Hey everyone!

[Stacie Kelsey]

Wow, lots of changes to the forum since I was last here! Way to go!

I see some familiar names still. For those I don't recognize, my name is Stacie Kelsey and I work for Washington State Fish and Wildlife in the Inland Fish Program in Region 5. I cover, Clark, Cowlitz, Klickitat, Lewis, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties. I work with trout, warmwater fish and grass carp.

I'll be checking in regularly so if you have any questions for southwest Washington, I would be more than happy to help out. If I don't know the answer, I can find it.

Happy Fishing!

stace

[Shad_Eating_Grin]

Welcome (or welcome back). Good to see you posting here.

[jens]

Wow, lots of changes to the forum since I was last here! Way to go!

I see some familiar names still. For those I don't recognize, my name is Stacie Kelsey and I work for Washington State Fish and Wildlife in the Inland Fish Program in Region 5. I cover, Clark, Cowlitz, Klickitat, Lewis, Skamania and Wahkiakum counties. I work with trout, warmwater fish and grass carp.

I'll be checking in regularly so if you have any questions for southwest Washington, I would be more than happy to help out. If I don't know the answer, I can find it.

Happy Fishing!

stace

Welcome! I fish along hwy 14 quite a bit and found a few secret spots for smallies! W/O checking the regs, but is fishing the Columbia open year round??

[T Dot]

welcome

do you have a list of contact for king county and snohomish county?



thanks

[SPARKY101]

Electrofishing results for southwest area's that will show statistics of weight and size possibly?I looked through the wdfw website but that didnt help to much..You sure are gonna get hit up quick with alot of question i see.You can PM me if need be thanks and i guess welcome back"since i dont recognize the name"

[Stacie Kelsey]

Jens - The regulation for bass fishing along HWY 14 in the Columbia is:

Year round season, No minimum size, daily limit 5, up to 3 over 15" can be retained.

T -Dot - what kind of contacts are you looking for? Trout fishing, warmwater or salmon? Let me know, I will get them for you.

Sparky - what area are you looking for electroshocking data? I will be doing surveys regularly throughout the next several months on all of the southwest Washington lakes, but I should be able to get you some past data.

Ask away with the questions, I am here to help you guys!

stace

[Uncle Wes]

See Stace, I told you that you were missed. For those of you that have not had the pleasure of reading her past posts she is full of information and is always happy to help. It was nice to talk to you Stace the mag is in the mail.

UW

[Stacie Kelsey]

Hey Wes!

Thanks so much for telling me about the updated forum! I like the format.

And yep, here to help any way I can!

I just need Mike to get back my Smiley Moose face for me!

[bpm2000]

i would like to know what lakes any 7+ bass have come out of. pm me instead of posting public.
lol j/k but that would be great info to know

[T Dot]

T -Dot - what kind of contacts are you looking for? Trout fishing, warmwater or salmon? Let me know, I will get them for you.

Ask away with the questions, I am here to help you guys!

stace

hey

i would like to know more information about launching passes for lake goodwin [snohomish county] and lake sammamish [king county]. if i were to purchase a launch pass, could i use it for both lakes?

thanks

[jens]

Jens - The regulation for bass fishing along HWY 14 in the Columbia is:

Year round season, No minimum size, daily limit 5, up to 3 over 15" can be retained.

T -Dot - what kind of contacts are you looking for? Trout fishing, warmwater or salmon? Let me know, I will get them for you.

Sparky - what area are you looking for electroshocking data? I will be doing surveys regularly throughout the next several months on all of the southwest Washington lakes, but I should be able to get you some past data.

Ask away with the questions, I am here to help you guys!

stace

Great Thank you! There really isn't a report on Little Ashes. I tried finding a spot to park and fish, but was frustated in finding one..What can you tell me about fishing that location? I fish from shore so any info will be appreciated and I am interested in smallmouths. Thank you!!

[SPARKY101]

Jens - The regulation for bass fishing along HWY 14 in the Columbia is:

Year round season, No minimum size, daily limit 5, up to 3 over 15" can be retained.

T -Dot - what kind of contacts are you looking for? Trout fishing, warmwater or salmon? Let me know, I will get them for you.

Sparky - what area are you looking for electroshocking data? I will be doing surveys regularly throughout the next several months on all of the southwest Washington lakes, but I should be able to get you some past data.

Ask away with the questions, I am here to help you guys!

stace

Any Thurston countiy lakes would be nice,Lewis county,Cowlitz county....If you can give me direction i will do my leg work just have a hard time narrowing serches down from google or WDFW web to get the results im looking for..As TDOT said you could PM:-"

[Anonymous]

Hey Stacie Kelsey, glad your here. I too have wondered about the recent Fish Counts like SPARKY. I remember being able to find the stats and numbers on the WDFW site. I can't find them now and the link I remember finding them at in the past goes to a USACE .mil site. Not what I remember. Where can I find the info.? And I too would like to know the scheduled times when these counts take place for lakes on the Kitsap Pennisula. Or maybe a contact number I can call for a local officer to talk to. I would be interested in helping out or finding out more information about the whole process. It intrigues me and I have always wanted to know more about what you guys do and find out about our waters.
Thanks in advance.
We all appreciate your willingness to be the ambassador for WDFW on this site.






fishnislife

[SPARKY101]

Hey Stacie Kelsey, glad your here. I too have wondered about the recent Fish Counts like SPARKY. I remember being able to find the stats and numbers on the WDFW site. I can't find them now and the link I remember finding them at in the past goes to a USACE .mil site. Not what I remember. Where can I find the info.? And I too would like to know the scheduled times when these counts take place for lakes on the Kitsap Pennisula. Or maybe a contact number I can call for a local officer to talk to. I would be interested in helping out or finding out more information about the whole process. It intrigues me and I have always wanted to know more about what you guys do and find out about our waters.
Thanks in advance.
We all appreciate your willingness to be the ambassador for WDFW on this site.






fishnislife

Very well put.....I second this!!!

[Stacie Kelsey]

bpm - the closest lake in region 5 might be Silver Lake. Do you have a specific county you are looking for? If so, PM me and I'll do some checking.

T-Dot - I will check into this on Monday for you!

jens - I misunderstood and thought you were asking for fishing in the Columbia. The regulation for Little Ash lake would follow the statewide rules which are:

No. Minimum size. Only BASS less than 12" may be retained, except 1 over 17" may be retained. Daily limite 5. Bass may be caught, retained and released alive from a livewell until a daily limit is in possession.

This statewide reg is different from the Columbia River Reg. Regarding Little Ashes lake. Once you go east past Bridge of the Gods about a mile or so there will be a big turnout on the left side of the road. That area is where people park and walk down to Little Ash lake. There's not been any studies as far as warmwater presence - no way to get the boat in there, but there is likely some there. If you are looking for bass fishing along the HWY 14 lakes you might try further up to Rowland and/or Horsethief (Horsethief closes October 31).

For bass in southwest Washington, Vancouver Lake, Lacamas Lake, Kress Lake, Lake Sacajawea, Silver Lake, Swofford Pond and Mineral Lake are some good bets.

Sparky and Fishin- Here is the link for the warmwater survey reports - is this what you are looking for. I know with the redesign of the website, I can't find stuff anymore either.

WDFW Statewide Warmwater Survey Reports

Let me know if there is any more I can do!

stace

[SPARKY101]

So Stace,Those are the most rescent reports the offer on the site.....Just curious i read quite a few and a few more im going to read,but i never seen anything past 02'.It was nice to see American Lake planted with smallies in 1998 Nov2"Nov2nd is my b-day"and i love fishing American.So in appr.10years those 4.oz-8oz smb have reached weights of upto 5lb and bigger most common weight i caught out of there was 3.5-4 but largest on my boat going 4.11 and also quite a few heavy 4 also.Thanks for your help and if there is anything i can do to help PM me with anything.I would like to know if there is anymore electrofishing plans in the spring future that i could be aware of also...

[Mike Carey]

Hey Wes!

Thanks so much for telling me about the updated forum! I like the format.

And yep, here to help any way I can!

I just need Mike to get back my Smiley Moose face for me!

Hey Stacie welcome back! Smiley Moose face? I'd better tell Aaron to update the Forum again!

[YellowBear]

Welcome back Stacie.
I was wondering, what if anything is being done to rebuild the panfish populations in Washington?
I have heard of a report from the WDFW that concludes that our lakes will not produce large panfish.
I find this hard to believe as we used to have many lakes that held big fish in large numbers.

Thanks for your time.

[fishnislife]

Sparky and Fishin- Here is the link for the warmwater survey reports - is this what you are looking for. I know with the redesign of the website, I can't find stuff anymore either.

WDFW Statewide Warmwater Survey Reports

Let me know if there is any more I can do!

stace

Just what I was looking for. Thank you Stacie. How often do they do fish counts? And when do they take place?




fishnislife

[Stacie Kelsey]

Sparky - I don't know the status on any past survey reports being uploaded to the site. I know that the statewide Warmwater team got cut way back, but I don't know what the list of lakes they have been doing or where they are in the report phase. I'm not really involved with the program since we do our own surveys here in this region. I use a lot of volunteers to help with my surveys, so I'll keep you updated on what I have coming up!

Mike - yeah the old forum had the cutest smiley face with moose antlers that I always used. I miss it!

yellowbear - we are very supportive of warmwater fisheries! Silver Lake and Lacamas Lake down this way have some really nice size yellow perch. Are you interested in a specific groups of lakes? The best thing we can do is to get baseline data for what is out there and then work from there as far as what to do (if anything) to enhance the populations.

fishinlife - most warmwater surveys take place from around April to October. That's been shown to be the best time to survey warmwater fish. My boat is currently in the shop but I'm thinking of possible starting earlier than April. I use a lot of volunteers to assist me and will let people know as soon as I start getting my season going.

Basically we take fish lengths, weights, scales, tag bass that are over 10". Surveys start at dusk and depending on how big the lake is can last 2-4 hours.

Keep asking if you have any questions! Glad to be back here on a more regular basis.

stace