Me and my friend Jay went out on lake Sammamish on Saturday. it was a joy to have weather that didn't hail/rain or sleet on us. It was a great day with no wind. We got out there around 7:00am and almost immediately we hooked a beautiful Kokanee estimated at 16inches. The Kokanee on Lake Sammamish are large in comparison to Kokanee I've caught anywhere else. These fish have been endangered for a long time and it seems as though the population of them is picking up. (I really hope so). It is still ILLEGAL to keep any Kokanee from Lake Sammamish due to the low #s. We wound up fishing just inside of the Weather buoy on the East side and trolled approximately 1/4 mile east from there towards the Boat ramp at the State Park. We managed to pick about 9 Kokanee all between 10-17 inches and a few trout between 12 and 16 inches within 3 hours. the midday was slow.I noticed that there is a parasite on the Kokanee that is leaving lesions on the side and mouth of the fish. It was evident by the # of Kokanee that would leap several feet out of the water and slap the surface, that this parasite is a nuisance to them. Does anyone know what this parasite is and if it kills the fish?

The Bass fishing was still slower than I expected with the sun up and the heat, however, the Lake temperature was still in the upper 50's. It was nice that the 95 bass boats that were on Lake Washington Saturday in a tournament stayed there. I've noticed a tremendous increase in bass fishing activity on this lake. I just want to remind the fellow fishermen out there, that this is the bass spawn season and tournaments do hurt the spawn. While I promote fishing, I hate to see large tournaments whereby anglers rip bass from their beds. There are so many panfish that invade the bass beds when the bass are gone from them that it does effect the spawn. I would promote tournaments a little more after spawn season.

BassinBomber

5/18/2009 5:38:00 PM

I agree with promoting Tournies AFTER the Spawn is done!

BB

The Quadfather

5/18/2009 6:32:00 PM

A common parasite found on fish in the Sound is Sea Lice. I would have to believe there must be a similar salt water version. You should Google Puget Sound Sea Lice for images... see if it looks familiar to you. The cutts and Rez. silvers in the Sound will jump and slap the water in a way that seems to make you think they are trying to shake the lice thing. I don't know,, just a thought.
Nice report you gave, thanks.

fishtimidator

5/18/2009 11:14:00 PM

Amen!! LET THEM SPAWN!!

tracker44

5/18/2009 11:15:00 PM

I agree tournaments should not be held during the spawn fish removed from beds and transported miles away will reduce future numbers of bass May and early June are bad times to hold a bass tourney and dragging these fish around all day in a live well when they are trying spawn is very hard on them. I love bass fishing but without the good numbers of bass its not the same.

tracker44

5/18/2009 11:19:00 PM

I have seen this parasite many times but only in sammamish and lake Washington but never on spiney rayed fish they remind me of sea lice and love to be on kokanee the most.

The Jigmiester

5/18/2009 11:25:00 PM

Every second off of the bed, the quicker that sunfish and others can eat what could of been a successful Bass spawn! Wish the tourney guys and the Game dept would look into the possible unintended effects of taking Nesting bass during tournaments by tagging bass and tracking to see if they ever return to the area they were caught. Definately agree with tourneys only during pre-spawn and post...NOT during. TJM

Fishn4ever

5/19/2009 3:27:00 PM

This is Jay the Guy that went out fishing with steelehead 64389. Although the parasite looks like a sea lice I look up sea lice and the experts say that the sea lice can't tolerate fresh water. What we saw were definitely parasitic the fish had multiple parasites and many of the parasites were located near the gills. I also agree that tournaments should not be help during the spawn. I know most bass fisherman out there handle there bass careful and release most of what they catch. I am should from another state where seasons were closed during the spawning periods of most fish. This may not be should here and if you catch a bass on a bed and release it at the location where you caught it the impact is minimal. But take that same bass and put him in a live well for 8 hours and release it on the other end of the lake it has to have an impact.

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