Kidney Lake, WA

When I had my own car my junior year of High School I started to explore fishing opportunities in Southwest, Washington. There was an article written in the Columbian for places to try opening weekend. On that list was many lakes I knew about but also Kidney Lake. Over the next two years I would fish Kidney Lake heavily. I would get out of class at 2pm drive 45min down the 14 from Vancouver and have my pontoon on the water before 3:30. Fishing this lake on average three times a week until the rivers opened in June I know where the fish sit and how/what they bite. Did I mention my birthday is the same weekend as opening weekend for lakes in Washington. Once at school in Seattle my friend and I made it a tradition to drive down every year for a weekend on the lake.
Kidney is not some glorious lake. It is small (11acres), power lines stretch across, its littered with beer cans and worm cans, but it fishes well in late spring and holds triploid trout. In case you don't know what a triploid is, they are genetically altered to eat instead of breed, stocked over a pound they grow to 20# if left for a full year in good conditions. Not to mention brood stock are planted at 5 & 10 lbs. These fish are what draw me to this lake.
There is a inflow on the North side of the lake and outflow on the Southwest corner. Through the channel the lake is 60+ feet deep. The other side of the lake is shallower and even warmer. You either want to fish the stream channel or the middle of the other half of the lake. The triploid start in the channel and move to warmer water by mid-May.
Once again this year, three of my friends and I headed out to the lake Saturday of opening day (it was crowded) and we set on the water, them in a raft and me in a float tube. Trolling a worm behind a woolly bugger works well but just as well works a woolly bugger with a carey special. You can use either floating or sinking line, depends on how hot the day is, and let you line drift behind you as you mingle around the lake. I caught one of my nicest fishing eating a sandwich, sitting still, and line sitting 10' below me. We had a good day catching 40-50 fish between the four of us.
If you don't care about fishing next to a floating busch light can, then this is a good lake to fish.

Note: If you want to fish from shore a bobber with a worm works on overcast days about 30" down and egg weight, swivel, and floating powerbait on hotter days off the bottom.

Summary
Location: Kidney Lake, North Bonneville, WA
Time: 10am-3pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line & sinking line
Tackle: Woolly buggers (brown or black), casey special and the occasional worm dropper
Fish: 40+
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 16"
Smallest Fish: 11"
Rating: 8/10

 Sean, Dalton, Johnny (left-right)

Fivemile Lake

     I moved to Federal Way for my new job with Kiewit and there are a handful of lakes near my house. My buddy Dalton and I took Saturday (the day before) to drive around and see what each of the lakes were like and which ones we should fish first. In the morning I went out in my float tube and within 30min I hooked up while. While reeling in the fish Dalton called and he wanted to join me. So I got out, picked up a raft, and Dalton and I were back on the water that afternoon. Fishing planted fish they like to eat bait early after they have been stocked, at least they tend to. So we rigger up out fly rods with a wolly bugger, 10" of tippet, barrel swivel, 10" more tippet and a hook with worm. Having never been on the lake and occupied by beer we floated around finding were the fish hung out the most. Dalton lost a few and I managed to land one after floating around for an hour. What we did figure out is the fish were indeed hanging out in the middle third of the lake on the western side. We focused are drift on that side of the lake and in the next two hours we picked up six more fish and lost several others. Enticed by the heat we called it a day and bbq'd at Steele Lake to give it a look. In all over the weekend we looked at Fivemile, Steele, Geneva, and Dolloff Lake, along with Lake Kallarney. Fivemile, Steele, and Geneva are planted by F&W and promise to be good fisheries this spring.
     I should mention that this lake does have a good fishing dock that Dalton caught a fish off of Saturday and has never been crowded while I have been at the lake in four visits.

Summary
Location: Fivemile Lake, Federal Way, WA off of Military Road
Time: 9am-5pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line
Tackle: Wolly buggers and the occasional worm dropper
Fish: 9
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 11"
Rating: 8/10

Looking north from the middle of the lake

 One of the fish we caught

Dalton's fish off the dock