Pierce county - bank fishing - where?

[JeffReigns]

Hi guys, I'm new to the area. I'm boatless and I'm looking for a place(preferably) in Pierce county to catch trout. So far I've been to:

Spanaway(caught a fingerling in the creek and a small rock bass in the lake)
American(no luck)
Alder(caught a decent sized trout here)
Kapowsin(around the boat launch, didn't seem like there was a lot of bank fishing access)
Tanwax(Went around a boat launch, not much bank access as far as I could see)

I know with some of them I didn't do a whole lot of exploring(Tanwax, Kapowsin), however it looked like there wasn't a ton of bank access to begin with on those lakes. Anyway, does anyone have any more suggestions? I'd really appreciate it. The best place I've been so far has been Alder and I really only caught one fish there.

Thanks guys!

Edit: I wouldn't be against hiking my way up to high lakes, so if you know of any that arent too far out of the way please mention them!

[spokey9]

not sure where you fished at american, but i used to slaughter them off of bill's boathouse's dock. it cost about 5 bucks (maybe a lil less) to fish there but it's definitely worth it if your shore bound. the dock sits in about 25 to 35 feet of water depending on the lake's water level. my main two methods off there, were hanging bait straight down (how you rig is important). slip a 1/16 or 1/8 slip sinker on your mainline tie on a swivel and run about a three foot leader, drop it straight down to the bottom then slowly tighten your line til you feel the sinker then count between 3 and 5 turns of the handle and set the rod down and wait (worms for bait will get some perch, my favorite salad shrimp with a salmon egg is deadly). the other method is a slip bobber set between 8 and 20 ft deep with half a crawler and a crappie nibble. Also casting the smaller 1 1/4 inch buzz bomb will catch some kokanee if they're fairly close to the dock (look for jumping fish).

also steilicoom lake has a bridge that runs across the center of it that can good for trout (corn yellow powerbait has been good to me there).

tanwax has two resorts on it that you can pay to fish off their dock and both can be good for trout, perch, & bullhead cats. camp lakeview's dock is deeper so once the water warms that's the one for trout.

Ohop has got a decent amount of bank access and can be lights out at times.

hope that helps some

[JeffReigns]

not sure where you fished at american, but i used to slaughter them off of bill's boathouse's dock. it cost about 5 bucks (maybe a lil less) to fish there but it's definitely worth it if your shore bound. the dock sits in about 25 to 35 feet of water depending on the lake's water level. my main two methods off there, were hanging bait straight down (how you rig is important). slip a 1/16 or 1/8 slip sinker on your mainline tie on a swivel and run about a three foot leader, drop it straight down to the bottom then slowly tighten your line til you feel the sinker then count between 3 and 5 turns of the handle and set the rod down and wait (worms for bait will get some perch, my favorite salad shrimp with a salmon egg is deadly). the other method is a slip bobber set between 8 and 20 ft deep with half a crawler and a crappie nibble. Also casting the smaller 1 1/4 inch buzz bomb will catch some kokanee if they're fairly close to the dock (look for jumping fish).

also steilicoom lake has a bridge that runs across the center of it that can good for trout (corn yellow powerbait has been good to me there).

tanwax has two resorts on it that you can pay to fish off their dock and both can be good for trout, perch, & bullhead cats. camp lakeview's dock is deeper so once the water warms that's the one for trout.

Ohop has got a decent amount of bank access and can be lights out at times.

hope that helps some

Thank you spokey9 I will definitely check those out. At American Lake I was fishing from the park.

Where is all the bank access at Ohop? From Google Earth it looks like its along Orville Rd. I wanted to go check it out the other day while I was in the area but decided against it since I hadn't had a chance to check it out on Google Earth.

Thanks again!

[spokey9]

not sure what the name of the road is out there by ohop, but there's access by the boat launch. be careful when fishing next to the outlet creek, if it's not open the warden's can get a bit feisty about fishing near it. the creek it self (when open) has a little bit of access and also up the road towards kapowsin there's a couple spot that you can pull off and fish.

[yooper_fisher]

You are right, the access for Ohop is on Orville Rd. I've never fished it, but I've driven past many times. Like spokey said, there is some area by the boat launch and many places on the road toward Kapowsin. Again, I've never fished there, but the people I see shore fishing seem to be using powerbait of some type on the bottom.

There's also Bradley right in Puyallup behind walmart. It's in a park and stocked heavily with trout throughout the year, but can get a bit crowded. Check the regs on that one before you go as I know for part of the year it's kids only.

At Kapowsin (only fished it once) I know people will park at the boat launch and walk a trail to the west. Not sure how far they go, but people do fish that way.