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So with this being last day to make use of the 2016-2017 license, decided to give the big lake a whirl and make sure things are tuned up on the Tin cup for the Chelan derby next month! Took it last Saturday for it's maiden voyage but didn't get a hit so today wanted to concentrate more on the fish then the boat!

Got a call from buddy Nick who just happened to mention he was off on Friday's and if I ever needed a fishing partner he would gladly volunteer! I said it just so happens I was thinking of fishing Lake WA today so let's do this!!
Had a conference call at 7:30 with work and as soon as that was over made a beeline to the Atlantic city launch and met Nick there at 8:30 to start our day!

Headed straight over to the west side of Mercer then turned north to start our troll! Didn't bring down riggers as I usually don't use them this early in the season, so rigged both lines up with 1 1/4 oz keel weights and ran them back 100 feet behind the boat. Water temp started at 41 degrees but soon warmed up to a balmy 45.6 as we continued; started off the day with an old goat lure pink and chartruesse tipped with night crawler on one and a radical glow spinner on the other with a variety of flashes to draw some attention.

After a drive by, decided to change out the old goat to the newly purchased and rigged ( photo attached) 2.2 brads mini cut plug with tuna in the belly and pink gulp maggots on the business end. As I was letting it out felt that old familiar 'tug-tug' Wham! and it was fish on!! It came it pretty easily as I figured was still in hibernation mode so soon was in the net and was pretty huge but skinny!

I knew I was in the right place when not soon after, I got a text from Jedi master G-man asking how we were doing; so sent him a picture of the first 21" fish in the box! Soon kept changing things around and no sooner did we put on a kokabow spinner the wham! fish on again! Nick got this baby in and it put up much more of a fight then the bigger one as was small but feisty!!

Headed over to Seward park to work our way along the shoreline back to the launch to see what we could bother over there. We changed out all our gear to kokanee stuff as I wanted to try some them out and sure enough had a vicious take on the assassin lure and it started jumping out of the water way back! But half way in felt it come unbuttoned and thought that might have been a kokanee. Well it wasn't 10 minutes later when Nick gets a hit and this one sticks and yep, it's a kokanee!!

About then got a call from a customer ( yes I was actually working) who needed me to input about a $10,000 dollar order so we pulled up gear and headed in! Not a bad day on the water and made money to boot!! Great weather, great company and Nick got to take some fish home to smoke! Love the Pacific northwest!

See you on the water!!

Fish Dawg

3/31/2017 7:49:00 PM

Glad so see this trip was more fruitful than your last, Barry! Good luck and tight lines. Looking forward to kickin' some Kokanee butt with you in the derby!!

<')))))>{ Dawg

G-Man

4/1/2017 9:02:00 AM

Good to see you out there and having some success. I ended up releasing a few kokanee and a coho and struck out trying to jig up some pike minnows. Great day to be out on the water!

gcban

4/1/2017 10:20:00 AM

Nice job! I was out there Friday all day also. Nice day on the water. Only managed a couple of 14 inch or so trout for the day. Caught them off the S side of Mercer 15ft down on the wire around 10am. Threw everything in the book at them all day and it was still slow. Good just to be back out there though.

salmonbarry

4/1/2017 12:15:00 PM

Thanks guys and yes it was great just to back out there! @gcban- I thought I saw you out there plying the waters south off the tip of the island! How was the water temp? Last Saturday I was showing 36 degrees in the bay over there!

gcban

4/3/2017 8:02:00 AM

Salmonberry, the water temp on my unit showed almost a steady 46 degrees the entire day. The 2 trout I did catch both fell for a pink wiggle hootchie tipped with a white gulp maggot behind a UV/glow flasher, about 5 feet down on the wire. I marked a few bigger fish down below the 80ft line but for the most part the fish sounder was totally bare. No bait balls and not even any schools of perch. They are all up shallow. Think I'm going to head over to Lake Sammamish next week and try to catch some of the hatchery coho WDFW says we can now catch. Looks like there are enough of them that refused to head out to sea when released so they want them caught and taken out of the lake. Happy to oblige! Be safe out there! G

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