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Busy, busy, busy; it is hard to sit down and type out a report for a Sunday trip. That said here it is, but first a little personal history. I grew up just a short bike ride from the north end of Lake Washington. Before I had a car and even after I guess I spent many hours fishing off the old dilapidated wharf at what used to be called Log Boom Park (LOL, or what the Bothell and Inglemoor High School students referred to as “Rubber Beach”) I caught everything from salmon to perch off that old dock, there were even rumors that an old lady that was sort of a fixture down there had caught a sturgeon while fishing for catfish.
About the time I turned 14 I talked my dad into letting me buy a 16’ no-name boat with a 10HP Evinrude hanging off the back. Come Saturday or Sunday morning (assuming I could con my parents into hauling my boat to the Samamish River ramp in Kenmore) I spent a majority of my time exploring my aquatic paradise, the north end of Lake Washington. The boat didn’t really do anything to increase the variety of fish I caught but in season I became a bit of a salmon fishing legend. When I was 16 or 17 a startup tackle shop in Kenmore even had me do a Lake Washington salmon seminar. Chinook, coho were abundant at the time and now I attribute my success, less to skill than to the sheer numbers of salmon that were available.
That was then, now I struggle with the overall Lake Washington fishery. I would consider myself a fairly good fisherman and am successful almost anywhere I/we fish. That said Lake Washington gives me fits. I only have an opportunity to fish it once or twice a year and when I do I go overboard in preparing for the trip and attack it with a plan but the fishing never seems to go as planned.
Sunday’s trip was no exception; I struggled to catch my targeted species, the elusive Lake Washington coho. I wasn’t sure where to rate the day; on one hand I had some sort of action all day long, on the other I struggled putting a coho in the box. My day on the water almost didn’t happen. We had gone to the casino and saw “Cash’d Out” a Johnny Cash tribute band from San Diego and didn’t get home until midnight. Then I had to tie up a bunch of LW coho leader/hoochie combos and get the boat ready. My motivation level was less than it could have been but I pushed forward and had the boat in the water at a reasonable hour (for a fisherman). Motoring out of the slough I was thinking this was going to be my day, well not so much but it was a good day on the water.
Considering our current weather patterns I figured that there would be somewhere around 25,000 Coho holding along the dropoff just SW of Arrowhead Point so as soon as I crossed the 60’ mark I ran the gear down. I started with a gold plug and targeted meter marks. Right off the bat I hooked and landed a 7 or 8# fire truck but released it. From that point I had a couple drive bys and then decided to change gear. I changed the plug out for an 8”Cop Car flasher and a green mini hoochie. Great plan and it seemed that the 12”-18” coho loved it but I could not find an adult that was interested. I finally decided that the area was loaded with jacks and it was time to move down lake to the Hunt/Yarrow Point area.
There were already about 10 boats in the Hunt/Yarrow Point area and in talking to a few of them it appeared that fishing was dead with a capital D. I decided to run the Cop Car flasher again but this time it was followed by a double glow blue/white mini hoochie. Fishing 70-85 feet of water for about an hour every time I ran the gear down I immediately started hooking a combination of kokanee, rainbow and pike minnows (more on them later). Occasionally changing gear I fished the area for a couple hours but couldn’t find a coho. It was time to move…
From the Hunt Point/Yarrow Point area I moved to the Kirkland Area. There were another 10 or so boats working the area in front of the city park/boat launch. In talking with a few of then it was the same story as with Hunt Point, it was a sloooooooow Sunday morning. Slow or not I fished anyway and started with a chartruse/green 8”flasher and a white mini hoochie running at approximately 48-60’ in 70-90 feet of water. Again no coho and I was catching more kokanee, rainbow and pike minnows. I decided to change to a flame red/sparkle plug and chase meter marks with it. Gear down and oh crap I just snagged the bottom… but then the rod goes bendo and I wrestle the biggest pike minnow that I have ever seen in. As I released it was burping all kinds of foul smelling goo all over my boat. For a pike minnow it was quite impressive, maybe 5 pounds and around 20”. After decontaminating the plug by rubbing a chunk of salted shrimp around it I continued chasing meter marks. About 20 minutes later something absolutely hammers the plug shaking the whole boat as the clip releases. I’m thinking finally a fish for the box, of course I was proven wrong when the fish turned out to be a very copper colored 12-15 # hatchery Chinook. I had hooked it in the vicinity of Waverly Park and decided to not head back towards Kirkland but moved back towards my old stomping grounds at the north end of the lake.
I returned to Arrowhead Point and started running a variety of plugs along the 40’ contour break”. Shortly after cycling to the gold plug I caught another fire truck coho, I am pretty sure it was the fish that I released earlier in the day. I also found a huge school of perch that I am going to search out with the correct gear on my next trip. Before heading in I decided to hit the 20’ contour line just outside the weed line at the mouth of the Sammamish River. Pulling the gold plug off the downrigger set at 6’ I had a couple drive-bys that I am pretty sure were salmon and then I hooked a fish that turned out to be another moldy chinook. With that my day was done and I headed back up the slough.
I had a very fun day on the water but did not keep a fish for the box. My lake Washington struggle continues and maybe one day I will get my mojo back. Or wrestle it back from the pike minnows anyway, I think that I managed to catch every pike minnow in the lake at least once… I did make one boats day; while trolling an older aluminum boat with three guys and a kid pulls alongside and asked if I was Rseas. I said yes and we discussed the fishing. I said it was pretty slow and they said they had 4 fish. As we pulled away from each other they were all excited that they had out fished Rseas. I didn’t catch who you were but good job, congratulations and I’m jealous…
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