Even though it wasn’t in the forecast, Friday turned out to be a banner day weather wise. Running down the east channel to Seahawks Headquarters, there wasn’t even a ripple on the water. I was trolling a shrimp fly over the sunken forest and picked up a fish in fairly short order. I released the bright 18” fish and worked the area a bit more with no luck. I continued to troll on south towards the mouth of the Cedar and on my way back picked up an undersized 10” kokanee that hit a just under the surface on a mini Apex lure. I spent a couple more hours looking for fish and found at least one lurking above some bait just south of Mercer Island. It wasn’t but shortly after I had dropped my gear down to 45’ that something hit my FST. It looked to be a cutt in the 18” range that had made its way back after spawning and I released it to put on some more weight for the derby. I called it a day shortly thereafter and headed back home. The surface temps were up slightly and averaged about 46 degrees. As for the weather, along with the minimal boat traffic, one couldn’t have asked for a better day. A few more like this and the lake should be out of its winter slumber.

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