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Sammamish Lake Report
King County, WA

Details

11/25/2012
46° - 50°
Trolling
Rainbow Trout
Worms
Red
Cloudy
Dodger
Morning
12/04/2012
4
1255

The gate is supposed to open at 8 am in the winter even though it says 630 at the boat launch. This day the ranger apparently overslept and there were a lot of unhappy fisherman waiting to launch. The caretaker opened the gate for me because I asked nicely. Ugh. Finally got on the water close to nine. Fished until one. Caught 8 cutts, one koke and one smallie. The cutts came between 15 and 30 feet. The smallie was fun. We were marking fish on structure about 60 feet down. I dropped the rigger down and wham, a nice 2 pound smallie. It hit on a wedding ring tipped with crawler. We fished flies and wedding rings behind sling blades. Gotta try the smile blades, they're awesome. Good day of fishing. Tried out planer boards to get a wider pattern. We had 4 anglers in the boat. I think the planer board technique needs some refinement. Tried using jet divers or lead to control depth. It only had a couple hits and one hook up. Also hooked into a big one, maybe a 4 pound fish with a lot of color. It got off close to the boat but put on a show with multiple jumps. I think it was a sockeye or big koke but that may just be me trying not to think about missing a cutt that big. Had numerous other hits but finished with ten fish brought to the bought. Kept 5 cutts. Released the rest.


Comments

romanfishing
12/5/2012 8:53:00 AM
Nice report.
Do you think the same techniques should work at LK WA?
Thanks
docshane
12/5/2012 2:51:00 PM
First let me say that I have only fished Lk WA a couple times with ok success. But I have found that trout are trout. You put something tasty in front of their face and they just might eat it. That being said, you need a bit of luck too. I use various color wedding rings depending on water clarity and light conditions. I use chartreuse on cloudy days for instance. I fish higher up in the water column in the morning or if it's cloudy and drop deeper if I mark fish or it gets brighter. The set up that I use for trout is a wedding ring or sometimes flies with smile blades in front of the lure. Double hook rigs always, results in more hookups on the short strikes. 24-30 inch leader attached to a shasta sling blade. This setup is my confidence rig. I try to vary my speed and direction, I get bit on the turn quite often and I think that the fish respond to the vertical movement of the lure as well. When you turn one lure drops a bit, when you straighten out it moves shallower, I think changes in speed trigger strikes. If I get short strikes or a nibble I go to neutral and then gas it to trigger strikes. I could go on and on, but hopefully some of this advice gets you more fishies. Oh, and you might want to see if G-man comments on this, I am sure he knows more about the differences in bait fish between lake samm and lake wa. I do run hoochies as well and they definitely catch fish too.
Wattsamatta
12/5/2012 4:50:00 PM
romanfishing - the answer is yes. I fished on LK WA all summer with the same techniques and did very, very well. I had better luck with a dick nite spoon behind a dick nite dodger, but caught plenty of fish on a wedding ring. Just remember for both lakes as the water cools off fish higher in the water column (10 to 30) and when the water is warm fish deeper (40 to 65). And Docshane is 100% correct on the colors in my experience as well.
docshane
12/5/2012 5:14:00 PM
I didn't mention that I always tip the double hook rig with about 2-3 inches of crawler, they can't resist. Wattsamatta is dead on, you definitely have to follow the thermocline as well. Romanfishing, I think on your lake wa post you mentioned fishing around 40-60 feet, this time of year I don't think I would fish deeper than 30, unless I was getting marks or bait on the sonar. Honestly, I think most of our hits were around 20-25 feet.
natenez
12/7/2012 9:55:00 AM
Cool.

I've had a few experiences where the launch doesn't open on time too. Very lame, especially for those of us who have limited time to fish.

I'm interested in what you said about when it is supposed to open. Do I understand correct that even though the sign says 6:30, they aren't going to open it before 8 during the winter?
docshane
12/7/2012 10:10:00 AM
Here's what I know for sure. The sign says 630, but those are summer hours. The gate SHOULD be open by 8. One of the guys waiting in line with us called the sheriff and the sheriff said his info said the gate does not open until 830. So, I would say if the gate isn't open by 830, then the state dropped the ball...again.
romanfishing
12/7/2012 9:54:00 PM
I was fishing 40-60feet because was marking some fish and didn't see any in a higher column. Thanks for all the info.
What size of dick nite do you use at LK WA trolling?
Wattsamatta
12/8/2012 3:38:00 PM
The largest size of dick nite. The wee dick nite didn't see to intice anything. Chartruese with a pink tip, Pink with the glo white back, and Chartruese with dark green spatter were the killers for me. 100 feet back from the boat. This was in the summer so I was fishing at a flat 40 feet. This time of year, 25 feet is where I start.
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