Member Post
Fishing the Alpine Lakes
Jeff Norman, OFFC President
July 20, 2025
Much of this information is from personal experience, as a long-time alpine lakes fisher. What I write is also greatly enhanced by a Hi-Lakers ZOOM in 2020, featuring Brian Curtis, the foremost expert on alpine lakes fishing in Washington and elsewhere. In addition, OFFC and Hi-Lakers member Kris Harken gave as follow-up presentation in 2021.
These files are stored on Vimeo and are available to the public. Google Vimeo Hi-Lakers and you will find Brian’s talk in five parts, as well as Kris Harken’s and others, including Entomologist Tim Nightengale and Steve Foisie.
It’s mid-summer, nearly all but the highest trails are snow-free, and many of our alpine lakes have hungry trout cruising for food and offer some great fishing opportunities. According to alpine lake expert Brian Curtis, there are nearly 44,000 lakes and ponds in Washington State. 8,500 are alpine lakes ( 2500 ft.+ in Western WA and 3500 ft+ in Eastern WA) and 1,800 are known to have fish. You may be able to fish into October, before the big rains and snowfall.
Scarcely any alpine lakes had native populations of fish before settlement. Packwood Lake is one of those exceptions. Neary all of the remaining lakes have been stocked by people – carried in by horse, mule and backpack. Some WDFW stocking records go back to the 1920’s. There was a time when WDFW stocked some lakes by airplane, but one can imagine that “bombing” a lake with fry could be less than precise, with more than a few landing in the rockfall surrounding the lake.
In 1933, the Washington Trail Blazers Club was formed. The Trail Blazers have been stocking alpine lakes in cooperation with WDFW for over 90 years. Old video footage shows them with large tin dairy jugs strapped to Trapper Nelson wood frame packs. In contemporary times, fry are placed in collapsible five-gallon jugs with water and pure oxygen. Wrapped in insulation, the fish can survive for hours while being hiked to the remote lakes.
In 1958, the Washington Hi-Lakers Club was established. Its mission is to provide survey data to WDFW. Hi-Lakers survey alpine lakes every year. WDFW may ask for specific lakes to be surveyed, but generally all the lakes visited by members are surveyed. A card is filled out, then entered online, and aggregate data is conveyed to WDFW. This is very valuable information for WDFW and helps inform their future stocking decisions. There are only six WDFW biologists for all of the alpine lakes, so partnership with volunteer groups is essential.
Brian Curtis opines that there are more variety of Salmonids and Char within 75 miles of a major metropolitan area (King County) than any other location in the USA. In the alpine lakes, you will find Mt. Whitney Rainbow, Coastal Cutthroat (Western Washington) and West Slope Cutts (Eastern Washington), Eastern Brook Trout (Southern Cascades), Yellowstone Cutts (AKA Montana Blackspot), Lake Trout/Mackinaw, Brown Trout, Tiger Trout (a hybrid between Brown and Brook Trout), California Golden Trout, and in one or two very remote lakes, Grayling).
Alpine Trout feed on Copepods, Chironomids, Beetles, Spiders, Scuds, Caddis, Mosquitos, Black Ants, Mice, Daphnia and Dragon Flies. The higher the elevation, the less food is available, and the fish grow slower but may also live longer.
The best time for alpine lake fishing is in the evening. Search for shaded areas, Inlets, Outlets, Shallows and Drop-Offs. Structure in lakes hold fish, as in streams. Water near overhanging brush from lakeside cliffs should be targeted. Keep moving, whether fishing from shore or from a raft or tube. A slight chop on the water may be to your advantage.
Fly-fishing alpine lakes presents challenges, mainly because of heavy vegetation. Unless you’re above the tree line, there’s usually no room for back-casting. Being skilled with the roll cast is a big advantage. Often, people fly-fish from ultralight rafts or tubes, either trolling or casting back to shore. Brian and his father, Walt, built the iconic ultralight raft, the Curtis Raft, about 1980. It is inflated by using the stuff sack as a bellows and ways about 2 pounds. Floating paddles were fashioned from Boeing surplus material.
A 6-piece fly rod can be carried in a short tube and fits nicely in a backpack. Brian fishes with a 5-weight rod and also uses it with spin gear. I have a 4-weight, 6-piece Cabela’s rod and an ultralight spin rod that I built years ago. Tippets are usually 4X-6X. Brian’s favorite flies are the Elk Hair Caddis, Royal Coachman, Elenbaas Ant, Foam Hopper, Carey Special, Olive Willy, Scud and the Hare’s Ear. Spin fishers can still use flies, with a bubble. Brian recommends a red F7 Flatfish, Jake’s Spin-a-Lure, the Red & White Daredevil, and the Acme Kamlooper.
Kris Harken’s Intermediate Alpine Lake Tactics is also very informative. He describes four lake depth zones:
• Zone 1: 0-18”
• Zone 2: 1.5 ft-6 ft
• Zone 3: 6 ft-10 ft
• Zone 4: Deep
Kris notes that Alpine Trout may hang out in zones 3&4, but feed in zones 1&2.
Kris stresses the importance of being a “student of the lake” – using one’s powers of observation, including weather and barometer data, to give you clues where the fish may lie. He likes suggestive flies, such as the Wooly Bugger, and shows before and after images of a Bugger that got hammered all day long and was a bit worse for wear.
Kris is a very confident fisher, and urges you to be as well – try different tactics, flies, times of day, varying depths, etc.
There have been lessons learned about managing the stocking of alpine lakes. National Parks around the nation stocked lakes for decades. Leaving parks in a “pristine” state versus adding fish to previously fishless lakes led to a change in policy. Currently, the North Cascades National Park is the only Park in the nation that allows fish stocking, and it is for just a select few lakes, with close monitoring.
Westslope Cutthroat and Eastern Brook Trout can spawn in very marginal conditions. As a result, they tend to overpopulate lakes. You may find fish with very large heads in proportion to their body length and girth. They may have lived several years, accounting for the large head, but there’s too much competition for food to grow to the proper proportions. WDFW even has a tab on its website for Overstocked Lakes. If you encounter such a lake, please plan for a fish fry or take some home for garden fertilizer.
Mount Rainier NP has a long stocking history. Currently, all fish in lakes are considered non-native. You can fish year-round and there is no possession limit. They would like all the lakes to become fishless. All Brook Trout in streams and rivers are considered non-native and may be kept but know the difference between a Brook Trout and a Bull Trout, which is listed as endangered. Also, ESA-listed Salmon swim all the way into the Park, so rivers and streams may have closures and openings.
Some alpine amphibians are on the endangered species list. A concern is that as the climate warms, wetlands near alpine lakes may dry up, leaving amphibians to migrate to the lakes. If there is a large population of trout, the amphibians are subject to predation. But research shows that limiting the number of fish stocked markedly increases the survival rates for amphibians.
You will encounter a wide range of Trout size in alpine lakes. If you fish a lake next to a popular trail, you’ll likely encounter small fish planted in the last couple of years. But if you follow Brian Curtis’s advice, look for the blue dots on maps. You might find other lakes 30 minutes off trail that are much less visited, with correspondingly larger fish. Other remote lakes can be exceedingly challenging, involving long slogs, steep terrain, and route-finding skills.
In the alpine lakes, how big are the biggest fish? My personal best was a 24-inch Rainbow from a lake in Mt. Rainier NP. Every year, we catalog fish in the 4-7 pound range. As for the Hi-Laker record? One of the members caught/released a 37-inch Lake Trout. 25 inch girth. Size 12 Wooly Bugger, 4X tippet, trolling in an ultralight raft.
There are several OFFC members who have been members of the Trail Blazers and/or Hi-Lakers. I joined both clubs in the 1980’s. I continued my membership with the Hi-Lakers to this day. I served as Treasurer and Vice-President with the Trail Blazers. I have served as Secretary, VP and President of the Hi-Lakers. Terry Dix has been the VP and President of the Trail Blazers and is a Hi-Lakers member. Jim Welch and Kris Harken are or have been members of the Hi-Lakers, as have a few other OFFC members.
Those Alpine Lakes are cool oases in the summer. Expand your horizons, find some blue dots on a topo map, and go explore! Tight Lines!
Jeff Norman with an ultralight raft designed/built by Toni Carlstrom, CE
Alpine Trout
An alpine lake in early fall colors
