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Website: Northwest Fishing Expeditions

Phone: (208) 880-2994

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Summit Lake Report
Pierce County, WA

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08/26/2010
Top Fishing From Shore
Other
Afternoon
08/26/2010
4
1988

In a word - wow! I noted immediately that there were fish rising everywhere, and pretty quickly determined that they were quite picky. The wooleybuggers gave zero interest, and the Fish Creek Spinners, while catching a few fish, were not the ticket. But dry flies - man, these fish jumped all over them! It didn't even matter that I only had one with me and that it was eventually torn to shreads. If the fly floated, the fish would aggresively attack it. If the fly sunk under the water even an inch, theer was no interest. Heck, I had as many hits on my clear casting bobber as I did the fly! I must have caught a couple dozen brook trout in the afternoon (when I least expected to catch fish). They were everywhere along the shoreline and cruising lazily by me. The only downside was this lake seemingly is overrun with tiny fish. Everything I caught was in the 5-8" range, and a lot of skinny fish. Nothing of any great size could I find. The other thing that was of great interest to me was that later, after dinner, I went out and fished and had zero luck. The fish were pretty much done rising and nothing seemed to interest them, including spinners. And it was the same way in the morning. No hatch on the water and no fish biting. So lesson learned - I will add MORE dry flies to my tackle box for Alpine lake fishing, and I will be less worried about time of day fishing.

see my Blog for a complete report on Summit lake.


Comments

yooper_fisher
8/27/2010 8:56:00 AM
Thanks for the report Mike! Seeing those brookies reminds me of back home. Hopefully I'll get a day off soon and I can go exploring and find a few myself.
davethebassman.newby
8/27/2010 9:07:00 AM
Mike did you happen to see any bass fry swim by or hear of largemouth in this lake with any size? Sounds like lot of feed for other species.
Mike Carey
8/27/2010 9:26:00 AM
nope, just brook trout. This is a planted Alpine lake. Very unlikely anyone hiked bass up there.
Xwisconyfisherman
8/27/2010 9:34:00 AM
They really area beautiful looking fish
BMGW
8/27/2010 10:22:00 AM
Nice job Mike! Reminds me of when I first moved to Port Angeles and used to hike up to a lake off Obstruction Point and catch beautiful Brookies, mmmmm wrapped in foil butter and salt and pepper over the camp fire. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful state!
natetreat
8/27/2010 12:13:00 PM
Stunted fish. Too many fish, not enough food. I've run into those a few times too. Brookies are so pretty though!
grubinit
8/27/2010 4:33:00 PM
Dave our club had a tourney on summit last month and there are some good fish in the lake. The best fish I caught was a 2 1/2 lb. rainbow which oddly enough hit a crank bait just as it hit the water. The best L g. mouth was 4 1/4 and small mouth 3 3/4 so there are good fish, but not many. Those were two of the three fish over 12 inches caught. I would tell everyone to take the kids as this lake is FULL of little fish that are easily caught on plastic and it sounds like dry flies as well.
mudshark
8/27/2010 8:43:00 PM
I remember fishing that lake as a teenager in the 1960's. Same scenario!
Mike Carey
8/27/2010 10:07:00 PM
grubinit, you're thinking of a different Summit lake. This one is at 5,440 feet, a 3 mile hike in. No bass, no rainbow.
AJ's Dad
8/28/2010 8:20:00 AM
That's a gorgeous fish. at $12 an inch you could have had him hanging on the wall for about sixty bucks!
Sounds like you had a fun trip. Sometimes size really doesn't matter.
Happy fishing
grubinit
8/28/2010 2:34:00 PM
Yes defiantly no 3 mile hike and the brookies kind of threw me as well. I was kind of mad as it has been years since I've caught one of those guys and I hated that I missed the chance. Sorry guys I should have looked at the county.
Mike Carey
8/28/2010 3:18:00 PM
np
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Northwest Fishing Expeditions

Phone: (208) 880-2994