Panhandle Lake in Pend Oreille County: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Panhandle Lake lies in Pend Oreille County, in Washington. The water sits 2,572 feet up. About 16 acres of surface, which puts the far bank inside easy sight. Head to Newport, 8.5 miles away, for anything you forgot. For a city, Spokane is 36 miles off. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it. Nothing about it is complicated once you have walked it.

• Where to Fish on Panhandle Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Records held for Pend Oreille County cover rainbow trout, tench and cutthroat trout. Species recorded across the county may be limited to a few waters. At Panhandle Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Temperature averages peak at 65°F in August and bottom out at 25°F in January. In milder years the surface never sets. Hard water here is never dependable, so check for yourself before stepping out. Late winter often fishes better here than midsummer does. At Panhandle Lake the season follows that pattern closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. Mapping shows a campsite some half a mile from the water. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Night access is frequently treated as a separate matter. Mallard Marsh sits 0.6 miles off and takes the overflow. Where Panhandle Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.