Three Jefferson County lakes have been planted with prizes as part of the annual statewide fishing derby that begins Saturday, the traditional opener to the lowland lake fishing season.
Lake Leland, Tarboo Lake and Sandy Shore all received prize plants out of the derby’s more than 800 prizes worth up to $37,000.
The derby will run through Oct. 31.
Lowland lakes around the state have been stocked in advance for Saturday, with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife estimating that more than 16 million trout and kokanee were planted across the state in the past year.
Lake Leland’s most recent fish plant was in January, just 147 cutthroat, but since late September, 2,400 rainbows have been planted in the lake along with 197 cutthroat. And that’s on top of a 7,000 rainbow plant last April, so there should be plenty of fish in the lake.
Whether those fish are biting, however, remains to be seen.
“I just checked the water temperature at Lake Leland and it is 41 degrees at the pier,” Quilcene’s Ward Norden said in an email Tuesday. “That is 7 to 8 degrees below normal for this late in April and a little too cool for the trout to be active, even if it had received its spring plant.
“The lake is certainly too cool for the bass to be very active, but the crappie have started getting active. I have already heard of a couple anglers catching small strings of decent-sized crappie on nightcrawler bait. A decent-sized crappie is mighty fine eating in my opinion.”
Tarboo Lake received 1,800 smaller rainbows on April 4.
Sandy Shore was planted with 2,244 smaller rainbows on Tuesday. The lake remains accessible to day use, unlike some other nearby lakes.
“Unlike Ludlow and Horseshoe lakes, Sandy Shore remains accessible for day-use only,” Norden said. “The last quarter mile of dirt road leading to Sandy Shore is quite rough and a couple of the large potholes are almost deep enough to drown in, so drivers should take care.”
Anderson Lake, the toxic cyanobacteria-plagued lake near Chimacum, was observed by Jefferson County Environmental Health on Monday. A moderate algae bloom was noted and toxins are present in lake water, but at a low level.
Even with relatively benign conditions, avoid eating any fish caught in Anderson Lake, but catch and release is always an option.
The Carrie Blake Park Pond is the only water body to get a plant of fish in Clallam County with 199 larger rainbows planted on April 1 and 15, and 92 smaller rainbow planted April 15.
Kids ages 14 and younger can fish the pond for free. No adults are allowed to fish.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at mcarman@ peninsuladailynews.com.
