Yep, as several other guys mentioned, Hog Canyon and Fourth of July are "winter only" lakes that can produce a lot of trout. Hog has mostly small fish, Fourth of July has larger fish. A 6" or 8" auger is all you need. Our winter was so hard last year that the road to Hog was closed due to snow drifts, and it went nearly unfished for several weeks (except for those hard core few who hiked in!). Keep it small and simple on these lakes....small teardrop jigs and Swedish Pimples with a couple salmon eggs are all you need. I've tried crawler chunks and meal worms, too, but they weren't nearly as effective as the salmon eggs. On both lakes, be prepared for hours of inactivity. When the "magic hour" arrives you'll know it! Also, fishing shallow water, say 5-8 feet, seems to be most productive.

Eloika has tons of dink perch, and the occasional bass that can liven up your jigging rod and day!

Further out, near Coffepot, there's the Twin Lakes (Upper and Lower). Upper Twin has some large rainbows that can be caught in the shallows. Finding these areas is tough, for the lakes is quite deep. Rumor has it (I've had several folks tell me this) that Lower Twin is mostly shallow and is full of big crappie. One of these winter days......

On all these lakes, I wait until lots of braver people have already cut holes before I venture out. Being originally from northern Pennsylvania, I'm accustomed to 24-36" of ice, not the 4-10" we get around here (if we get any at all).

Getting closer. How have those temps been over there? I know I've hit 29* a couple times now on the back porch. Any eastside winter/ice seasons predictions yet? It seems pretty cold to me so far.......(maybe a little dry lately too... )

I had about a 1/4" skim on the dog dish the other night....I say that's good enough to say first ice of the season...

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I have caught many fish in my life. The most exciting? The next one.....

If you want to take the sled into a remote lake, you might look into Lost Lake above Lake Keechelus on top of Snoqualmie Pass. The lake is not that remote during the summer but other than the other sleds the winter should be pretty remote.

I have never tried this lake in the winter because I have never had a snowmobile and the road to the lake is not plowed and is snow covered into early summer. I am not to sure of the ice thickness on an average winter but I would have to imagine that at over 3,000 ft in elevation it should have decent ice by January or Febuary.

There is some pretty decent fishing here during the summer, so I would have to imagine that the winter would be worth a shot as well.

Who knows, it could be worth a try.

Here is a link to a description of this lake from this site.
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/FeaturedLake.aspx?id=311

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Some are great at telling stories, others are great at fishing.

I have fished Keechelus for Kokanee during the summer and it is great but never fished it in the winter. Keechelus does get iced over for the most part, but I have never seen anyone or heard of anyone fishing it through the ice. When I pass Keechelus to go duck hunting on the eastside in the winter it appears that the ice is unstable and is mostly snow-ice/slush. I personally would not venture out onto Keechelus.

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Some are great at telling stories, others are great at fishing.

Yakima and E-burg have been in the low 20's for the most part with highs in the mid 30's

Hey Ice Seaker,

Here's an article on the website from a few years back on ice fishing Fish and Palmer Lake, if you haven't read it yet: http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReadArticle.aspx?id=40

I've never been to Palmer, but when I was at Fish two years back the ice was solid enough to snow mobile on (a few people were). Fish isn't remote, but there is virtually no development on it if memory serves, just a small lodge on one end of the lake. Palmer would take awhile to get to from Tacoma, but is suppose to be the best trophy burbot fishery in the state.

Fish Lake is definately my favorite ice lake. Random pics are fun aren't they.

mallard83 attached the following image(s):

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Some are great at telling stories, others are great at fishing.