Preston,
Thanks for your provocative post about access restrictions at Ebey Lake.
I'm having a hard time locating it in my Washington Atlas & Gazeteer.
I find Ebey Hill marked a B-8 on pg. 95 and B-1 on pg. 96, but the
only lake in the vicinity seems to be called Little Lake.
Perhaps you could post a more detailed description of its location
for those of us unfamiliar with that area?
Thanks,
Kent Lufkin
>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.
