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Washington Lake Report
King County, WA

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11/14/2015
41° - 45°
Trolling
Cutthroat Trout
Shrimp
Chartreuse
Raining
Flasher
Noon
51° - 55°
11/14/2015
3
2724

Been a couple of weeks since I last hit the lake and it wasn't looking good with high winds and rain forecast to move in this weekend. This morning a quick check of the WSDOT 520 bridge conditions showed winds under 10mph so headed to the south end of the lake around 11:00am. I started my troll around South Point and worked the shoreline northwest into the west channel. I picked up my first fish just as I passed the first buoy in the channel, which was holding a huge bait ball. It was a nice, feisty 17” fish that hit at 30' on the downrigger. I rebaited my hoochie rig, sent it back down and continued my troll north working over the shallows where I marked a couple of fish masses in the 45' range that I was sure were perch, on the GPS, to come back to later. With nothing going on in the shallows I made my way out into the main channel and picked up my second fish at 50' on the downrigger. This time it was a 15” fish that barely registered any movement on my rod tip. After I released my line from the clip it came alive and put up a good fight all the way to the net.

I decided to give the perch a go and rigged up with a 1 ounce Cabelas brand jigging spoon tipped with some pike minnow meat. Motored back to the spots I marked earlier on the GPS and was into fish right away. The perch ranged in size from 6 “ up to 11” and I brought up a dozen and then some before calling it a day. The larger perch were spitting up 3” scuplins which makes it easy to see why the jigging spoons work so well.

The surface temps have dropped rapidly and the lake is in the process of turning over. With the water in the mid 50's all the way to the thermocline, which is sitting around 90' to 100', the fish are scattered throughout the water column. Find the bait and you'll find the fish.


Comments

The Quadfather
11/15/2015 6:57:00 AM
Nice sonar images. (-:
cobrar543
11/15/2015 12:52:00 PM
Still want to hook up with you soon for a day out.
Sideburns
11/15/2015 9:27:00 PM
yeah, a second thanks for the sonar. Help me out, what are the balls on the screen? How do you know? And why the split screen? My old hummingbird just shows fish images, which are generally bogus. If I were to see a ball like that, it would tell me it was suddenly 20 ft deep. Im sure I need some better electronics, but dont quite know why yet...
G-Man
11/16/2015 6:36:00 AM
The masses on the screen are most likely stickelback. This is more of an educated guess than anything else. Whatever is making up the balls is not composed of things larger than a few inches in length or you'd see more individual arches in the masses. In lake Washington, stickleback, smelt and mysis shrimp are the main sources of these large groups of bait. During the daylight hours, the smelt and mysis shrimp are typically down much deeper, 100' or more, so eliminating those leaves the stickleback. I ran the split screen to show what the differences in frequency and cone angles has on your view under the boat. I'm trying to put together a presentation on fishing sonar and I needed to collect some more images.

I'm almost certain your sonar unit's fish ID mode can be turned off, just need to find it in the settings. I really don't know why manufacturers still offer it as an operational mode when all it does is provide false information.
The Quadfather
11/16/2015 7:38:00 AM
G-man, when you get around to your sonar presentation, I hope that you will announce it on here. Maybe it is via a Puget Sound Angler's meeting? or whatever the group is that you have presented with before?-- is it too early to request good schooling on SI ? (-:

Also, when looking at the image that you have in 150' of water, is that a thermocline at about 65'? I know you said 90-100', but I don't see anything in that image at 90-100'.
Thanks.
G-Man
11/16/2015 11:49:00 AM
Quad, I'd most likely present it at one of the PSA meetings. I'll give a heads up once I have a date set. I don't have a side imaging unit but did get the opportunity to use one about a month ago. Concepts are all the same but you are given a few more details to determine what is going on under your boat.

The image is showing what I believe is the top and bottom of the thermocline in that section of the lake. I was in about 117' of water and I suspect the thermocline was moved a bit by the Cedar pumping in a bunch of cold water. The lake is in the process of turning over so you'll see some strange things on the sonar. With another big storm on its way, I think the turnover will be complete by week's end.
Sideburns
11/17/2015 1:57:00 PM
Thanks for the thoughtful response! Yes I can turn off fish id mode on my old dx200, but I know less about what im looking at than the hummingbird does. Terms like side imaging and different frequencies dont mean much to me either, Im still along way off from buying a new unit, but need all the info I can get before trying to decide which one.

I went for the wireless bow mount and downriggers this year, maybe next year on the sonar. I think by then, my accessories will be worth 2-3 times more than the boat!

I would be very intrested in a sonar presentation.

I got to witness a very dramatic turn over this year on Lake Curlew, Didnt know what the term meant before that.
Cozmo4196
11/19/2015 7:38:00 AM
Thanks for the great report! How fast do you tend to troll for the cutthroat?
chrome_chasin
11/19/2015 12:03:00 PM
Im just about done getting my boat re-rigged and set for fishing again. Lake Washington Cutthroat will be my first stop. Hows the fishery from say now until the first couple months of the year?
G-Man
11/19/2015 1:24:00 PM
Cozmo1496 - I keep it between 1.5 and 2.0 on the GPS

Chrome_chasin - It is tough this time of year and get's tougher through the winter months. At times it can be on fire with the sea-run fish migrating in to spawn, but once the fish head up into the rivers and streams, it slows down to a crawl.
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Available Guide

Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service

Phone: (509) 687-0709