Northwest Fishing Reports

any good catfish fishing near tacoma? not looking for trophies but just some nice tasty nuggets haha

Mostly just brown bullhead , Lots of them 6 - 14 inch all over. Ohop in graham has catfish in it that's one of the better fisheries around Tacoma.

silver lake once the water warms has some good sized bullhead cats. harts in yelm has some channel cats and decent bullhead cats in it. I've also got a few good sized bullhead cats out of steilicoom lake, kapowsin, and tanawax.

thanks guys!! ill have to write these down!!

I've done really well at Silver Lake, just be careful, once the water warms up to much they get real wormy.

Most people try fishing right on the bottom. You'll want your weight on the end up your line, then about 3 feet up a snap swivel with one of the cheapy pretied leaders. They'll usually swallow the hook, this makes it fast and easy to get rerigged and fishing again. Having the hook 3 feet up from the weight will keep your bait out of the muddy bottoms in most the lakes around here.

One other thing, no need for waiting for the water to warm up. Should be just fine this time of year.

sinkerswim wrote:I've done really well at Silver Lake, just be careful, once the water warms up to much they get real wormy.

Most people try fishing right on the bottom. You'll want your weight on the end up your line, then about 3 feet up a snap swivel with one of the cheapy pretied leaders. They'll usually swallow the hook, this makes it fast and easy to get rerigged and fishing again. Having the hook 3 feet up from the weight will keep your bait out of the muddy bottoms in most the lakes around here.

Is this a boat only fishery, or are these cats caught from shore?

From the shore, although at Silver Lake it's hard to get access since everything is private. Show up just before the resort closes though and I'd imagine they'd let you stay and fish off the dock. I've done best from dusk till about midnight. For whatever reason I've never had any luck after midnight. Bite just completely dies off.

Alder Lake is good too but the access is pretty limited considering the size of the lake.

i caught my biggest in St. Clair near Yelm as a kid. don't know what species or the exact length but to a small kid it was marlin sized. I've caught them trolling around Harts and Rapjon before trying to get trout. the Harts was a channel cat. I'll be at Carney Lake mid week and was thinking about dropping some nuggets for the bullheads in there just for fun.