Quick Bio: Rich is a native Washingtonian, born and raised in the Seattle area, and attended school at WWU and SPU. He and his wife, Amy, of 31 years have 2 kids, Erin and Will. Rich is a data solutions engineer at Safeco/Liberty Mutual Insurance. He enjoys all types of fishing, especially high mountain lakes, […]
What does it mean to be a Hi-Laker?
And why are Hi-Lakers important to Washington's high lake fishery?
Who are the Hi-Lakers? We are part of a 63-year history of alpine anglers who promote responsible high country recreation and support the WDFW and other agencies by conducting high lake surveys. The club was founded in 1958 by three friends, Jack Higgins, Rudy Werth, and Art McPherson, who loved the high lakes—the scenery, the […]
Digital mapping tools like CalTopo and Gaia GPS can take your trip planning to the next level. Learning to combine wilderness navigation skills with digital mapping tools can have a big impact on your backcountry experiences. For the high lakes angler, it can extend your reach to destinations and fishing you’ve only dreamt of. If […]
Many benefits come with being a Hi-Laker, but none greater than meeting the amazing people our club brings together. Getting to know one another in the absence of in-person meetings has been hard. To make it easier, each month we’ll learn more about a fellow club member through a Q&A session. To lead off, I’m […]
Greetings to all members, and especially to those who have joined us in the past year! Like so many other organizations and businesses, we have moved from monthly in-person meetings on Mercer Island, to online platforms. How fortunate it is that we have the technology for audio-visual connections.A year ago, we had our annual Winter […]
This post contains excerpts from a 2003 HL Forum discussion about big fish in the high lakes, edited to emphasize tips for catching them. We are mining past threads for interesting content and I hope you enjoy. Alas, the photo links from the orignal thread no longer work. But you can imagine those healthy fish […]
Thanks to all who submitted entries for the 2020 Kingfish program! It was a great year for big fish as seven Hi-Lakers crossed the 20-inch threshold. The largest was a 24-inch rainbow caught by new member, Tanner Dutra. Those who attended the February meeting were treated to a story about Tanner’s trip to a lake […]
Eightmile Lake is one of four lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area managed to provide water storage. The 90-year-old dam on Eightmile Lake has been damaged by been flooding and was further damaged by the Jack Creek Fire in 2017. Emergency repairs were made to the dam in 2018. Washington Department of Ecology is […]