Tennant Lake Fishing near Ferndale, Washington

• Overview

  Out in Whatcom County, Washington, sits Tennant Lake. It stands 7 feet above sea level. Around 44 acres of surface means several distinct areas to work. The edge runs 1.0 miles or so, easy to work in an afternoon. Few waters listed in Whatcom County are bigger. Ferndale sits 1.1 miles from the bank. For a city, Langley is 19 miles off. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Tennant Lake

  No depth figure has reached our records, which makes a plummet useful. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. The shallow end warms first and pulls fish in ahead of the rest. Records held for Whatcom County cover sockeye salmon, Coho salmon and white sturgeon. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. Fish Tennant Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  On the long-term average, August reads 63°F and January reads 38°F. Fishing runs all year, with summer the awkward season. The cooler months are the comfortable ones to be out. February into May fishes hardest as the water warms. On Tennant Lake that shapes the whole year. Autumn cools the shallows first, so work deeper as it goes on.

• Tackle & Baits

  Whether you may fish here is not something records settle. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. A launch point is recorded some 0.9 miles off. A jetty or pier is mapped about half a mile from here. Toilets show in mapping about 0.9 miles away. Where the road in crosses private land, ask first. Night access is frequently treated as a separate matter. Brennan Pond, 0.9 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Confirm before you fish Tennant Lake.