I've been fishing Palmer Lake for bass this last week, and the action was much slower than I experienced at Banks Lake. Using a crawdad crankbait along the rocky shorelines, I caught more rainbow trout than smallmouth bass. I averaged only two or three smallmouth a day, the best (for 5 days of fishing) 16 1/2 inches but the rest all under 12 inches. The big one was taken on a nightcrawler rig, and the bass seemed to respond to worms better than artificials, while I continued to take trout and even a kokanee on plugs. There was a fair number of other fishermen on the lake, most of whom were limiting on kokanee, although some bass fishermen are showing up now, too. Although this lake is a long way from Seattle, where I live, it attracts plenty of more local anglers, so if you decide to make a long drive to get here, you almost certainly won't have the lake to yourself. The water level is very high -- 12 feet above normal -- so the normal shoreline structure and reed beds are all submerged, as is the WDFW boat ramp at the south end, were launching is difficult because you have to wade out a long way to get your boat on and off the trailer. For this reason, many people preferred to use the gravel ramp at the DNR campsite at the northeast corner, but you need 4-wheel-drive here because your rear wheels will simply spin and dig deeper into the loose gravel of the bank. The trick is to have your front wheels on firm ground, and have power to those wheels. With 4WD, people had no problem launching Lunds and larger boats here. Most pulled their boats out every night because the prevailing wind comes from the other end of the lake, and the shoreline at the DNR site is rocky, so the waves can beat boats against the rocks if they're left tied up here. Speaking of wind, it seems to blow every which way at this lake; apparently it bounces off the surrounding hills and eddies around. The weather was downright weird last week -- rain, rain, rain ... even when the sun was beating down, it rained! Every passing cloud dumped a load of rain on the lake and campground, it seemed. Like all DNR campgrounds, staying here is free (limited to 14 nights), and toilets and fire pits are provided, but there is no electricity or drinking water and you must pack out your trash.

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