Heads-Up for Chopoka Anglers
- Thread starter JayB
- Start date
As you drive the road in to the lake, the WDNR camp is the first one encountered (south camp). BLM is furthest away (north camp).
My bad; I was thinking one was WDFW. So state DNR and fed BLM. Thanks!
Takes never given back… GOV 101
Yeah, I'm sure they're saying it's "budget issues". I'm sure some people will fish it regardless. Just walk in past the gate. Not sure how far that would be. Not that I'm suggesting that course of action..
Honestly, I don't see any potential positive outcomes from closing it off. It's public land and a public lake. People (the public) like to camp, hike, and fish there. Human use doesn't appear to be incompatible with the wildlife or environmental values - unless someone starts a wildfire. The fish are hatchery origin, put there for no purpose other than recreation. Unlike a few lakes in NE WA with nesting loons, why stock a lake that isn't fished?
And as pointed out by other posters, closing off opportunity for public use has become an increasing trend causing negative public benefit. Why on earth would we encourage that?
It's not, but I've not found another with its combination of attributes.
Bear Creek is (was) my go-to for a quick&dirty camping spot when fishing the Quill tribs. They've got my attention and will get my emails/calls. I used to pack a hatchet as part of my offgrid kit, might have to replace it with my new battery operated Sawzall.
Or a master key aka bolt cutters!
When people started bringing in full-size recreational vehicles, I kind of lost interest in the lake. I think the generators were the ones that tipped me over the best.
Flymph
Life of the Party
All your points well taken. "Negative public benefit" IMPO can be a good thing for a Lake that has had to withstand the intense pressure that this lake has had to endure. Entire Fly Fishing clubs descend on this lake for some unknown reason. I have been fishing this lake for over 50 years and can tell you the fishing has gone to hell!
Climate Change has raised hell with this lake as well as witnessed by many low water years followed by extremely hot summers. All you had to do was look at the summer kill on the bottom of the lake in the shallower areas. Year after year of far too much pressure plus the ills of Climate Change have plaid a huge role in the decrease in insect life which once sustained bows that averaged over two pounds and fought like Henry's Fork bows used to.
Now, the smaller, skinnier, bows, have been caught two or three times before the new "sparse" mayfly hatch occurs. I'll bet you can't name a single angler who has caught and released 20 or so fish on mids awaiting the calibaetis hatch only to catch another 20 fish on size 12/14 Dries!
All I am saying is this once, great, lake could use a break so it might heal with nature taking over for a few years. And, by the way, I am not hording this lake for myself. I have not fished the lake for many years and don't even intend to buy a license for the second year in a row.
All of this may be the case, however Chopaka and other areas are being closed due to budget issues or may be. There will be no improvements to the parks and campgrounds. Yes, there are plenty of other options, but we pay a decent amount for our licenses and closing many of these areas will negatively impact the small towns and businesses that we support in our trips out! Look at the Skagit / Sauk, the closures affect all of the small business in the area, restaurants, hotels/motels and many others.
The sad fact is that our fly fishing community is a small group, but vocal, and these are easy cuts for the state government to make. For me, I'll still get my combo license and just fish more locally on the wet side of the mountains, but am planning trips to MT and probably CO.
OK, so we have something in common. I first fished Chopaka in 1972, and have fished there off and on since. Even in the 1970s the campgrounds were packed full in May, the most popular month on that and many lakes. So intense fishing pressure for a couple months per year has been commonplace for a half century. The fishing was bad for me personally last year, but has otherwise generally been good. I can't speak for "entire fly fishing clubs," but I think they come there precisely because it offers decent spring time fishing in a cool environmental setting that is not available in all that many places. And it's not like the "negative public benefit" of a closure will somehow restore better fishing or more prolific mayfly and sedge hatches. It won't. The fishery is maintained by stocking hatchery trout. Different stocking strategies have been used to yield fewer but larger trout or more numerous but smaller trout based on user feedback WDFW receives. I think you may be trying to solve a problem with a method ill suited to solving said problem.