I was expecting Lake Washington to be a zoo yesterday so I slept in and planned to skip the opening day. About 10:30 am, my wife and I stopped at the boat launch at Cedar River Trail park in Renton to see how things were going. To my surprise it was uncrowded and everyone that was pulling out had limits, often caught in less than an hour or two. I changed my plans for the afternoon, went back home, got my boat and gear and was on the lake about 12:30 pm. Things had slowed down substantially but I hooked up a fish after about thirty minutes. Unfortunately, I lost that one right near the boat. My drag was set too tightly for my 8 lb. leader. An hour later, I hooked up another which I played more carefully, a nice fish, 23 inches. Trolled for another hour with no more hits and was overdue for a barbeque so I called it a day. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon.

By the way, most people I spoke with had lost one or more fish. They come up pretty easily until about 40 feet or so from the boat. At that point, prepare for at least one or two runs before they can be readily netted. Tight lines!

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