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Stevens Lake Report
Snohomish County, WA

Details

04/15/2010
Trolling
Rainbow Trout
Worms
Red
Mack's Wedding Ring
Morning
04/20/2010
5
1443

Fished Lake Stevens thursday of last week, originally went out for kokanee but nailed a couple rainbows and decided to target them today rather than run up north for the kokes. Turned out to be a GREAT decision. Fished most of the day from 200 yards south to 200 yards north of Wyatt Park trolling weddingring/worm/corn combos and C&R'ed upwards of 40 fish between my fishing partner and I. Pretty much averaged 2-3 fish per pass between us most of them 14-18" with one exception.... my partner hooked and landed an absolute pig, the biggest non-triploid rainbow trout of his life! Came in at 7lbs 2oz on my digital scale and put up an impressive fight!! Went back out on Saturday to go for kokanee, our original target species a few days before, and we got into the fish almost instantly. Ended up putting about 10 keeper sized kokes in the 14" range in the box, lost a couple others, caught and released 2 small cutthroat and 2 small rainbows as well. For kokanee we were running Dodgers w/ either a weddingring/worm combo (used 50/50 color, brass/chrome spinner w/ UV reflective dodger) or an Ace Hifly junior with corn. Also caught several flatlining needlefish behind Seps Micro Troll popgear. Great couple of days on the water, this lake is starting to warm up nicely, surface temp was 53*


Comments

earchcobber
4/20/2010 5:44:00 PM
great report thank you
The Quadfather
4/20/2010 6:32:00 PM
Thanks for the very detailed info. Reports like this are easy to look up, and then plan what/where you are going to do before getting there. Nice!
SMOKERCRAFT1
4/20/2010 6:32:00 PM
Nice job, I almost went to stevens but decided to try flowing lake, big mistake! on my part, thanks for the info.
pilchuck
4/20/2010 11:09:00 PM
How come you did not leave a report Last time you left a thread?? Hmm...
'OL GREY DOG
4/21/2010 6:00:00 AM
GEEZZZIIISSSSS
C&R 40 FISH USE'N BAIT???
Matt
4/21/2010 6:59:00 AM
Pilchuck - I live about 5 minutes from Stevens and fish it almost every day. Not always time for a report but I thought this one people might be interested in.

'OL GREY DOG - Many of the fish were taken on just the wedding ring with no bait. C&R'ed fish were NOT removed from the water or handled. Taken off quickly with pliers. I appreciate the concern, but as a fisheries biologist I understand the implications of using bait for C&R
gmrpyle
4/21/2010 1:32:00 PM
nice report, however the regs sayTROUT: The combined daily limit for an angler that fishes in both rivers and lakes on the same day is 5 TROUT. In the combined
daily limit, only 2 TROUT may be from rivers, except as provided for EASTERN BROOK TROUT.
Brown Trout Cutthroat Trout
Rainbow Trout Lake Trout
Golden Trout Kokanee
TIGER TROUT Landlocked
Grayling Atlantic ,
Chinook ,
and Coho Salmon
In rivers, streams, and beaver ponds: Min. size 8". Daily limit 2. When fishing with bait, all TROUT
(except STEELHEAD) equal to or greater than the minimum size are counted as part of the daily limit
whether kept or released.
In lakes, ponds, and reservoirs: No min. size. Daily limit 5. When fishing with bait, all TROUT
(except STEELHEAD) equal to or greater than the minimum size are counted as part of the daily limit
whether kept or released.
Eastern Brook Trout
(EBT)
In rivers, streams, and beaver ponds: No min. size. Daily limit 5. Anglers may keep up to 5
EASTERN BROOK TROUT (EBT), but no more than 5 TROUT total, and no more than 2 can be other
TROUT species. In lakes, ponds, and reseviors: Count as part of the 5 TROUT daily limit.
Steelhead Min. size 20". Daily limit 2. No more than 2 STEELHEAD may be retained as part of TROUT combined
daily limit. STEELHEAD may be caught and released until the daily limit is retained.
WILD STEELHEAD RETENTION RULES: one wild STEELHEAD per license year may be retained
from one of the following rivers: Bogachiel River, Calawah River, Clearwater River, Dickey River,
Green/Duwamish River, Hoh River, Hoko River, Pysht River, Quillayute River, Quinault River, or Sol
Duc River, as listed in the special rules. No annual limit for hatchery STEELHEAD.
Dolly Varden /Bull Trout When listed as open under the special rules, count as part of the TROUT combined daily limit for rivers. just to be clear you said you were using bait worms and corn. future reference you may now want to admit to poaching on the internet
Plecoptera
4/21/2010 2:01:00 PM
Well I hope your not a fish bio for WDFW, because you would be breaking your own agencies rules. As gmrpyle demonstrates above, all trout > min size that are caught on bait must be counted towards the daily limit even if released. I worked on a C&R study for rainbow trout and bait significantly increased mortality. There is a reason the state has this rule in place.
TomD
4/21/2010 9:10:00 PM
So Matt... getting back to more intersting topics... did any of the kokanee you caught have parasites on them? I got a limit up there today and all of them were pretty much covered in something that looked a bit like sealice, but smaller and with a double tail structure. they were in the gills and on most of the fin insertion points...
Matt
4/22/2010 4:43:00 PM
Thank you for posting that regulation for me, you have helped me greatly...... (sarcasm) You guys make me laugh till I cry. Quit your whistle blowing and whining and get out and fish.

TomD, thank you for actually bringing about a relevant point. Yes, the majority of the fish I have been catching out of Stevens (kokanee specifically) have had parasites on them. A game warden for the Colville Confederated Tribes told me what they are called but the name evades me presently. They are harmless to consume, although sometimes can become disgustingly overabundant on the fish themselves (to the point no one in their right mind would eat them). I noticed on these fish that many of the parasites are centralized around and in the gills of this fish, I believe this to be a product of the fish filtering water and plankton through there gills while feeding, although this is pure speculation. I have noticed this same phenomena in Twin Lakes in Ferry County except it was much much worse, many of the trout we caught out of there were completely overwhelmed by these little buggers to the point I could hardly stomach handling them to remove my hook. From what I can tell it may have something to do with the oxygen content of the lake among a variety of other factors. Twin Lakes has been suffering from rapidly declining dissolved oxygen content over the past decade and the presence of these parasites appears to be increasing inversely as DO levels decrease. Stevens is a very unhealthy lake; although DO levels have been greatly increased through the implementation of the central aeration system other more lethal factors (mainly pollution from lakeside development) are playing huge factors in the expedited eutrophication of this lake. It is a sad reality faced by many of Western WA's larger lakes; Washington, Sammamish, Stevens, and Whatcom to name just a few.
Matt
4/22/2010 4:46:00 PM
BTW gmrpyle I can't believe you are accusing me of poaching. Are you really that stupid?
fishin' kid
4/4/2011 9:35:00 AM
Some people need to learn to how get there lines wet instead of posting rules and regulations on this sight. Yeah matt did overfish but im sure that none of the people taddle taling on hi would of stopped either. Congrats to Matt on one heck of a day!!!
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service

Phone: (509) 687-0709