Fished Blue lake and Park Lake on 15 May.

We drove by the lake first watching and timing the fishermen. Stopped at one launch and counted 15 tubes and boats for a total of 25 fishermen. We watched them for 5 minutes for a total of 25 * 5 = 125 or 2 hours of total fishing minutes.

No one caught a thing. We saw one fish on a stringer that was 9".

The three of us launched anyway. Nada. Zilch. Except a few perch.

I would suggest to the readers here that resort owners and those who represent businesses in the area are posting false reports on this forum to try and get you to visit the area. Give it a shot, but don't buy anything from the stores, resorts or other businesses until this false reporting stops.

(Editor's note: independant reports recieved would suggest otherwise, but as always reports should be taken with a grain of salt. The resorts that post and advertise on this site allow us to stay on the web. I encourage everyone to support the people that support us, or we we won't have this forum at all. Mike, Editor)

I am also really upset at the Fish and Wildlife for not stocking eastern Washington Lakes. Corral, Heart and other lakes in the potholes region essentially went without any stocking for the fourth year in a row. Or at least so minimal that it is not worth fishing. Most of the lakes now have scrap fish in them and they have not been rehab on their former schedules of years ago. Seems the catch and release lakes are the only ones that are recieving any real effort of stocking to keep the elite and more financially/politically capable fly fishing sector happy. But the rest, with the exception of a few lakes near the I-90 corridor are going dry. A very minimum effort may have been attempted but the fisheries have essentially collapsed in eastern washington. License is not worth the money unless you are after spiney rays which self-populate. And with Blue and Park turning out nothing but one week of sub-par fishing opportunity, it is apparent the budgeting issue with the state is being taken out on stocking of trout in our lakes.

One fisher told me the Blue and Park were fished out. I don't believe that for a moment. I used to fish Bay Lake in the hood canal region for many years growing up in Tacoma. That lake has far more pressure per acre and we caught limits 4 and 5 weeks after opener. On Saturday, there clearly was not nearly that many fishermen on the Blue and Park. Nothing like Bay Lake. We never even saw a trout jump. My guess is the Fish and Wildlife stocked a minimum number of fish near the boat ramps to sedate the weekenders but not nearly enough fish to stock the lake to support a real trout fishery.

I welcome comments from the F&W but it is clear to me after fishing 40 years in eastern washington that the stocking of trout is being dramatically effected by the states budgetary problems. Rather than fix the problems in the staffing and contracting by the state agencies, they are taking the cheap way out by greatly reducing the stocking and fisheries in eastern washington. Folks need to start complaining if they want to see the rehab and trout fisheries re-instated in our great lakes of eastern washington. Right now, the fishing in eastern washington is a joke.

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