Hi lemme start by sayin that this is a great site and forum. i juss recently found it a few days ago and ive stopped to check it out bout every free chance I get. Ive wanted to go catfishing in Wa for jeez Id say bout 3 years but never knew of any places to go cept for the two lakes I was told about which are Black Lake and Lake Kapowsin. last summer I went to these lakes prob not at the best time in the middle of the day and drove around checked them out and made a few casts, but had no luck. When I did the search on Catfishing and checked out the topo list I saw that it said Harts Lake, Silver Lake, and Alder lake all had catfish in them. My questions are when is ususally a good time to go during the year? Also if I was to go out say tonight or tommorow what places would you reccomend? Or should I wait a few more months for warmer weather? Im not tryin to ask for peoples Fishin holes but if you could kinda point in the the general area of where I may get lucky Id greatly appreciate it. Or if you know of any other places Perferably in Western Wa bout places that aint much further then an hours drive or so from the Tacoma/Lakewood area that would be helpful. Im tryin to get something to take home for the the skillet and really dont wanna have to go to Johnnys to buy catfish. I apologize for writing this short novel and askin 20 questuins but juss really anxoius to check out some of these place maybe Ill see some of ya on the water, thanks agian

I seem to recall Kress being mentioned as a catfish lake. Did you mean to say you checked the Warm Water Fish link on the front page? That would take you to a page with a list of spiny ray lakes which I believe includes catfish. Then those lakes are further linked back to their report pages to get the reports on them. Don't forget to go through the Archives on a prospective lake - you'll find reports dating back many years now. Good luck!

I'm not sure how many W. Washington lakes contain catfish- lots contain Brown Bullhead, I know them to be esp. prolific at the east end of Rife Lake.

There's a Catfishery on the lower Yakima River.

Twin lakes near Belfair has small brown catfish. They might get 24 inches long if they are lucky. The only thing I have ever caught one on is fresh water mussells. It was all of 14 inches.

Thanks for all the info guys, juss to let ya know I was told Lake kapowsin had catfish so I went down their the other day and fished off the paydock (which cost $3.25) I tried nightcrawlers on the bottom with no luck but there was another guy their fishing for perch and he got one right before I left. ill prob be checkin out those other lakes soon that you guys listed.

"swafford" with 2 f's ......my bad

Usually start about May or so.
You'll catch 100 times more if you go at night. It's about the only thing I fish lakes for anymore and never target them during the day.

At night they come up to the shallower water to feed.

Can't go wrong with nightcrawlers.

Don't shy away from those brown bullheads either. They fry up quite nicely.
Very good biters too. I like to get to the lake about 10PM and usually can leave at about 11-11:30 with 10-15 cats.
mmmmmm, wish I hadn't seen this post. Got me thinking about pan fried catfish fillets now.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/cgi-bin/database/fish/fishing_record.cgi#fresh

There is no white catfish in "swafford" pond just bullheads and channels, and they dont hit stinkbaits. Channels prefer fresh bait. The biggest channel caught out of swafford was 23# it was caught on a live trout. The state as far as I know stopped putting them in there, did away with the size limit and raised the catch limit after they saw the cats were not providing the great action recreational fishery they thought they would. Also the is some kind of weird disease thats seems to affect the catfish in there, I see dead ones washed against the bank every year with sores on them and messed up gills. Other then that people dont catch many in there though if you want to camp out for a week you may catch one or two in the five to eight pound range if your lucky. Just after dark is best. I catch a few now and then with garlic oil dipped nightcrawlers.


Anybody that fishes "swafford" can vouch for this.

By the way its called swofford and its by mossyrock. I fish riffe a whole lot and Swofford when my arms get sore from playing smallies all day.

No need to travel far - American Lake has "catfish", actually probably Brown bullheads, but not bad in the fry pan. We used to fish in the lilly pads just off the Western State Hospital, but that was from a row boat. From shore you might try around the boathouse/launch area. Worms on the bottom around evening fills up the cooler.

Catfish in American? Ive seen a couple of bass but never seen a cat get pulled out of there. that is deff worth a try since its so close. Thanks for the time/day/year thing on the catfish that was one of my main questions. Now I juss gotta find something to do to pass the time till then

I know the feeling. I hate this time of year. Finally starting to warm up some. All the local steelheading is shut down. Never have tried my hand at that.

Here in another 2 months the lakes will be starting to come alive. Hit them all spring, take a break once the heat of summer hits and then salmon all of fall.

This is the longest stretch of the year. Oh well, lots of work to be done anyways. I did just get one of those pontoon boats, kinda like a cataraft, so I'm really itching to try it out.

Hi eveybody I"m the new kid on the block.If you want catfish when the water is up go to lake tapps over by snagg island from 9pm to about 1 to 2am we got about 13 12 to 13 inch on nightcrawlers. good luck :p

hicks lake has a lot of bullheads, they bite well at night in late summer/fall

american lake, is that the one over on ft. lewis land? if thats the one im thinking of, then ive fished it, it was said there are some really nice trout in there, but ive never caught any big ones, just small ones.. there is also like a few other small lakes over there, ive fished them for spiny rays, but i cant remember if ive caught any, i do know black lake has some brown bellies in there, biggest we caught were like 12 inches or so..