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Washington Lake Report
King County, WA

Details

01/02/2013
36° - 40°
Trolling
Cutthroat Trout
Sunny
Noon
41° - 45°
01/03/2013
3
965

Well after a very long hiatus and many months of no-troll fever I finally made it out on the water. My two sons, one of their girlfriends and I found some time and we hit lake Washington for a few hours. Launching at the Atlantic City boat ramp we started fishing just outside the cove. We were in about 85-110 feet of water looking for individual meter marks adjacent to schools of bait fish. Specifically hunting larger cutthroat, I was and running a variety of gear, all aimed at the big one. We were running 4 rigs stacked on two downriggers; a red-label cut-plug herring 100’ behind the clip, an 8” swing blade/??? lure (my creation) combo, a Brad’s Mini Cut-Plug and a small Kokanee Killer. All the lures were doctored up with some form of scent. 3 minutes after getting the gear down we had a take down on the 8” swing blade/??? lure (my creation) combo. After a brief fight it turned out to be a nice and fat kokanee. I was completely jazzed, the first kokanee of the year but we decided to release the fish. While heading south from the cove we trolled a laze “S” pattern covering water 50’-120’ deep. After 45 minutes to an hour with some, but limited action we headed towards the south end of Mercer Island. Shortly thereafter while chasing a meter mark we ended up hooking a nice 17” cut on the cut-plug herring at 46’. After the fish was safely tucked away in the ice chest we made the quick run to Coulon for a potty stop, lunch and then called it a day and headed in.

The water temperature was 43-44 degrees and our trolling speed was 1.2-1.8 mph. The fish were caught at 41’ and 46’ respectively with a few other drive-bys in the same depth range. Most of both the bait schools and individual meter marks we saw were between 35’ and 50’. There were a few areas where there were clusters of individual meter marks that I am sure were schooling kokanee. Although we fished various scents the shad Smelly Jelly seemed to be the most effective. All in all, a great 3 or 4 hours of on the water, fellowship and sunshine.


Comments

Mike@Bills
1/3/2013 6:08:00 PM
glad you got out on the water, and even better you got a Koke. I am dying to get out and do some fishing. I still have not taken my boat out of the water hoping to get atleast one more fishing trip in before I take it out until March. Great report as always.
salmonbarry
1/3/2013 6:13:00 PM
thanks for the report Randy! I have been itching to get out the boat to clear out the gas lines and what better way then to fish!! I have a bunch of cured cut plugs that I was going to use down in Grays harbor but never went so vac-packed it so may have to get out there soon!
Dustinwdoerflinger
1/3/2013 8:26:00 PM
Where are people fishing at?
romanfishing
1/4/2013 10:14:00 AM
How do you get accurate reading on you GPS below 2mph? I am getting 0 or 2 and above only :(
The Quadfather
1/4/2013 4:56:00 PM
Roman, are you talking about the gps on your fishfinder, or a handheld. ( I assume the FF) Sorry to but in, Rseas, but I was curious what model FF Roman was using?
Idstud
1/4/2013 9:40:00 PM
Glad to hear you got out on the water I havent since sept. Great report.
romanfishing
1/7/2013 4:56:00 PM
I used all kinds: Iphone with Navionics application, Handheld Garmin 176SCX, Humminbird Speed Sensor (wheel) attached to Humminbird 778C.
rseas
1/11/2013 7:25:00 AM
Sorry for the slow reply, I have been incredibly busy and just can't seem to get time to sit on my computer and play.

Romanfishing: I am not sure what is up with your GPS. My Humminbird 798ci SI Combo accurately reads my land speed below 1 mph. Your over the water speed can vary depending on current and tides. I am wondering if the placement of your unit or the GPS receiver is such that the satellite signal is compromised. Les Davis (I think) makes a reasonable trolling speed indicator that is simple to install and use. That may be the way to go for you. A thought, I post my trolling speeds as a general reference but each fisherperson should fish the speed that best supports their lure/atractor/leaderlength combination. As a general rule when fishing our west side lakes troll slow (1-2 mph) and on the eastside lakes like Lake Roosevelt you troll fast (1 ½-2 ½ mph). Once dialed in for a given fishery I rarely give much thought to trolling speed.

IDstud: Good to hear from you and I owe you another fishing trip.

Dustinwdoerflinger: Fishing Lake Washington can be daunting at best. It is a very large lake with a diverse ecosystem. If you lived on the lake and were able to fish it every day it would still take a lifetime to learn the lake. As a casual Lake Washington fish hunter I would explore the southern 1/2 of the lake looking for schools of shad and run your gear just above them. Depending on the capabilities of your fish finder you may see individual fish on the meter but unless there are forage fish nearby your chances of hooking a fish are greatly reduced. I am sure there are fish caught everyday on Lake Washington by fisherman not running fish finders but in my often to be proven wrong opinion more so than any other Westside lake, Lake Washington is a fish finder show. You truly have to hunt for the fish.

Mike@Bills and Salmonbarry: It’s great to hear from you and we all need to get out fishing more often. Just when I thought that I could start getting out on the boat with some regularity again I added another project to the heap and worse it is blocking my boat in the garage. I picked up a deal on a 120 gallon reef tank and it is sitting in the garage in front of the boat while I Rseas-a-rize it before setting it up in the house. I have a lot of past reef tank experience and I should have known better… Oh well I still talk to my boat daily and assure it that this dry spell is only temporary.
romanfishing
1/14/2013 2:47:00 PM
No problem with late response. It is better late than never :) thanks for reply.
Mike Carey
1/14/2013 4:44:00 PM
Randy, are you thinking of fishing Area 9 when it opens?
rseas
1/14/2013 5:03:00 PM
I hope so, although I will need to get the fish tank out of the garage first...
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Fast Action Guide Service

Phone: (425) 753-5772