Northwest Fishing Reports

I had the chance to fish on Lake Washington with a friend who owns a boat. Unfortunately, we didn’t do so well, but we did manage to catch two fish. They were the same species, but for the life of me, I simply do not know what we caught. I have never seen a fish like this. It seemed almost catfish-like but without the whiskers and an oval shaped mouth reminiscent of a bass. What an ugly one too!







This is not intended to be a report. Still debating if the trip was worth reporting.

I hope that someone can chime in with an answer. Thanks!

Looks like a squawfish, aka northern pikeminnow to me.

Matt19 wrote:Looks like a squawfish, aka northern pikeminnow to me.

+1

There are peamouth chubs in the lake too, which some people mistake for pikeminnow. THey look somewhat like northern pikeminnow but the chubs have a very small mouth. Those fish in your pics are pikeminnow.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a squawfish, northern pikeminnow. They are really bad on the salmon and trout smolt. When the smolt are around, you can catch those things with huge bellies, and you know what they are full of. Just do a search on the Northern Pikeminnow and you will see what I mean.

Thanks for the ID!!! Smolt eaters? Darn! Unfortunately, we let them go because we didn't know what to do with them. They most certainly didn't seem like good table fare.

Do the lake a favor and make em crawdad bait. Give em the wood shampoo and let em back.

They are a foreign species and are smolt vacuums.

A9 wrote:....

They are a foreign species and are smolt vacuums.

Smolt vacuum, yes.

Foreign species, no. They are native to WA waters.