Where to Fish in the Hood River area - Lowland Trout Lakes of the Gorge

Are you looking for an easy afternoon of lake fishing?  A good place to take kids where they will likely catch fish?  Don't want a long drive?  Don't mind the noise of a highway or trains?  Then there are several lakes within an easy drive of Hood River that offer all of that and more. 

On the Washington side of the river,  Rowland Lake is the most popular of these lowland lakes.  Spearfish is also quite a popular fishery as well as Horsethief lake.  Those are east of Hood River, while Tunnel, Ice House and Kidney Lake are west on the Washington side, among others.  

On the Oregon side,  there are fewer, but enough to keep you busy.  Bikini Pond (Mayer State Park) and Taylor Lake are located east of Hood River, while Benson Lake is located west of Hood River near Multnomah Falls.  Out of town from the Dalles is Rock Creek Reservoir up near the town of Wamic on Mt. Hood.  It is a bit further away from town, but still quite popular with the powerbait crew.

All of these lakes are stocked several times per year.  Double check on the regulations as they do vary between states and on individual lakes. They do also change yearly.

These are typical put-and-take lakes.  That means they are stocked, and anglers typically keep their catch.  Opening day is a big deal to a lot of people.  There is a contingent of Pacific Northwesterners that only fish one time per year and that is the 4th Saturday in April.  These lakes are packed with families in little boats drowning worms and soaking powerbait.  It is pretty cool to see, unless you are looking for some sort of solitude.  These are not the lakes for that, at least on that weekend.

 Fishing pressure usually dies down after opening weekend and is moderate the rest of the year.  These lakes are popular with swimmers and paddleboarders as well during the summer. 

One thing that is of note:  A few of these lakes are located in areas that are not exactly "safe".  I'm looking at you, Spearfish Lake.... 

I am typically not comfortable leaving my car unattended there.  Rowland is not much better, but at least you can see your car from Rowland lake.  The parking lot at Spearfish is just out of sight from the lake and there is a bit of a drug and crime problem around the nearby town of Dallesport, WA. 

The state of Washington is trying to ease winter steelhead pressure, so they have opened many of these lakes from Black Friday into February.  The cool thing is that they plant "jumbo" trout into some of them.  These mega trout, up to 15 pounds, are pretty darn easy to catch.  Finding them in the lake is not terribly difficult.  You can sight fish for them as they tend to sit in shallow water. 

There are also largemouth bass in most of these lakes, and some of them have some dandies.  A very old (and broken) Washington state record largemouth came out of Icehouse Lake near North Bonneville.   

During the spring, smallmouth bass will move into the lakes that have a culvert to the Columbia.  Horsethief is a popular one that has great smallmouth fishing in the spring.

Yellow perch and bream/bluegill are present in most of these lakes, so you can really have a nice day catching several species of fish.  I like to hit these lakes with the kiddos or maybe with my float tube after work in the spring.  They are not really anything too special.  Lakes stocked with rainbow trout  exist across the country.  These are close, easy to fish and the inherent beauty of the area makes them worth a shot if that is what you are looking for.  And there is nothing wrong with that.