I got the kayak out on Lake Bosworth (small lake in Snohomish County) yesterday and today to test several things, including my new fish finder and Wilderness Systems battery. I went there to target bass, thinking that a fish finder would let me find some structure that most other boats on the "no gas motor" lake wouldn't find. Unfortunately, I found a nice smooth bottom over most of the south end of the lake. After fishing for about three hours trying a senko worm around the docks instead, I gave up bass fishing and decided to finish my limit of rainbow trout that I had three of just from dragging a power egg behind the kayak while I was bass fishing. I put the bass rod away and got out the other trout rod, dragging power eggs behind me with only a swivel and the hook with the eggs on it. It didn't take terribly long to get the other two trout for my limit of five, with the two biggest ones just barely on each side of 13 inches. When I got home and cleaned the trout, I was surprised to see that both the biggest ones had stomachs full of baby largemouth bass. The one that was just under 13 inches had six in its stomach and it still hit the power egg reasonably hard.

I went out again today and got an earlier start, hoping to have some topwater fun and focusing only on bass. I was rigged up and on the water a bit before seven (still way too late to be close to first light). I've seen a few frogs around the lake so I started out with a frog working the lily pads. After more than an hour, I hadn't had so much as a follow that I was aware of so I decided it was too late for topwater and switch to a shallow/floating shadrap. Within about 20 minutes, I caught two largemouth bass that were both about the same size (see lunker picture below ). That got me encouraged and I worked the edges of the lily pads and docks for another hour but never got another hit. Like the previous day, I decided to just focus on trout so I'd have more fish to put in the smoker this evening, and even that took a lot longer than I expected but I did eventually get my limit of five.

Both yesterday and today, some of the trout that I caught had some sort of parasites on them. I think they're copepods, as the pictures I see online of trout with copepods look exactly like these. There was only one that had lots of them. Of course that one swallowed the hook and was already bleeding by the time I got it to the boat, so I kept it. I thought about using the pliers/knife to get the hook out and feeding it to the bald eagle that sits in the tree by my friend's place I launch from. That eagle is attentive enough that I can toss a fish 30+ feet away from a boat or pier, or just paddle that far from it, and he'll be on it within a minute or two.

I don't see any pictures... [emoji848]

Fixed...

Btw I fished Bosworth about a week ago for trout. I must have caught and released 30-35 in a few hours. Those are definitely copepods on the trout.