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First post, so hello everyone! Ended up at Lake Wooten today, even thought it was not the intended destination. If anyone in here has read "Washington Fishing" by Moon Outdoors, you can probably agree that it's usually a great reference guide for finding spots to fish. I was looking for the "Dewatto Area Lakes" down south today, i.e. Tee, Cady, Aldrich, U, Don lakes. I was only able to find the first two on that list, and for Cady I couldn't find a boat ramp, only a "Bed and Breakfast", which looked like someone's house. Most of the side roads off Dewatto road were all gated off, so I'm assuming they have closed the lakes for the season.
Anyways, decided to flip through the book and head back up the road to Lake Wooten to try and troll up some 'bows for the frying pan. Wind has been an issue for me lately, as my 14' G3 PF boat weighs about 400lbs empty and gets blown around like paper mache. Not today though, as the water looked like glass and was crystal clear. Got going and started out with a silver midsize needlefish behind a small 3-blade lake troll, luhr jensen troll ease rudder, 10lb. fireline on a Berkley Cherrywood Graphite 7' MH rod with a shimano calcutta reel. I mention the gear as it becomes relevant later.
After 30 minutes with the needlefish and no bites, I switched up to a blue/silver K7 kwikfish and trolled a black wolly bugger on the fly rod. Still nothing. Put the fly pole up and switched to a red beaded wedding ring tipped with power corn, and after 5 minutes I landed a 6 inch rainbow. Rejuvenated, I trolled the wedding ring a while longer, got nothing, and switched to a tiny gold triple teazer tipped with the corn.
Ten minutes go by and I get a hit and pull up a 10" stocker. After I released him, I put the rod in the rod holder and let the line dangle about 4 feet under water while I get some more corn. All of a sudden, my rod jerks down really hard and comes back up, the sign of something huge at the other end. I whip around in my seat and reach to take the rod out of the holder, and as I get the handle clear, the pole jerks down hard again, right out of my hand, and off into the abyss.
After watching about $350 worth of gear disappear into the 30' of water I was sitting in, I tossed the anchor and tied on a 1/2oz crippled herring onto my ugly stick backup rod and began casting and dragging the treble hook back across the bottom in hopes of snagging the line. After about an hour of that, I faced the fact that my pole was gone, and I guess it had to be meant to be. The worst part was not getting a glimpse of what grabbed my lure.
So anyways, I stayed another couple hours and trolled up 6 more, including two nice fish, one 14" and one 15", both on a small gold needlefish, and brought those back to the house. Sorry for the long story, but I think it's worth the read. It was all I could do to keep myself from diving in after the rod&reel, but the 40 degree air temperature kept me in the boat. Oh well, it could of been worse. Otherwise good day on the Wooten, I'll be back soon.
--Van
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