Fishing wraps up for many key lakes and streams around the state on Monday, Oct. 31. Options change in saltwater venus as well.
But all is not lost for hardy Northwest fishing souls.
There are many options for those seeking off-season angling stimulation or seafood table fare.
Here are some suggestions:
LAKES STAYING OPEN
Though a number of trout-stocked lakes in Northwest Washington close for the winter at the end of October, many remain available for off-season angling.
Anglers able to rise above - or ignore - the cold and wet are likely to have these waters all to themselves.
It's typical for fish of all persuasions to become sedentary from late fall to early spring, moving to the weedy margins of shallow lakes or descending to cover in deeper lakes to wait out winter.
Needing less nourishment, trout rove less and even become as territorial as some warm-water species.
Anglers are presented with the challenge of finding ways to entice these sluggish would-be foes to strike. Partaking of summer methods such as surface trolling are likely to result only in shutouts.
Try out some new tactics in these waters:
? Lake Samish, south of Bellingham, is somewhat unique in its combination of deep and shallow water habitats.
It therefore provides niches for an array of fish from coho salmon, coastal cutthroat trout and kokanee (a landlocked strain of sockeye) to largemouth bass, brown bullheads (a catfish) and perch.
The only nudge its fish populations currently get is an annual injection of kokanee fry to augment some natural tributary production.
The largemouth bass, if fished in the off-season, are found in deeper off-shore structure, as are the coastal cutthroat.
? Lake Terrell, west of Ferndale, has always been noteworthy for its largemouth bass and perhaps less so for its stocked channel catfish as well as indigenous perch and sunfish populations.
But it also gets an annual helping of coastal cutthroat trout fry and a dose of triploid rainbows.
While duck and goose hunters, by rule, have exclusive usage of boats from September through the end of January, recent replacement of the old fishing pier with a new stable one offers a decent platform for anglers during the waterfowl hunt. The new dock is fully accessible and has its own parking area.
When February rolls around, especially if the winter hasn't been too chilly, action for the cutthroat trout begins to perk up.
? Squalicum Lake, east of Bellingham, is the main dedicated fly-fishing venue in Whatcom County. Together with its indigenous finny denizens, cutthroat trout, off-season anglers occasionally will encounter stocked triploid rainbow trout and perhaps even a few specimens of tiger trout.
Angling is restricted to the use of legally defined fly fishing terminal tackle and motors are banned. The access is a short up and down walk-in from parking on State Route 542 at Y Road.
? Fazon Lake, though not legally fishable by boat during the waterfowl hunting season, does come available beginning Sunday, Jan. 15. Bluegill are the predominant fish species here, but laudable largemouth bass and channel catfish are present.
The only trout type currently maintained are browns.
Though tiger muskies were one introduced as a top predator control for the bluegill, they have faded from the scene.
Unfortunately, Fazon has no shore access other than the sliver of publicly owned (WDFW) land on which the boat launch is located, so pursuit of fish is done exclusively afloat and thus must be postponed until the hunt is over.
? Big Lake, located east of Mount Vernon, is a long, shallow trough of a lake where the weed-lined shores have given way to in significant part to finger piers and floating docks, still decent holding cover for largemouth bass.
A minimum size of 9 inches governs the taking of Big's noteworthy crop of crappie.
Free to come and go as they please are wild coho salmon and coastal cutthroat trout, the adult specimens of which are moving in to spawn now.
A twin ramp public launch is located off West Big Lake Boulevard.
? Lake Campbell, south of Anacortes on Fidalgo Island, is a largemouth bass lake of some renown, and like Big Lake, it too has some crappie of repute.
Look for its shallow, warmer confines to yield cutthroat trout during the winter and occasionally a few hefty triploid rainbow.
A solid public launch is located on Campbell Lake.
? Pass Lake, also on Fidalgo Island, is considered the premier year-round fly fishing lake in Northwest Washington.
It's fishing is governed by catch and release, fly-tackle only and no motors rules, and it yields a variety of trout including brown and triploid rainbows.
A convenient access is located at State Route 20 and Rosario Road at Deception Pass State Park.
? Gorge and Diablo lakes are often overlooked in the winter perhaps because of the forbidding snow-covered slopes that surround both Seattle City Light upper Skagit Valley reservoirs.
But they each currently receive annual inputs of rainbow trout of the vaunted Ross Lake strain and are open to fishing year-round.
Located just off the all-winter maintained section of the North Cascades Highway, the access for Gorge is at the head (upper) end of the lake, while always accessible launch for Diablo Lake is on the Thunder Creek arm off State Route 20 at Colonial Creek.
SALMON AND STEELHEAD
Along with the Nooksack River's main stem and the lower reaches of its three forks, the big rivers entering Puget Sound are available for the next three months early on for salmon and later hatchery steelhead.
Samish River is open from its mouth upstream to Interstate 5 for salmon until the end of November, and the reaches from I-5 upstream are available, for now, up to Hickson Bridge for catch and release game fish angling (cutthroat and steelhead).
Skagit River is open both for salmon and hatchery steelhead from its mouth upstream to the Cascade River for both game fish and salmon until the end of December, after which game fish angling (either catch and keep for hatchery steelhead and selected trout or catch and release of all trout) continues variously to Feb. 15 or April 30. The Sauk and lower Cascade rivers also are open.
Stillaguamish River is open both for selected salmon and hatchery steelhead from its mouth upstream to its forks at Arlington. The two forks also host game fish angling later into the winter.
All wild steelhead must be released in these waters, and some salmon species may be on the no-keep list as well.
BLACKMOUTHING
Marine Area 7 salmon fishing halts for the month of November, but reopens Dec. 1 for the winter salmon season under a two chinook (minimum size 22-inches) per day bag limit.
Hardcore Whatcom salmon fishers do have the choice of trailering or cruising to marine areas 8-1, 8-2 and 9 for November hook and line opportunities.
During the Marine Area 7 November hiatus, cabezon are the sole noteworthy bottom fish species that may be kept by anglers, but that permission stops when salmon fishing resumes as the winter blackmouth fishery.
Doug Huddle, the Bellingham Herald's outdoors correspondent, has, since 1983, written a weekly fishing and hunting column that appears Fridays. Read his blog and contact him at http://pblogs.bellinghamherald.com/outdoors/.
