I don't know how many of you have fished Ebey Lake, it's a small,
year-round, flyfishing-only lake on the top of Ebey Hill just east of
Arlington. Several years ago the state DNR (which manages the mostly
cut-over lands at the top of the hill) put in a locked gate at the edge of
the DNR land, necessitating a two-mile walk on a logging road to get to the
lake, though there was a spur that turned off before the gate that allowed
access to the west side of the lake with a bit of bushwhacking. Ebey has a
self-sustaining population of coastal cutthroat, and with flyfishing-only
and a 17-inch, one fish limit they have been able to do quite well in spite
of a certain amount of poaching which takes place because of the lake's
isolation. The extensive shallows around the main body of the lake provide
for some of the heaviest concentrations of dragonfly nymphs that I have ever
seen and damselflies, midges, callibaetis mayflies and leeches grow plenty
of fish, some of which can reach twenty inches. Now for the bad part: The
only access to the DNR land and the lake at the top of Ebey Hill is via the
Ebey Hill Road which leaves the Jim Creek Road at the south side of the
hill. This road is, apparently, all or in part on private property and the
property owners have put in a new gate several miles down the road from the
DNR gate. The sign at the gate says "no access except to property owners,
guests and easement holders". I assume the only easement holder is the DNR.
I have contacted the WDFW and the DNR and neither one seems to be willing to
go to bat on this. The WDFW view being that, since there is neither a WDFW
access site at the lake, nor any stocking of the lake taking place, they
would just as soon remain aloof. Does anyone out there have any idea what,
if anything, can be done? I find it sad, indeed, that a road that I have
been using to get to (or at least close to) Ebey Lake for more than thirty
years, without let or hindrance, can be closed to the public in this way,
worse yet is the loss of one of only a small handful of flyfishing-only
lakes in western Washington.
