Fish Princesses Rule the Day on Lake Washington – A Fish Princess Story

The Fish Princess and I took my son Keith his friend Jade and her dog Thorin out on Lake Washington for some cutthroat fishing to celebrate Jade’s birthday.

We met at Jade’s place at about 5:45 and had the boat in the water at Coulon Park about 6:30. Started our troll just south of Mercer Island in about 80’ of water. Deployed 4 rods stacked 2 on each downrigger. We fished the American Lake Special with the Blue Goo Simon dodger, a chartreuse Ace Hi Fly with a smile blade, a UV blue Sling Blade with a green wedding ring, and Salmonbarry’s slow death rig. Bait was a combination of earth worms, brined herring, pike minnow, and Berkley Gulp minnows. We trolled depths from 25' - 75' and most everywhere in between. Most productive depths were 35' and 55'. Once again the ALS was the top producer.

We had a perch on before I could even get a second line in the water. Jade reeled in the little fellow and we released it. A little while after that, we had another bite and I passed this one to the birthday girl as well hoping for a cutthroat, but turned out to be a pike minnow about 12”. We tossed that one in the bait bucket and kept fishing. Finally about an hour or so in we got a good take down and had a fish that pulled a little line off the drag. The Fish Princess expertly angled a plump 14” RBT to net and with that it was officially SKUNK OFF! In turn I managed to put each of my guests into a keeper fish with Jade and then Keith coming away with cutthroat in the 15” – 17” class. As usual Thorin was a well-behaved fish dog and he thoroughly enjoyed the ride. He was even kind enough to lick the blood off the deck for me…what a guy!

Fished until about noon when it got so bloody hot we were all ready to melt. Final tally was 2 perch, 2 cutthroat, 1 rainbow, and one pike minnow for my 3 guests. Got off the water and enjoyed lunch at Red Robin together courtesy of Keith and Jade.

Thanks again for taking me out to play kids!!

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