So this is a 2 day 3 area report in one since the other 2 were a bust and not worth putting into a report but will post a couple pictures of those when done.

Saturday AM- Wasn't sure where to fish, saltwater for kings and crabs, American lake, Meridian, Angle or Lake WA. I had been invited down in the afternoon to Longview to stay over night at my buddys house so we could hit the Columbia at O dark 30 for a chance at some of those summer steelhead on his sled. So I decided to hit the lake that was open at 5am and close and that was Lake WA.

Hit Gene Coulon at 5:30 and headed out to start trolling at the south tip of Mercer~ I thought it was going to be a beautiful calm morning with sunny skies and flat waters but was greeted with a stiff north wind and a thick marine layer. OK, strike 1! Before I made it out of the marina my main motor died and wouldn't start~ strike 2! Fired up the kicker and decided I may as well start my troll off the mouth of the Cedar but when I turned on my fish finder it started beeping and flashing, turning off and on by itself! Strike 3!

Not to be swayed or discouraged from my quest, I had brought along my portable fishing buddy sidewinder just for a day like this so strapped it on the side of the boat, turned it on ( had put fresh batteries in it recently) hooked up my down rigger and started my troll over to Mercer with a Brad's cut plug set at 28'.. as I was making the turn West got a strong hit on the cut plug but missed it. Now I noticed a lot of dead shiners or shad on the surface and thought that looked like an easy meal for a cutthroat so put on a 3" gulp shad with a spin-and-glo and bead ahead of it and set it back down at 21'. No sooner did I do that when I got a vicious take that popped it off the clip and a fish leaped out behind the boat! Got her in and it was nice 17" er.

Decided try some different things today and since I didn't have big motor would be covering a lot of water to eventually make my way back to the launch. Was marking a lot of sockeye on my fishing buddy so wanted to stay away from the type of gear so tied on a green hootchie with a green chartruese dodger and green gulp maggots and started working my way along the west side of Mercer when the wind stopped, the clouds burned off and it was turning into a beautiful day! Got 2 more on the green hootchie set up before making my way over to the cove at Seward park where I was going to attempt to fix my motor and fish finder. Called my friend who has the same lowrance that I have and he said to just turn it on and wait it out and it should be fine. Low and behold he was right!! After a few annoying moments it stopped beeping was working just fine~ next I checked my fuel lines and notice a kink where the fuel line goes under the steering arm and was pinched off so cut off 3" of it and went to start it and was delighted to hear it roar to life!!

So what started as a discouraging morning turned out to be a beautiful afternoon so went home to get ready for my southern WA fishing trip. This turned out to be too long a report so will report the other 2 soon

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