Cutthroat Trout Action on Lake Washington

Very nice

Brad and I both landed some hogs yesterday (luck on my part  and skill on his part) and a few other ones were caught too. He's got the photos.

Here's Ray's fish.  A beauty that got released. We didn't measure it but it was very close in size to mine (guessing 22 to 23inches).  Still waiting on my photos from Yaktrap which I'll post later. 

Heading back out there today.

Oh man that looks so exciting.  I cannot maintain my excitment.  I wanna be out there right now!!!

Glorious. Trident, though?  I got used to seeing the SINK on Facebook. Both are sweet looking boats, though.  Tough choices you have there! Jealous of your hot cuttie action.

Mine is rubber coated nylon which works great.  The net extends which works well from a kayak.

I'm not a fan of the lip grippers.  We only held it there momentarily to get the photo and avoid flopping out of the boat, not to land the fish.

not in any way criticizing you Brad. Just creating awareness for all the new and aspiring fisherman out there.


-Rodney-

That was actually helpful. I didn't know about that, especially keeping in mind that those grippers are considered (at least sold as) one of the safest ways to handle caught fish. Thanks for sharing!

Can somebody told me what should I know to catch trout? These fish seem to be really nice.

I have another question... I checked the regulations and I don't see the reason of releasing fish (unless, of course, it is catch and release fishing). Seems like you can retain them because as of moment of now state-wide rules are in effect at Lake Washington - limit 5, no minimal size? Am I right or do I misread the rules? (Why these rules are written in the way when one needs a PhD in law to read them?)

Can also somebody advice me on how to target carp? It isn't going to be my "mainstream" fish, but I have some interest in it.

Can somebody told me what should I know to catch trout? These fish seem to be really nice.

I have another question... I checked the regulations and I don't see the reason of releasing fish (unless, of course, it is catch and release fishing). Seems like you can retain them because as of moment of now state-wide rules are in effect at Lake Washington - limit 5, no minimal size? Am I right or do I misread the rules? (Why these rules are written in the way when one needs a PhD in law to read them?)

Can also somebody advice me on how to target carp? It isn't going to be my "mainstream" fish, but I have some interest in it.

Trolling small spoons in chrome or brass varieties worked well recently, but as water temps drop to the low 50's they seem to like bigger presentations like Rapalas and even whole herring rigged to spin, or a cut-plug lure. Of course, books have been written on the how-to of trout fishing, but I like fishing more than reading how-to-fish books.

My method:  Buy one of everything in the tackle store, drag each one around until I find one that works for that day. Begin the whole process over again the next time I go out, starting with another trip to the tackle store.

Yes, the limit is 5 cutthroat per day. I've been told that WDFW wants them out as they eat a lot of salmon smolts in the spring. But good luck getting 5 per day that is an exceptional day. Three of us were out today from 930 until 3 resulting in a single 11" Cutty. Seems the bite has gone cold in the past few days. Maybe they want a new lure, I'd better stop in at the tackle store tomorrow.

ColdFusion-  the higher food chain fish like cuts in lake Washington also bio accumulate a quite a few toxins and I think the state recommends eating no more than 2 servings a week I think so I can see releasing fish for that reason as well.

My method:  Buy one of everything in the tackle store, drag each one around until I find one that works for that day. Begin the whole process over again the next time I go out, starting with another trip to the tackle store.

Pretty soon the tackle shop is going to be calling me when they run out of stock.

ColdFusion-  the higher food chain fish like cuts in lake Washington also bio accumulate a quite a few toxins and I think the state recommends eating no more than 2 servings a week I think so I can see releasing fish for that reason as well.

I eat about 8 servings of Lake WA cut throat per week at this time of year. I just had some for dinner in fact. It's one of my favorite fish during this time of year, the pre-spawning period. Obviously, I don't buy into the WDFW recommendations. I've read the study they cobbled together to determine their recommendation, and marine chemistry was a large part of my doctorate. At best it's a "C" in the 6th grade science fair. It would be laughed at if submitted to any scientific journal. I still put most of them back, but I almost always have some in fridge at this time of year. I'll let you know when I start getting facial twitching from all the toxins. Your choice of course, but I make up my own mind on what I eat. And I'll take a fresh trout over a store bought chunk of aquaculture fish any day of the week.

Can somebody told me what should I know to catch trout? These fish seem to be really nice.

I have another question... I checked the regulations and I don't see the reason of releasing fish (unless, of course, it is catch and release fishing). Seems like you can retain them because as of moment of now state-wide rules are in effect at Lake Washington - limit 5, no minimal size? Am I right or do I misread the rules? (Why these rules are written in the way when one needs a PhD in law to read them?)

Can also somebody advice me on how to target carp? It isn't going to be my "mainstream" fish, but I have some interest in it.

Trolling small spoons in chrome or brass varieties worked well recently, but as water temps drop to the low 50's they seem to like bigger presentations like Rapalas and even whole herring rigged to spin, or a cut-plug lure. Of course, books have been written on the how-to of trout fishing, but I like fishing more than reading how-to-fish books.

My method:  Buy one of everything in the tackle store, drag each one around until I find one that works for that day. Begin the whole process over again the next time I go out, starting with another trip to the tackle store.

Yes, the limit is 5 cutthroat per day. I've been told that WDFW wants them out as they eat a lot of salmon smolts in the spring. But good luck getting 5 per day that is an exceptional day. Three of us were out today from 930 until 3 resulting in a single 11" Cutty. Seems the bite has gone cold in the past few days. Maybe they want a new lure, I'd better stop in at the tackle store tomorrow.

Thank you so much! I want to give it a try later this year.

I'm curious if people fish in winter. Seems like nothing has to prohibit fishing, unless water gets hard (below freezing point), which is almost never a case in Puget Sound area

ColdFusion-  the higher food chain fish like cuts in lake Washington also bio accumulate a quite a few toxins and I think the state recommends eating no more than 2 servings a week I think so I can see releasing fish for that reason as well.

Well... Despite what Yaktrap have said already, I've always been sort of suspicious about these "toxin" claims.

First of all, if you read the paper you will see that they admit by themself that it can be inaccurate, because max level of toxins can be found in spine and skin. You never eat (at least I don't) spine, and while it is possible to eat skin and a lot of people do - there is no need to do so. Within the research they mixed bones, spine and meat and made analysis, which doesn't seem to be right.

Another thought on this topic comes from simple observation. A lot of people claim that any bottom fish in Puget Sound has very high level of toxins and must not be eaten under any circumstances. However, the same people don't mind to eat Puget Sound crab, which essentially eats bottom fish and pretty much everything eatable. Moreover, commercial boats catch crab and we buy it in grocery stores. Do they have any quality control? I don't know for sure, as I'm new to the area and not in fishing business, but assume that control has to be pretty strict.

Another though on this topic comes from some reading. I was researching topic of salmon parasites, because whole idea is quite new to me and my wife strongly opposed idea of eating anything which might have even tiny chance of parasites. So I had to do homework, because it seemed to be silly to do not eat such a good fish as salmon is. So I found 2 interesting blog posts on this topic:
Parasites in Fish, Part 1 -- Cod worm
Parasites in Fish, Part 2 -- Anisakis and Tapeworm
Besides mainstream topic of the blog posts, the have a very interesting idea:

Are you ready to swear of sushi yet? Not so fast. If you are a US resident, keep in mind that you live in a country that just threw away every single bag of spinach because of E.Coli threat. You don't think FDA would allow anything remotely dangerous to be served to the US public, do you?

Applying the same idea to commercial crabbing I would say that the risk of growing a second penis out of eating Puget Sound crab is quite low.

Which makes whole toxin story is less and less realistic.

How does it apply to Lake Washington? I think there is little to no difference between Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

I'm sorry for derailing this thread with a whole discussion about toxins--I really didn't mean to distract from the awesome fish NWKA members have been hauling out of Lake Washington.

Thanks for the second opinion, Yaktrap.  I'm a long, long way from eating 2 servings of Lake Washington trout, much less 8, but won't worry so much about it having heard that the report is questionable based on a critical read by a qualified eye.

how was fridays fishing? I saw your truck parked at the arboretum brad.