In late spring of last year, I decided to bottom fish between Mercer Island and Seward Park. I was viewing large signs of fish at the bottom so I put on a couple of flatfish and trolled at around 1 mph for an hour without any success.

What interests me is a description of Lake Washington by the "Washington State Fishing Guide," by Terry W. Sheely, copyright 2006. The guide writes that there are reports of rare Mackinaw in the Lake and that anglers fish for sturgeon. However, in the 20+ years of fishing this lake, I have never heard of anyone catching Mackinaw - an aggressive feeder. Furthermore, I remember the news of an 11 foot sturgeon back in the 80's, but I have never seen or heard of anyone actively harvesting them. I'm curious if the sturgeon have a sustaining population and if there are truly mackinaw in the lake. If there are any mackinaw I would encourage fisherman to harvest as many as possible to control there population as they may decimate the salmon population.

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