Lake Roesiger is located about 20 minutes north of the town of Monroe. It is a decent sized like, which is basically two lakes connected by a relatively thin and shallow channel. There is a WDFW boat launch located on the south end, off the smaller of the two lakes. The launch has very limited parking and room to maneuver.
We’ve Arrived
My friend and I arrived at the lake about 7am on a overcast day. We were greeted by an empty lot and misting raindrops. Due to the limited space in the launch I had to back the boat into the launch area from the street until I reached the ramp. A few minutes later we had our rain gear on and the boat in the water.
I was surprised the parking lot was empty, but I wasn’t complaining. There is probably room for 5 rigs to park – assuming everyone does a good job and doesn’t waste space. There is a small area nearby which could be used for overflow parking, but it probably only could hold 3 or 4 rigs. I can imagine on a nice weekend day that this fills up fast.
Lines In The Water
Once we were out on the water I noticed some occasional scattered rises, which looked to mostly be trout. On the finder I was seeing fish 30 to 40 feet down, in the deeper section of that first lake. We believed the fish near the surface were trout, and the ones deeper were kokanee.
So we each long lined one rod for trout, and put another on the downrigger deep for kokanee. We then slowly trolled around the edges and occasionally through the middle.
There was another boat out there working the water. Given the lack of other rigs in the parking lot, we assumed this was someone who keeps their boat moored on the lake. Over the morning we saw about five other boats show up. Everyone seemed to at least be getting the occasional fish.
Our long lines were getting decent action, landing us several rainbow trout. For the most part they looked like recent stocked fish.
Unfortunately, our kokanee rods never wiggled. So eventually we gave up on them and switched them over for trout. We still used the downriggers, but didn’t go as deep.
For the most part we would release the fish right next to the boat, and not even net it. However, one fish just slammed my lure and put up a decent fight. I told my buddy to grab the net. It was a nice 17-inch rainbow, which we released after a quick picture.
The majority of the fish put up a good fight, and jumps were common. We also saw some osprey and bald eagles flying around looking for fish.
For me the most productive lure was a Carey Special fly, with a size 3 gold Colorado spinner blade in front of it. Our other stillwater fly setups did well also. We did try some other lures like Flatfish and Rooster Tail spinner, but those didn’t get as many hits.
We ended the morning with about two dozen fish to the boat – all rainbow trout.
Exploring
Eventually we decided to give the larger lake a try. The connecting channel got as shallow as 2 feet deep, even though we stuck to the middle of it. The whole area is a no wake zone, so it took forever to get through it. Towards the end it really shallows up and you’ll see four big buoys sticking out of the water. You want to stay between the buoys or you will get into some very very shallow water.
In the larger lake we started off for trout, and even though we had a few bites we didn’t get anything to the boat.
I also noticed some schools of perch on the bottom in about 20 feet of water. We didn’t try to fish for them, but maybe we’ll come back sometime and see if we can find those schools again.
When we reached the deeper section of the lake, where it gets about 100 feet deep, I started seeing fish from 40 to 60 feet deep. I believe these were kokanee and so I put the kokanee gear back on and lowered it down. Time was short, however, and I didn’t get any bites in the time we worked that area.
Have You Fished There?
Have you fished this lake? Please share a report. If you have advice for anyone hitting this lake, then please share that too.
For information on how to catch more trout, please check out the trout page.
