Went to Riffe Lake today. Got there at 11am. (It's a long drive from Seattle) Anyway, I stopped at the local tackle shop just before Mayfield Lake and got the scoop from the store owner. May and June are good months to catch stocked Silvers. I launched my boat at the State Park in Mossyrock and made the short drive toward the dam.

Within 30 minutes, I had caught 5 and my friend caught 3. It was crazy fast. The silvers were jumping close to the bank. We started out fishing on top with Nickel and red Super Dupers and various sized nickel plated Needlefish did the trick. Nickel Thomas Buoyant Spoons also worked well. We trolled about 1.5-2mi. per hour. About Noon, the action slowed a little bit as the sun was out. we dropped down to 26 ft and found them consistently again. All and all, the largest was 15" and several at 12".

We caught and released about 30 fish and kept 4 that were hooked unfortunately. There is absolutely no need to bait fish or use barbed hooks with these fish when in a boat. Trolling and casting spoons is fun and productive. When the fish are there, you'll get many chances to get them. I pinch the barb of the Siwash hooks on the Needlefish because they can do a lot of damage to fish if the barb is in tact. (In fact, I pinch the barbs of all my hooks) My experience has been that the hooks stay in them well enough without a barb and fish that are released will have a much greater chance of survival.

My friend also caught a beautiful 12" rainbow that I have pictured. The photo does no justice to the colors and the beauty of the actual fish. It was very fat and fought really well! Riffe Lake was very good to us on this day.

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