Coldwater Lake at Mt St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens

My wonderful, older sister Patti agreed to sit Casey for a weekend. It gives us a great gift but also Casey gets to cultivate his relationship with Patti, Vick and Hannah and her beau, Travis Waldmer. We dropped Casey off at her place and stayed long enough to have some of Vick's amazing BBQ chicken for dinner! Then we hit the road and drove the truck down to Kelso, where we stayed at the Red Lion.

Looking Good, the weather I mean!

We woke to FANTASTIC weather and had breakfast at the local Denny's before hitting the road for the drive to Coldwater Lake. The drive takes only 60 minutes but it seems like all day as you climb slowly up into the mountains and eventually into the blast zone and finally arrive at Mt St. Helens National Park and then the boat launch to Coldwater Lake.

The Launch

Coldwater Lake is one of our all-time favorite places to fish. Formed during the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption, this gigantic lake is chronically under-fished and yields big, wild trout. That's right, the trout there are WILD. Their ancestors came down out of protected little pockets of water and repopulated the lake. And the descendants live their lives, spawn and repopulate the lake every year.

Hey look who can catch fish too

The lake is so big (1000 acres? 3 miles long?) that the fish get spread out, often making for slow fishing, or at least, infrequent action. On a personal note: I was prepared to be out-fished and I was okay with that (wink)! I picked up the first nice fish shortly before lunch and then the second soon after. We had sighted minnows in the shallows so I figured that there would be trout waiting just in the deeper water to pick them off. And I was right, at least in the morning. Both of my fish were 15".

Waterfalls

In the afternoon, Amy started picking up fish, too, using the same techniques. But things became REALLY fun when we started encountering the waterfalls. Every quarter mile or so, we'd find a new waterfall draining into the lake. The current that it created in the still water made the fish start acting like it was a river. We could see large trout picking off bugs in the moving water, so we'd anchor the boat and fish each falls as if they were little rivers. It was AWESOME.

Such a great day

Eventually we ended up at the far end of the lake. It had taken us five hours to get there its so far away! A full-on RIVER feeds into the far side creating a delta and broad shallow basin where lots of fish feed on terrestrials and other bugs in the water. We switched our lines to dry lines and each caught some nice, nice fish on dry flies. I fished the only Elk Hair Caddis from my box. I cast to a rising fish, watched him swirl under the fly, turn and take it. It was so sweet. He also was 15" (according to that new net that Amy got me for Christmas).

Amy with a Trout

Amy fished a beetle pattern, hoping to duplicate the experience of catching that giant fish from last year. She didn't get the giant, but she did catch a 16" fish on her beetle. At 4:00pm we decided to head back across the lake and I started steaming in that direction. Even going straight back it took us 3 hours to get to the truck!

The amazing Heathman Lodge

I slept in the truck all the way back to I-5 I was so tired. We had a celebratory dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then stayed the night at the Wonderful Heathman Lodge in Vancouver. I'm telling you, that place is FOUR STAR for a TWO STAR price. Sunday it rained like crazy, so we cancelled any fishing plans and went shopping instead. Like tourists. It was a great little trip. Here's to the next one!

Coldwater Lake

Typical Coldwater Lake Resident

My wonderful sister Patty had Casey for the weekend so Amy and I could enjoy a whole weekend of Marital Harmony Fishing. As my sister lives in Federal Way, I chose SW Washington as our destination.

One of my favorite spots anywhere is Coldwater Lake at the foot of the Mount St. Helens volcano. The lake is inside the park, just before the Johnston Ridge Observatory. It is an 800 acre lake created when the 1980 eruption dammed the Coldwater Creek valley. The creek filled the valley and thus Coldwater Lake was born. Cutthroat and Rainbow fry moved into the lake where their descendants live today.

The Lake is a long drive from Snoqualmie -- about 4 hours. We arrived at the park around 3pm. I had stupidly left my NW Forest Pass in the other car so we had to go to the Johnston Ridge Observatory/Gift Shop to get a new pass. The guy at the Ridge said the lake was turning over, visibility was nil and that fishing had been very slow from what he'd heard.

There were a few boats coming out of the lake. The discouraged anglers reported not even any nibbles since morning. Flush with optimism even in the face of discouraging news, we launched into a light breeze. I stuck a 15" fish within a few minutes and then we had to return to the launch so I could get my hat which I'd forgotten in the Truck. One of the skunked boaters was still packing up and he was annoyed about us getting into fish right away.

The sun beat down REALLY hot for hours. We were able to pick up a half-dozen between the two of us out in the very middle of the lake trolling or stripping streamers. The largest of these very silver fish was about 17" -- there's a picture of him with Amy in the sun.

In the evening hours we found ourselves at "the point" about halfway across the lake. There are coves on either side of the point and a little inlet there, too. There were black beetles and flying ants struggling at the surface and fish were starting to take them.

I put a small black beetle on Amy's pink rod and handed it to her. We sighted a fish coming toward us and she made a perfect cast to it. It boiled on her fly and then thrashed and thrashed. She brought it to the boat -- it was that beautiful fish you see in the picture. We didn't tape it but its probably in the 21-23" range. Biggest fish either of us had seen in a while! I don't think the picture does it justice.

Taken on a #14 Beetle Pattern

That Pink Rod sure catches big fish. I'm thinking I should start fishing with it. Just kidding.

For the next hour we chased similar fish swirling on beetles. I lost two beetle patterns in fish but wasn't able to get them to the boat. That's okay -- it was great fishing!

That night we stayed at the lovely Heathman Lodge in downtown Vancouver, WA. Imagine a giant log cabin with a four star restaurant inside. Or imagine the interior of The Great Wolf Lodge but for adults. The room was impeccable. In the morning I swam some laps in the pool and cooked myself in the hot tub. Then breakfast at the restaurant was phenomenal: Crab Cakes and Salmon Benedict. Mmmm. Stay there if you can next time you are in the area.