Last fling of the summer. I have always wanted to fish the Spada lake/reservoir. I took my son and Motoboat, (fellow WA LAKER) up to the Sultan Basin Rec. area to get on Spada. We got a late start, and the drive up there is actually farther off of Hwy 2 than I realized. It is about 21 miles from Hwy 2. with 1/3 of that being on gravel road.
Upon approaching the lake area we were met by a sort of guard representative from the PUD. It is DNR land and obviously a Snohomish County watershed, so they are pretty serious about keeping track on who comes and goes. The guy was friendly, and directed us to the 2 available launches. Launch area 3 should be considered definetly NOT an option. The lake is maybe at 1/3 capacity right now, VERY LOW. If you backed down launch 3, you would almost go off a 10' embankment before landing in the water. The water is prob. 200' below where it should be at that launch. Launch site 2 is a very tricky long backing down to the lake. You should have 4 wheel drive, as you are driving on lake bottom silt/mud. I was concerned to get the boat back on the trailer. Luckily since the regs on this lake include, no gas motors... I had removed the 175lb motor. We were able to winch the boat onto the trailer pretty well, not enough water to float it on exactly.
On to fishing....We motored out and headed to the middle of the lake, and then forged towards the dam, as the guard dude told us it had the deepest water, and a recent fish sampling showed larger fish in that area. Native rainbow and cutts, as well as Kokanee. Can't speak to their orgin, although I am certain nothing has been stocked in here in years, so self sustaining.
We trolled from downriggers, using some Rocky Moutain flashers with various lures similar to Dick Nites, in mostly silver colors. Also trolled needlefish. The 3rd rod was a long line of leaded line with a true Dick Nite. The long line produced about 4-5 small cutthroat, quite small really, about 8-9" one at 11" Motoboat had a few longdistance releases, and a couple of fish that he felt were over the size of the previous fish. This lake gets NO PRESSURE. There was only one guy removing a kayak at the launch. Bank fishing is not legal on most of the lakes shore (a specific area was legal on the bank) At present low water levels the middle channel of the lake ran about 100-130' deep. The water is has low visibility. There are MANY stumps in the lake. This is evident in the pics. you can see. It also was evident when I ran my DR ball into a stump out of site. Hooked the stump good! bunged up my brake on the DR.boat spun around. Luckily my partner was smart enough to hit reverse. You wouldn't think a Minn Kota going 1.70 mph would do much damage on the hung up ball, but it was a little hairy for a moment.

I am sure that there must be some large trout in this deep undisturbed lake, but they did not show themselves to us. The PUD guard confirmed this also. All fish were caught near the surface. Fish were marked at all levels. The final touch was on the way out of the forest we came across some standing water, beaver pond, etc? It was a beautiful setting with great views into marshy stained water. We could see fish milling about. This was 25' below the forest service road. My son was dying to throw a spinner out there. I told him it was crazy, how would you land a fish? Sure enough.... we tossed the Krocodile out a few times. Fish came from all directions, as viewed from our top of the road perch. Brought in two cutthroat via a very fast reel up through 25' of brush. One of those things that you remember doing as a kid, but still was kind of fun at 47.
The lake has it's own regs. which are not fully disclosed within the WDFW pamphlet. The following link,
http://www.snopud.com/PowerSupply/hydro/jhp/jhprecreation/jhpspada.ashx?p=1501
goes over the specifics. It should be noted that the tributaries to the lake are not open to fishing, roadside pond we fished was pretty clear to not extend beyond it's boundaries.
I hope somebody else gives this place a try. Should also note that the road around the lake has been closed permanently at launch #3. From here it becomes the trailhead to Upper and lower Grieder lakes. The guard dude said this was now an 8 mile hike. He also confirmed 16-18" Golden trout at Grieder lakes.

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