Lake Donald Fishing near Leavenworth, Washington

• Overview

  Lake Donald is a Chelan County water, Washington side. Everything around it is pine and birch. Small at around 12 acres: two anglers spread out cover most of it. By elevation it is in the upper part of our Washington listings. Leavenworth is the closest place, 14 miles off. It is 62 miles to Bellevue, the nearest city. This one is safely inside the county line.

• Where to Fish on Lake Donald

  Depth is not on record here, which means reading the ground instead. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Public occurrence data for Chelan County names cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, sockeye salmon, Chinook salmon and largemouth bass. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. At Lake Donald the water rewards a slow, careful approach.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect August to average close to 55°F, with December the cold end at about 21°F. The middle months are generous; the ends are demanding. Count on hard cover from midwinter, and open water from early May. From about early May to around mid November, expect open water on the long-run figures. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. Expect Lake Donald to follow that timing.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether the bank is open is not something our records settle. Public data shows nothing built here, so treat the whole approach as informal. Bass water: a Texas-rigged worm near cover, a spinnerbait when you need to cover ground. Some banks are open only from a marked point. Night access is frequently treated as a separate matter. For a change of water, Loch Eileen is 0.4 miles distant. Treat Lake Donald as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.