Finally had a day where I could take some time off from work and take advantage of the great weather. Though the morning started out clear, the fog rolled in and was still on the water when I finally decided to launch at 11:00am. My initial plan was to target kokanee, as we have had quite the run of sunny weather and I was hoping that they would be actively feeding. I ran to the South end of the lake and got to work in the open water between South Point and Rainier Avenue. I worked the waters that had a little surface ripple and stayed clear of the glassy areas. My efforts didn’t produce any fish, kokanee or otherwise and I wasn’t marking much except for what I assume were squawfish hugging the bottom in 90’ to 120’ of water. Around 1:30 I switched my game plan and targeted cutts working the same gear but keeping within 10’ of the bottom. Over the course of the next hour or so, I picked up 3 fish from 14” to 22” in length before calling it a day. The first fish came in 60’ of water, the second in 30’ and the last one at 20’. I kept one fish and an examination of its stomach contents showed a little bit of gravel and eggs. Looks like she was poaching the redds of other trout!
The weather for most of the day was partially sunny with a slightly falling barometer and mild winds out of the NE. I had hoped to spot bait/smelt in the area as they staged for their spawning run, but found nothing, not even the diving birds were in the area. It does appear that there was an algae bloom along with a die off of weeds during our cold snap. With the weed die off, shore fishing should now be productive if you have the patience to wait for a roving band of hungry trout to find your bait.

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