Report: Lake Wash. (Sand Point) Sunday 4/29

Hit the water about 7AM to some nice calm water. Threw out a 2" Needlefish behind some lake flashers and started trolling. In only about 10 minutes I had my first hookup with a dink Mackinaw.. cute little bugger. I went south from there trolling in 20' of water. I didn't get anything for a while and figured I needed to be a lot deeper. I pulled out my trusty Pink Lady, used the same lake flashers and upgraded to a 4" Needlefish. Went out to about 80' of water and go the gear to about 50'. 20 minutes later got a beauty of a 'bow @ 16". After that didn't get anything else except got buzzed by a seaplane... he landed not 50' away from me!!

I just cleaned the trout and it's all pink inside like a salmon! Dunno if that's normal for these parts but it looks great!!

Z

Z, sorry I missed out this morning.  I got home late last night and then remembered I didn't have a current WA license.  D'oh!     So I decided to sleep in this morning.

I've never heard of macks in Lake WA.  Any pics of the one you caught?

And that pic of the one on the stringer is most likely a cutthroat.  Not the best pic, but it just looks like one to me.  Perhaps it's the spots.  Either way you slice it, nice fish!!!

-Allen

Something that looks like a mack, out of Lk. Washington, is more likely to be a Dolly Varden, or a Bull trout. In either case, maybe a new one for your lifelist?

To ID a cutthroat, look for orange slashes under the lower jaws.

I'm just catching up on posts and hate to say it but I think you harvested a salmon by the looks of the picture.  That might be a juvenile red which could be a bad deal if you were to got your creel checked.  They take violations of salmon harvest very seriously in this state.   

I dunno if I agree with the salmon ID.  But the picture is not the best, so who knows.  The head size (large) and the spotting lead me to believe it's a cutthroat.  Even the tail, while slightly forked, isn't quite forked "right" for a salmon.  And 16" would be large for sockeye this time of year.

-Allen

I hear you but I don't see the orange markings on the throat so it's probably not a cutt.  It doesn't look much like a rainbow.  Given the color of the meat he described, salmon is the logical guess.     

Cuttbow hybrid is a possibility; I seriously doubt it's a sockeye or any other kind of salmon.

The cutts in the lake do have pink meat.  And like PS says, it could be a cuttbow and hence the lack of a visible slash.

-Allen

Nice fish!

How about a female Steelhead? Their meat is a beautiful orangish pink color. I caught one last year in Lake W (18") and it looked very similar. You are good to keep it at under 20" anything over must be released.
Sea run Cutthoat return to fresh water in the fall. The upper jaw usually extends beyond the eye. And they don't always have the orange/red slash under their jaw. Even so, it looks more like a steelie to me.
But, if it is a hybrid all bets are off as to what funky genetic changes it has adopted.  BTW - most fish guides throw back these hybrids as the powers that be may ticket for a cross bred species. No hard and fast rules just depends on the individual game warden.
My recomendation is to keep a copy of the regs in your dry bag until you get used to all the special rules and species.
There is also a WDFG rule update that can get sent to your email inbox. They also include a weekender report.

Very handy,

Kurt