by The Troutist, October 29, 2013

This is one of my favorite times of year to go chase trophy trout. I love the fact that the boat traffic is very minimal and for the most part all of the speed demons have disappeared. This fishery is not about numbers of fish caught but size, although there are occasions where you just can’t keep them away from your offerings. I will also admit that I like the starting times which for me is generally between 9-10am and I will work the lake until about 3pm. For me five to six hours on the water is generally enough time to produce the one I am looking for.

The first weekend of this month my brother Brett made the trek up here from the Portland area for a three day outing covering Summit and Spencer Lakes. We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather, although a little chilly early on it warmed up into the upper 60’s and lower 70’s making it quite comfortable. This time of year we always keep a few for dinner but we agree that they have to be a minimum of 18-inches. Generally speaking these fish have been in the lake for one to two seasons and sometimes longer. The meat can be a gorgeous pink to a mouth watering deep red color, nice and firm making for great table fare.


Our first stop was to be Thurston County’s Summit Lake. This is a seasonal lake that closes the last day of October and always seems to produce a couple of very nice trout. I never expect the action to be red hot for a bunch of trout in the 10-16 inch range but then again that is not what we are looking for. We arrived at the launch around 8:30am to a complete blanket of fog, visibility was about six feet. The air was cool and crisp; with all of the moisture in the air it seemed colder than it actually was. As I suspected there were only a couple of other boats on the water and one pulling up about the same time we did, in other words perfect.

We started breaking the lake down using a dark olive bugger with a chartreuse mirror Smile Blade, .08 in size. We picked up a few 12-inchers releasing them so that they might get a little bigger to enhance next spring’s action. After a few hours we started dialing them in and Brett brought in the first nice one of the day, a beautiful 21-inch holdover. Then it was my turn bringing a 19-inch bow to the net. Yes things were starting to look up as all of our systematic tactics were bringing the size of trout we were in search of. Thirty minutes later Brett brought another trophy to the net, 22-inches worth of table fare. By the end of the day we had hooked and released 10 very feisty 12-16 inch rainbow and brought home three very pink meated trophies for dinner. That’s what I call a successful fall outing.

Here is a bit of good news for those of you that want to go out and have some fun, it seems Spencer Lake has just been stocked with some very nice rainbows in the 12-16 inch range. Over the period of eight hours split up between two days Brett and I had hooked and released 125 and kept four which we made a gift of to a few of the residents on the lake. I would also like to give them a special shout out and not only hope you enjoyed your dinner but the show we put on hooking and releasing trout. I would also like to thank them for reading my column. Folks I want to tell you the action was so hot and heavy that if you wanted to eat your lunch you had to take your gear out of the water. We worked the whole lake and found them to be everywhere, but as always everyone has their favorite honey holes and Brett and I are no different.

There are so many trout in this lake they practically jump in the boat and go home with you. Grab the family and head on down for a good time. Trolling olive buggers with the Chartreuse Smile Blade was the ticket for us. Verle’s has both these items in stock, I know because we stopped in Saturday afternoon to say howdy.

So until next time may your next trout be your trophy mount. The Troutist-“Uncle Wes” Malmberg.




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