I first dunked a worm in Lake Goodwin in about 1949, having ridden north with my family from our Seattle home. The ride, in our ponderous, black, four-door, 1947 Dodge sedan was a long and tiring one, up old Highway 99, through Everett, Marysville, and Kruse Junction, to the landmark tavern in Smokey Point (all there was in Smokey Point at that time), then west past the Lakewood Store to our summer vacation destination – a small resort on the north end of the lake.
Almost all the little summer cabins which ringed the lake in those days are gone now, replaced by expensive residences. It is, however, just as pleasant and attractive a body of water today as it was then, and I’m reasonably certain that the fishing is superior now to what it was in those halcyon summer days after World War II.
All these nostalgic thoughts went through my mind last month as Jim Brauch gave me the “grand tour” of his favorite trout lake. Brauch, a retired Everett Police Department detective, avid angler, conservationist and past president of the Everett Steelhead and Salmon Club, fishes Goodwin regularly and probably knows as much about the trout fishery there as anyone in the area.
Goodwin is arguably the best single year-round freshwater fishery in the county, particularly for anglers interested in trophy-size trout and bass. It’s big enough to withstand a lot of pressure, it’s close to home, it has good public access through a state and a county park and it puts out rainbow each year to 9 pounds, cutthroat to 5 or 6 pounds, largemouth to 8 or 9 pounds, and smallmouth in the 6-pound range. All that plus good numbers of pansize trout and a pretty fair summer perch fishery, and it makes it worthwhile to brave the skiers and personal watercraft.
Here’s a rundown on how to fish Goodwin; Jim Brauch on trout, and retired state Fish and Wildlife Department biologist Curt Kraemer of Marysville on bass. Kraemer took a 10-pound largemouth out of Goodwin several years ago, not far under the 11-plus-pound state record from Banks Lake.
Trout: Goodwin is not a typical opening-day trout lake, according to Brauch. It fishes well year-round, but probably best in late spring, summer and fall, and a typical day’s action in, say, June or September should net a limit or near-limit of rainbow in the 10- to 13-inch range, and at least one or two fish going 16 or 17 inches to 5 or 6 pounds.
Since shoreline access is limited, the fishery is primarily a boat show, with a good ramp available at Wenberg State Park on the lake’s east side. Some bank fishing can be had at the tip of the state park point, north of the swimming beach.
Most of the north half of the lake is only 6 to 12 feet deep or so, holding trout during the colder months, but Brauch concentrates his fishing on the lake’s south half. The best bait fishing is found in spring, early summer and fall, along the edges of a shelf which drops off from 10- or 12-foot water to 28 feet or so, along portions of the south half of the lake (a good sounder helps find that structure), and in the deeper holes (roughly 35 to 38 feet deep) as water warms in the summer months.
* There’s a deep hole just off the state park point.
* There’s a popular hole 100 yards offshore and just south of the state park launch ramp.
* There’s a good shelf halfway between the ramp hole and the lake’s south end.
* There’s a hole off “the hedges,” a landmark row of three hedges on the lake’s southwest corner.
* There’s a nice shelf just north of the hedges.
Brauch rigs for bait fishing with an ultra-light spinning rod and reel, 4-pound test line, a swivel, and an egg-shaped slip sinker above the swivel. His leader is 2- or 3-pound test, and 18 inches long. A No. 10 red Gamakatsu egg hook is baited with a combination Power Egg and pea-sized piece of Power Bait, different colors and different scents, for contrast, one pushed up over the hook eye. Simply cast out, let it hit bottom, then leave slack in your line. When the line goes taut, hit him.
If Power Baiting the shelf dropoffs during late spring, early summer and fall, or the deeper holes during the heat of summer doesn’t do it for you, you may have to troll to find the schools of trout which roam the south half of the lake. The bottom of the lake is pretty much flat and featureless at 26 to 35 feet deep, so it’s simply a matter of covering a lot of water and finding a school that wants to play.
Brauch likes three trolling paths:
* One runs from the small bay south of the launch northwestward, past the state park, across the mouth of the bay north of the park, and on out to the tip of the peninsula, generally 50 or 60 yards offshore.
* A second runs up the southeast corner of the lake, from the south end to about halfway to the state park.
* The third is a direct line from the boat launch southwestward across the lake to the hedges (only if boat traffic is light).
The month of May is a good time to troll, after the state makes its spring plants, and so are summer mornings and evenings, when you can see trout action on the surface. Use a fly on monofilament with only a light split shot, or a small Dick Nite spoon or Wedding Ring spinner, with enough weight to get down 10 or 12 feet. Tip the spinner with a piece of Power Bait or a small piece of worm, or run a fly 6 inches behind the spinner. Good flies, in about size 8, include green or black woolly bugger, spruce flies, yellow or green carey specials, six packs, or purple or black egg-sucking leech.
If using spin gear, vary your sinker weight to start shallow and gradually go deeper, with 2 to 3 feet of leader behind a swivel. Trolling flies with standard fly tackle is also a productive system, using a floater with medium-heavy sink tip, and lots of leader, so you’re down about 2 or 3 feet.
Bass: Kraemer said the lake was planted with smallmouth in 1984 and that the smallies now outnumber largemouth. While the 10- to 20-foot shelves, gravel bars, and a few boulder fields, particularly on the north end, offer smallmouth structure, largemouth are fished almost entirely under and around docks and piers.
Fish smallmouth, Kraemer said, by finding what structure there is in the lake, concentrating at 10 to 30 feet most of the year, using small plastics or drop-shotting. Fish largemouth with small plastics, 4-inch worms, tube jigs, grubs, and plastic jerk baits, along and under the docks. In the evenings, buzz baits on the surface, or popper-type plugs can be effective. Good colors generally include pumpkinseed, watermelon, and other, more neutral shades.
“All that being said,” Kraemer noted, “most of my really big fish over the years have been caught on jig and pig – a quarter-ounce or half-ounce jig head with a brown or black strip of pork.”
Best time for larger numbers of bass, both smallmouth and largemouth, is mid-summer through about mid-September, Kraemer said, but you’ll take a lot of dinks. For larger fish, work the pre-spawn: smallmouth, late March through April; largemouth mid-April to early May.
“October can be really good,” Kraemer said, “for nice bass in the 3- to 4-pound range, as they feed aggressively with the onset of cooler water.”
The lake is relatively clear, he said, and so he uses light spin tackle with 6-pound line. If targeting largemouth, he’ll pre-rig rod one with a tube jig, rod two with a grub, rod three with a perch or crawdad crankbait, and rod four with pig and jig. If chasing smallies, he’ll rig rod one with a small grub, rod two with a hair or rubber jig, rod three with a deep diving, perch or crawdad, 21/2- to 3-inch crankbait, and rod four with a surface plug.
Kraemer likes the Rapala jerk-type baits; white spinner baits on light days and black spinner baits on darker days. He said that Goodwin’s really big trout also eat sculpin and crawdads, just like the bass, and that those who fish bass on the lake regularly also catch a substantial number of trout – rainbow and cutts – in the 5- to 6-pound range.
Perch: Yellow perch in Goodwin can reach the decent 12- to 14-inch range at times, Brauch said, and can be found in schools on the whole north half of the lake during the summer months. The bay just north of the state park is a good perch spot, as is the bay north of that, on the north side of the peninsula, and across the lake in the small bay where the channel from Lake Shoecraft comes in.
Concentrate on water 9 to 14 feet deep, using a quarter-ounce bell sinker on the end of light line, a size 6 snelled worm hook tied as a dropper 18 inches above the sinker, and another hook 12 or 14 inches above the first. Toss it out, hit bottom, and bring it back very slowly.
Finding the schools is critical, so be prepared to move from place to place, or drift with the wind.
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