My wife and I were in Eastern Washington to visit family. Started in East Wenatchee and my son-in-law, Trevor wanted to do some fishing on Wednesday, his only day off. Our daughter, Joyce and Trevor had moved out to Washington from Ohio this past winter, so Trevor is just beginning to learn Northwest fishing. We headed for Fish Lake and were at lakeside by 6:00 AM. Had to wait for twenty minutes for the office to open... but were entertained by a couple of raccoon while we waited. Boat rented and started trolling down the north shore by 6:45. Temp at outset was 48 degrees, but warming quickly as the sun began to rise higher in the sky... water temp at 70 degrees at 8'. Things started slowly, then as we moved out into deeper water, fish began to hit. Were trolling a variety of spoons and stickbaits and the hot lure at the get-go was a copper Phoebe's Fighting Fish... had hit after hit and landed a dozen Perch from 7" to 9"... Trevor began hitting fish on a silver Rapala and about 8:30 landed a beautiful Rainbow of 13" (all fish C&R). Saw some really big fish splashing at the far west end of the lake, so headed that way and began casting Roostertails... caught a dozen LMB in the 8" to 12" range... never able to entice a big one (don't know if they were LMB... maybe Browns?)
Lake had a heavy algae bloom and the gunk was everywhere... strong southerly wind hit about 11:00 and made trolling difficult, so we headed in by 11:30.
Had fished Fish Lake a couple of times, perhaps twenty-five years ago, so was great to be back on these waters. Will return when the trout fishery will be more promising. Awesome scenery. The fellow at the office had said that several limits of trout had been taken off the dock in the preceding days. With all the fires raging in the area, the lake was surprisingly free of smoke. Lots of smoke coming through Leavenworth. PTL!

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