Report: Lake Washington/Sammamish

Launched to a steady breeze and warm temps. Went straight out to one of my fav spots and dropped the downrigger. All of two minutes later and I had my first fish on and t felt good. Got it to color and turned out to be a blackmouth at about 20" so CNR'd. Got into a school of cutties and pulled up about 7 w/ the best only making 11". Moved to a new spot and did the same w/ blackmouth (about 7) until the Lami got slammied! Heavy fish for this light rod and two minutes later was looking at what I'm pretty sure was a steelhead. Started going nuts at the surface and unbuttoned. Kinda got frustrated w/ all the undersize fish so packed up the gear and hit up Sammamish for some bass. Got into a bunch but none over 13.5". Picked up a pretty cutty so CPR'd and called it a day.

Z

 

Nice report!
Sounds like fun!

Where did you launch at?  Strange that I missed a bright yellow kayak trolling and  I was at both lake's too... time for a vision test I guess.
Bass huh?  What was the H2O temp where you were catching them? what depth?  Any bedding? How did you catch them? 

It's Aliveeeeeee!!


Shiny little upgrade... Good action at least

Where did you launch at?  Strange that I missed a bright yellow kayak trolling and  I was at both lake's too... time for a vision test I guess.
Bass huh?  What was the H2O temp where you were catching them? what depth?  Any bedding? How did you catch them?  

Maybe it was a different day? This is a report for Sat. Sorry we couldn't meet up. Next time for sure.

The water was running 62 on my FF but it's not totally accurate. I'd guess right at 60. Had most my luck on crankbaits. It was some work but when you find a good spot the hookups came pretty fast.

Z

Glad to see you're getting more time on the water this year Zee.  Nice report.  That steelhead sounds like a heartbreaker! 

Glad to see you're getting more time on the water this year Zee.  Nice report.  That steelhead sounds like a heartbreaker! 

The heartbreak is that there are cutties in the lake in excess of 20" that are hard to distinguish since their marking may be confusing or non-existent.  My guess is that it was a cuttie since steelhead are getting rarer in the system and this is not the time of year for them.  But best to be safe than sorry.

Nicely done Zee.  Amazing the difference a week can make.

-Allen

Glad to see you're getting more time on the water this year Zee.  Nice report.  That steelhead sounds like a heartbreaker!  

I think I may be working harder to build waf this year but gotta give big props to the wifey! And it was a heartbreaker. It was nice. (see pic)

The heartbreak is that there are cutties in the lake in excess of 20" that are hard to distinguish since their marking may be confusing or non-existent.

You know you may be right. I found this this pic is from a report on Sammamy. Looks identical to what I got and since Samm and Wash. are connected...

Sounds like a good outing.  I intended to join you out there but had a little problem reading the entire post..... and told the wife that I would need to be free on Sunday instead of Saturday.  Oh well didn't have the downrigger mounted up yet anyway.

Sounds like a good outing.  I intended to join you out there but had a little problem reading the entire post..... and told the wife that I would need to be free on Sunday instead of Saturday.  Oh well didn't have the downrigger mounted up yet anyway.

We'll get out there next time. BTW right now you probably don't need a downrigger. I was catching most of my fish at 25-30 FOW. An inline ounce or two of weight should get you down that far.

Z