Nt Rainier Park fishing

[Jim Mighell]

Since I regularly look at survey data on Lakes in Washington , I again have to report :

All lakes in MRPark along the first trail to north on the Eastside road to Sunrise, are now barren, due to a full-on fish removal program by the PARK in the late 90’s – All of those lakes did provide good fishing in the PARK prior to the removal program = the best lake for fishing was Hidden lake, a lake mentioned in Dave Shorett’s book, as a good place to take children to learn how to fish – unfortunately, the Park Service doesn’t care about that sort of thing, only that any non-native fish be removed and replaced with natives, thus destroying all the work by the Mather Brothers, who were instrumental in preserving the Park originally. They, I believe, arranged for the various strains of Cutthroat from the Midwest, that in some cases are facing challenges to survival – would have been nice to preserve those strains that were in MRP for possible reestablishment of endangered species.

Anyway, don’t expect to find any fish in Hidden, Palisade, Harry, Dick, Tom, or Clover lakes, and they have Bear Park on the list for poison also. Virtually every other Mt Rainier Park lake that had MBS (Montana Blackspot Cutthroat ) have also been poisoned and now have no fish. Almost all of those lake’s fish posed no threat to streams in their drainage. THOSE DRAINING TO THE COWLITZ would supply fish to that river which has been planted with even Brown Trout in this era, The Nisqually is dammed before water is released downstream, and supports Eastern Brook along its entire length. The White River is also fed by many non-native strains of trout, including Eastern Brook.

BS!!!!!!!

[Jeff Norman]

Hi Jim,
I hiked from Sunrise Point down past Sunrise Lake, Clover, Hidden, TDH and Upper Palisades in September, with a group of Mountaineers. I had great memories of fishing upper Palisades in the early 80’s with Dave Davenport. We packed in rafts and had a lot of action. I did bring a pack rod on my more recent trip, and cast a few times on our lunch break, to no avail. On our way out, we happened to meet some of the MORA aquatics team, who were returning from an overnight in Bear Park. They confirmed that none of the lakes we visited held fish anymore.
Jeff Norman
425-351-0799

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