My brother and I went to Sprague Lake to troll for rainbow and triploids. We caught ten rainbows and released all but three.

We started with spinners that were successful last spring, (several weeks later than this trip), and had zero strikes this time around. We then started to experiment with each of us trying different setups. My brother had a black trolling fly behind a 000 chrome dodger I decided to try. Just as I was ready to close the bail, a very nice bow hit and the battle was on. After several runs and jumps, it escaped for another day.

I had a 000 red and chrome Worden's dodger set up with an orange fly, so my brother put it on and he was busy right away. I did not get another bite with the chrome dodger and black fly..

Later, I put on a #70 red and green hot shot when my brother also stopped catching. Now, I was busy. David then put on a small hot shot type of plug in light gold. He caught a nice fish right away. Zero triploids on the day, but four of the rainbow were quite nice with the largest being 19 inches and quite healthy. The most successful speed this day was 1.2mph and red was a part of most successful setups.

84Slayer

5/21/2009 12:19:00 PM

havent been to this lake since i was bout 10. We used to limit on rainbows avging 2-3 lbs. Good to hear theres more than catfish now. Is the lake still known for fishing like you're talkin?

DougShields.com

5/21/2009 1:45:00 PM

It was rehabbed in the 80's and had very nice success with the trout then. As they lowered the amount they would stock, things slowed down. The spiny rays had a very good run for a while as well. Many theories about causes of the demise of the fishery, including the carp coming back strong, but we had more birds eating fish than I had seen in 30 plus years, at that time, on Sprague Lake.

It would not be, "still known for fishing...", rather it has returned to those kinds of days now. WDFW continuing to plant trout, or not, and the birds return, or not, will be big factors in the fishing success. The food is there for the fish.

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