went down EARLY in the morning and were volintarily picking up all the trash, these type of people should be commended!! However, please remember... ALWAYS pack out MORE than you brought in, this keeps the lakes clean and the fishing great!!
~Matt

You should see the sand bars on the Middle Fork. Always trashed but worse with the fireworks debris. It's amazing that people will actually shoot off sky rockets over the trees when it's this dry. Also, they leave all their trash. It'll never make sense to me.

The most STUPID thing I saw the whole day was actually on the 4th.. We were down at Twin Lakes in Ferry County shooting off our fireworks (for some reason the beach actually stayed rather clean, most people picked there stuff up at that lake) and to the right of the swimming area and boat launch where we were is a huge cliff with a couple trees growing towards the top of its edge... some idiots decided it would be a good idea to climb onto their balcony and shoot their fireworks right off the balcony... It would've been great until they shot SEVERAL flaming balls into the tree ... Finally they got busted when a Game warden came down!

Hi Matt: I've been picking up trash on Omak lake access areas for several years now. The thing that grosses me out the most is the appearence of disposable diapers amongst the trash recently.
Adopt a lake fishermen. Pick trash for an hour or so every time you go there. It's the only way to keep things reasonably clean as there is a new "PIG" born every hour or so!

Fishing for Lahontins in shallow water from shore is nonproductive in July Matt. In fact it's fairly nonproductive at any time. You need a boat or belly boat to get out into 8-10' of water at Minimum. You can see them in shallow water in early spring along the shoreline,but they are looking to spawn and not feeding when they are there. The best season for fly fishing them like other lakes is Appril-May and again in September-October.
They can be had in July-August,but only by trolling deep (pretty poor sport unless you manage to hook a really big one)This is THE most underfished fishery in the State due to the poor eating quality of the fish,the extra Indian liscense required, and the lack of knowledge of Lahontin tactics.
FISH HERE!!!But take your garbage home with you please(Not you Matt,I know you do!)I'm an old man and getting tired.