My fishing partner and I had such lousy luck this past Wednesday at Lake Sammamish that we thought we owned it to ourselves to see if we could change our luck for the better this week by going back to the north end of Lake Washington where we have had some decent fishing at times this spring. We arrived at the Magnuson Park Boat Launch at 6:30 AM. We paid the $12.00 launch fee and headed straight for the area off McAleer Creek with high hopes. We lowered our downriggers, one to 40 feet and the other to 50 feet with 150 feet of mono behind the boat using the smaller size nickel sling blade with UV insert with a 16 inch leader from it to our Ace Hi Fly Junior #344 with blue spatter back and double single hooks. While fishing in that way, we followed the 60 to 75 foot water contour line trolling between 1.5 and 1.8 MPH. We added a tiny bit of Smelly Jelly Trout Feast to the head or eye end of the Ace Hi Fly Junior avoiding entirely the winged portion of the lure. Once we began fishing, we started to mark fish here and there on the fish finder. We then waited for some Cutthroat action. It came in several quick spurts during our 2 hours in that area and then it just died completely. During that period we caught and gutted 4 nice Cutthroat which ranged between 14 and 20 inches and battled and lost 3 others near the boat. We lost one that was likely around 23 to 24 inches. It was a heartbreak losing that fish. I think my fishing partner nearly cried. The fish we got into were typical heavy bodied Lake Washington fish and their stomachs were bloated with small size fish. We are not sure but they could have been Long Fin Smelt or Sockeye smolts. They were very well digested. Once we realized the bite was done in that area, we kicked over to the east side of the lake to the area between Champaign Point and Juanita Point and reapplied the same technique for another couple of hours without as much as having a single strike. We marked fish there but they just were not in a biting mood. After around 4 hours of fishing on the lake, we finally decided to call it a day and headed for home. In all, it was a great morning for two seniors to be alive with the nice weather and with a few fish caught and brought home for the grill.

redroostertail

5/14/2018 12:08:50 AM

Sounds like a great morning. I didn’t think the lake was that deep up by McAleer creek. You must be fishing quite a bit south of the mouth of the creek?

Sharphooks

5/15/2018 9:32:51 AM

Redroostertail, you are correct. I never like to identify exactly where I'm fishing, just the very general vicinity as I don't want a whole bunch of fishermen fishing my favorite waters. Find the 60 to 75 ft. depth contour line south of McAleer Creek and you will be fishing in the mentioned waters where my fishing partner and I like to fish Lake Washington. I wanted to wait to respond to you until my posting was clearly out of sight of most viewers here. Good luck.

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