so how was your opening day experience?

[hanapaa808]

just want to know where you guys went for opening day and how was the experience? what lakes were really packed and at what time was it really bad at the launches..... this should be intresting!!!!!!

[rseas]

We did Lake Stevens, 3 other rigs in the lot and awsome fishing!

[salmonslayer117]

Didn't make it out for the opener this year. Got my son's birthday party to deal with. This should be a good one once everyone starts filing back in and posting though. Should be some good colorful stories.:colors:

[rjn cajun]

First on kapowsin this morning. Both my daughters first time. Caught a nice 18" bow and my youngest also got one at 18". The other couple were around 8". No bass just had a couple bites used just about everything. Weather was rainy windy and even some big hail. Not alot of boats but more than normal but it`s also a year round lake. Kids are hooked can`t wait to go again. I got a couple fishing partners for life:compress: :compress: . Great first experience with many more to come.

[hanapaa808]

rjn cajun. fish or no fish, sounds like you had a great day with your daughters. great memories!!!!!!

[Mike Carey]

honey-dos.

but the pontoon is loaded and I WILL go tomorrow - target - Rattlesnake Lake. I'll be out there in my single person pontoon, give a shout out if you see me.

[Anonymous]

I weed-whacked my yard. Too many rain showers to mow. Read fishing forums and reports. Made peanut butter cookies. Read fishing forums and reports. Made chicken enchiladas. Read fishing forums and reports. Went shopping and got that new deep cycle battery for tomorrow when I am going fishing. Read fishing forums and reports and posted. Oh ya, I cleaned my pond pump.

[guitarfisher]

I weed-whacked my yard. Too many rain showers to mow. Read fishing forums and reports. Made peanut butter cookies. Read fishing forums and reports. Made chicken enchiladas. Read fishing forums and reports. Went shopping and got that new deep cycle battery for tomorrow when I am going fishing. Read fishing forums and reports and posted. Oh ya, I cleaned my pond pump.

That's funny, Toni! My pattern for the day was pretty close to the same. I suspect it is for a lot of us WALakes.com addicts. And I got the float tube and gear loaded in the truck to head out early in the morning too.

[gian]

I hit pine lake with fishing machine. Got a little cameo on the 5 oclock news. My hand and arm are tired from the casting and releasing. Had a few good laughs. Weather wasn't that bad.

[Dave]

I went out Saturday morning with my wife and did next week’s grocery shopping to include a Costco run, then hunkered in at home and read fishing reports while it rained and the wind blew. These days I can live without the crowds and am not much for fishin when it's windy. I do enjoy reading about everyone's experiences though. I'm sure despite the poor weather; most opening day lakes were packed. I'm thinkin about Monday morning but wind is again in the forecast. Typical end of April weather.

[hanapaa808]

yeah dave, I was hoping to read about all the fun stories good and bad but seems like no one wants to share....lol

[Marc Martyn]

Stayed in town because of the weather with the 40mph wind gusts.

[hewesfisher]

then hunkered in at home and read fishing reports while it rained and the wind blew. These days I can live without the crowds and am not much for fishin when it's windy.

I was hunkered down behind the wheel hauling my future DIL, bridesmaids, her mom, and my wife over to your side of the mountains in all that wind and rain. I have to say, driving a big box is no fun in 40mph - 50mph winds. I was whooped when we got in. The winds were not kind to fuel economy either, 6.25mpg!

[crankbait42]

Most of my opening day was just a typical day, caught some fish, my brother did not catch many lol but one of the first fish we hooked which was my dads. that fish turned an ordinary opening day into a memorable experience.

we had three rods out between my dad my brother and I and we had just put the lines back down to troll back up the lake and my dads rod gets hammered. he sets the hook and since he does not fish much did not know if the fish was big or not, then we saw it splash. it was definitley big. i shut the motor off and started reeling in the other lines, then things went haywire. the fish ran across the other 2 lines getting tangled up in the flashers and dodgers and even the reels. then out of no where it started to pour rain and got windy. somehow my dad got the fish close to the boat, then i realised, i dont have a net. oh well who needs nets! he fought it for a while longer until it was tired and i reached down and grabbed the 17 inch hog! he ended up catching another about 16" and he almost lost that one too cause he got the lead line wrapped around the tip and the fish was still full of fight but we somehow got that one in the boat too! all in all it was a great day.

[bcalvert]

Saturday afternoon i went to Sixteen (skagit) to try for some small bass, no luck. Tons of trolling trout traffic. Boat launch pretty orderly. I got so many people cruising by me asking "is there bass in this lake?" Kicking myself now, but I should have said no, I am looking for frogs.

Sunday AM, back to Sixteen to take my share of the state planted rainbows. Boat launch was insane! I have a small fiberglass I unload from the back of my truck, so i don't use the actual paved launch, i use the side areas. It seems today those spots were reserved for mooring. On launch i squeezed my way out through the traffic. After getting a limit the wait was twice as long getting back into the launch. Waaaa waaaa ! Counted 34 boats on the water at one point, and this is an electric only lake. Talked to a lot of nice people out on the water.

[Mike Carey]

Rattlesnake report posted. Kinda slow.

[hanapaa808]

mike......lol short and sweet... i take it you didnt have a great day.....lol its ok. heres my report for campbel, DEAD............ i talked to a guy that was there everyday all day from the day fish and wildlife saidthey stocked it and he said he never once saw the truck come.... oh welll it was a nice day and it was good to get out and no boat traffice what so ever besides a couple other fishing boats... on the way home we stopped.... well tried to stop by mcmurray and we couldnt even get to the launch. cars and trailers parked on the street almost to highway 9!!! what a zoo. hopefully the traffic will die down soon so i can get on the lake for the first time. thanks for the report mike!

[Mike Carey]

OK, here's the full version:

It was a tough morning on the water at Rattlesnake. Weather conditions were great, upper 40s, calm, partly cloudy. For the day after Opening Day there were not that many anglers, maybe a dozen or so boats, floats, and pontoons, and several groups of shore anglers. Kinda nice...

I settled into trolling mainly a black wooley bugger on either floating line with a strike indicator, and later intermidiate sinking line. Caught 3 planters from 6-10", and lost several others. Seemed like most others were having similar results. The hardware guys looked to be doing a bit better. Water level looks good, just right. Big change in regs coming May 1st - catch and release ONLY, special regs apply. Also, very clearly marked at the boat launch - no combustable motors allowed on the lake.

Hopefully the ctach and release change will spell the end of the power baiters on this lake, of which there were several today.

*Note, no offense to the powerbait anglers. It's just annoying to see people using bait on Rattlesnake (and illegal).

[Rich McVey]

I didnt fish myself Saturday but I took junior to the local pond for a few hours. The power bait just didnt cut the muster but the group next to us with the red salmon egges did great. We smoked the 1 fish that was caught and he enjoyed it along with the salmon we had for dinner.

[fishingmachine]

As gian said we hit up pine and slayed them.
It was constant.
We easily hit over 150 trout with some actually being decent sized with one being around 18in.
All great fun though.