G-Man
9/29/2014 11:13:00 AMLooks like we are slowly zeroing in on this fishery. Thanks for the report!
ARK
9/29/2014 2:34:00 PMMotley, where do you launch when fishing the north end of Lake Washington? I'm only familiar with the south end of the lake. I would like to try the coho fishing in that area, esp. with the strong run now entering the lake. Thanks
motley
9/29/2014 3:01:00 PMArk, I live on the east side so I use the I-90 launch so it takes me about a ten minute run to get up to Juanita bay. I believe the Kirkland ramp would be fastest. I did graph a good number of fish on the north side of 520 on the Seattle side as well on the way back to the launch. Good luck. If you see a chrome Duckworth with a tower on it that's me...Good luck!!
G-Man
9/29/2014 3:42:00 PMKirkland launch is a bit of a pain. No place to park and you need an access card until November 1st rolls around. If you live north of the lake, launch out of Bothell/Kenmore using the WDFW launch. Magnuson is probably the best bet if you live on the west side or south of Seattle as it is pretty much a straight shot across to Kirkland. If you don't mind motoring at idle speed for a while, you can launch at the Sunnyside launch next to Gas Works Park for free.
ARK
9/29/2014 3:55:00 PMThanks...I may just motor up from the Atlantic Launch....flat water I can travel between 25 and 30mph. I'll be in a 16ft. Alumiweld Stryker.
rseas
9/29/2014 5:03:00 PMSounds like a great day on the water. In viewing your fish via a 1" x 2" photo on my phone it looks like you have a kokanee there.
downriggeral
9/29/2014 8:54:00 PMHmmmm....looks like a kokanee to me too. Nice fish motley and crew!
iwnt2retire
9/30/2014 12:16:00 PMI live in Renton so I use Coulon it takes about 20 minutes to run to Kirkland. less to the 520 bridge. You can cut a few minutes by going to the Newport boat launch of the Coal Creek parkway exit off 405. Going north take a left under freeway stay on that road and you will come to the launch.
RUNNOFT
9/30/2014 5:18:00 PMCurious of what speed you are trolling. I usually fish the south end of Mercer Island and went and tried north of 520 both Sat and Sun and couldn't buy a bite. Metered a crap ton of bait between 60-90 ft and dragged hoochies in pink, white, green etc and brad's cut plugs at all speeds from 1 up to 2.5 mpg and everywhere in between. Super frustrating. Any tips? Usually on the south lake those would all get bit.
motley
10/1/2014 2:46:00 PMWell after looking at the most recent coho and kokanee post pics it looks like or fish was a coho jack. We were trolling between 1.2 and 1.7 mph. The spinner we were using had a minnow reflective blade and a chrome body with pink beads at top and bottom tipped with cured shrimp. 8 inch reflective dodger with about 3 ft of leader.
G-Man
10/1/2014 3:10:00 PMFirst off it is a coho, the fin has been clipped and sockeye are left intact. Technically it is a jack as the regs define them as coho under 20" long. How was the color of the meat? I ask as there are some resident fish in the lake and their flesh is rather pale in comparison to ocean going fish.
motley
10/1/2014 3:29:00 PMG-Man thx for the response cause I was starting to doubt myself for awhile. I grew up catching kokanee on Ketchuless. I know I spelled it wrong sorry...My uncle ate it that night and said the flesh was bright red!!! I can't wait to get back out there.