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Been a while since my last Lake Washington report and even though there is not much going on at this time, I figured on giving folks a bit of a heads up prior to the 4th annual cutthroat derby coming up on the 16th of June. To say it has been slow lately is a bit of an understatement. One and two fish days are the norm, and that is when putting in 4 to 6 hours of hard fishing. The smolts are making their way into the lake at this time and the regular bait seems to be scattered with all this unstable weather we have been having. My last couple of times out the wind has been in the 15 to 20mph range and surface fishing wasn’t getting it done. The 40 to 60 foot depths have yielded a few fish, but not nearly as many as past seasons have produced. If anyone is thinking about heading out, cross the 520 bridge off your list of places to try. The construction taking place for the new bridge is really disturbing the area and I haven’t had any success since they started placing anchors and driving pilings. This Friday I headed out around 10:00am and had my line in the water South of Mercer Island by 10:30am. The winds were coming out of the Southwest and we were getting occasional showers to boot. I worked the area over a bit and found a small ball of bait, but no cutts seemed to be nearby. I picked up the gear and headed for the North side of I-90 and gave it a go there, only to find that the wind had really picked up and was starting to form whitecaps on the water. The area didn’t yield any fish or takedowns and I decided to give the East Channel a shot before calling it a day. I worked the bottom as if hunting for blackmouth and low and behold, I picked up a 5” hatchery king whose parr marks were just barely visible. I continued working over the bottom and picked up my only cutt of the day. The picture of the fish was frame taken from the video I had been taking so the quality is somewhat lacking. It also bears mentioning that Lake Washington is one of the lakes in which Cabelas has released tagged fish for their fishing contest. As the species list includes Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Spotted Bass, White Bass, Walleye, Perch, Cutthroat Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Lake Trout, Striped Bass (Striper), Wiper, Crappie, Blue Gill and Channel Cat, one might as well register just in case.

salmonbarry

6/2/2012 10:07:00 PM

Thanks again G-man for the great report! Now I don't feel so bad because I have been out at 4 times now and have not got a fish. I mainly stay in the south end though working the area from Gene Coulon to south tip of Mercer Island trolling cut plug herring cured in Nate's bate green cure or Apex tipped with either gulp minnows or night crawlers. any other suggestions? I have worked depths of 20, 40 feet with one on the downrigger and 1 long line

G-Man

6/2/2012 10:38:00 PM

When the wind is blowing, I don't fish the open water and focus mainly on the shoreline working over the bottom and the points. I save the open water for calm days, especially in the winter and early spring months. Also, don't be afraid to fish deeper and vary the size/profile of your presentation. If I mark fish in the area I'll run hoochies as small as shrimp flies to as large as needlefish until I get bit. Same goes for Apex lures, I keep 1", 1.5" and 3" sizes on hand.

salmonbarry

6/3/2012 8:31:00 AM

thanks! maybe see you out there sometime!

The Quadfather

6/3/2012 3:46:00 PM

G-man, can you clarify?? Are you saying that Cabelas has actually planted or are you suggesting that they have tagged strypers, white bass, and Wiper?? (whatever that is) and Walleye within lake Washington?
What is the price on the tag? Thx. for the report. Have you been hitting other lakes, and just not reporting, or maybe to much baseball coaching, etc?

G-Man

6/3/2012 5:26:00 PM

The only fish that are tagged are those that caught by the tagging team, tagged and released back into the waters from which they were caught. They aren't saying which species were tagged in what lake, just providing a comprehensive list of all the different species tagged throughtout the country. The prizes vary from $50 bags of gear to potentially $2,000,000. The requirements for properly reporting a tagged fish is explained on their web site: http://cabelasfishformillions.com/register
I've been fishing a little here and there, just not reporting my activities.

wabowhunter

6/4/2012 7:31:00 AM

So, here is a article that ran in the "times" about the tagged Cabela's fish. ... But the short version is... 3 tagged cutthroat and 12 small mouth bass, were tagged and release back into the lake.

http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/reeltimenorthwest/2018197884_cabelas_1-million_fish_could_b.

It was really wind on the lake on Friday, as stated, we fished the south end of the island, got 2 small fish at around 10:30, got 1 that was 17" at about 1:00 @ 39 feet down, released. Then we went back out yesterday morning fished between 8:30 and 11:30 and had only one hit at 10:00 open water @ 21 feet on a brad super bait cut plug mini - "black magic".

Good luck to all...!

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