As fisherman, we all have experiences that define our angling careers. I have had some incredible experiences in my angling lifetime but few, if any, rival the trip i had today. Today was the trip of a lifetime.

A few posts back, i received a message from (the famous) Mike Carey about guest-guiding a trip on Lake Sammamish for a cutthroat fishing video. After working out some good fishing times and talking to the NWFR pro-staff, Today was the big day.

SHORT REPORT:

no short report today. the day was way too exciting

LONG REPORT:

6:00am: The start of the day--> Alarm buzzes and i jumped out of bed, throw on my clothes (complimented by the long underwear to stay warm in 35*), pack lunch for the crew, and head for the boat launch, stopping for worms along the way. I arrived at the boat launch around 7:45, met up with Rseas and Salmonbarry (the pro-staff, and some of the most talented fisherman i have had the opportunity to fish with) and waited for mike, who was hauling the boat. while we were waiting, we saw 2 guide boats take groups of people out, incredible... guiding on lake Sammamish...its being discovered.

After Mike arrived (and i snapped a celebrity photo), we packed up our gear, hopped in, launched and headed for the first spot of the day. for the first spot, i decided to hit one of my regular paths and start our troll at Bass cove and head northward up the west shore of the lake until we find a good group of fish. After a quick filming stop at the weather buoy, we found our way to the start of the troll with lines in at 8:45 I started the day with a ford fender and pink wedding ring about 100 feet back, Rseas had leaded line with a dodger and hoochie, Salmonbarry went hoochie-style with one of tony's Wannafishalure green squids off the downrigger at 25' with gulp maggots, and mike started with an old goat lure on a planer board.

Nothing hit on the cove proper, so we held course and continued up the west side of the lake in about 75 FOW. after 15 minutes of trolling (and learning about the filming process) my rod got slammed. I jumped up, we turned the camera on and brought a gorgeous cutthroat to the boat; she measured out at about 18" and had some serious girth too. great way to start the trip. After a nice on film interview about the fish, we knocked her and threw her (gently sat her) in the box. after that fish, Rseas switched his gear to a hand-tied trolling fly with a crawler, went back 120' and Salmonbarry put a pink koka-bow on the business end with a crawler. After that fish, we made a turn towards the center of the lake, because the birds were out that way in higher numbers. Rseas marked a huge group of fish between 25' and the surface. we set a waypoint right as we passed thru, Rseas' rod got slammed. another beautiful cutthroat, same size. after we got that rod back in the water, the fish turned on.

we trolled back through that patch of fish, and WHAM! fish off the downrigger, which i almost managed to lose after he jumped out of the net but we caught him. then WHAM, fish off the planer board. them WHAM! fish off the fender. then WHAM! fish off the trolling fly, then WHAM fish off the fly again... THE FISH WERE FEEDING. we were having trouble keeping rods in the water with the amount of action we had. no matter what we put down there, the fish seemed to enjoy it. i ended up switching to a lighter presentation after a while to have more fun catching the fish. in the span of 3 hours, we caught 20 fish, lost 3 at the boat, missed about 10 hits, and had a handful of other pop the hook mid fight. it was incredible. i have never seen so many people working at netting fish, reeling fish, filming, and commentating the video, all at the same time. we were off the water with limits around 12:30

today was once in a lifetime for sure, we had doubles, triples, acrobatic fish, shiny fish, darker fish and it was a blast. you know it is a good day when you are throwing back 15" trout because they are too small. we planned on keeping 4 each so all of us could have a nice family fish dinner, but we ended the day on the triple and they were all hooked tough well to safely release.

like i said earlier, those fish seemed to hit whatever we put down there, however the secret was the nightcrawler on the end. we experimented with some different things such as fake minnows and gulp maggots, but the good ol' nightcrawler always prevailed. but as you will notice in the video (when it comes out) all of our presentations were different and they were all working! i used wedding rings, Rseas trolled flies, hoochies were catching fish too. we also used dodgers, fenders, sling blades, mini attractants, the fish were not picky today. if something is not working, switch it! these fish can be caught in a multitude of different ways, some days they might prefer one over another. Rseas was very crucial in our success today and he found a big school of fish and marked it. knowing where those fish were allowed the person trolling at the the time to pass thru a known area and have a higher percentage of catching fish. if you find them, stay on them.

another thing worth mentioning is we caught fish off a downrigger, flatlining, lead-line trolling, and off a planer board. there are so many ways to catch these fish and they are so abundant right now! hooking up with close to 40 fish in 4 hours is incredible! i started trolling this lake in my 12' 1989 Sears game fisherman using deep 6 divers and crushed them. the size of the boat does not matter.

I was truly honored to be the guest guide on todays fishing adventure. i can only hope the others on the trip learned as much as i did from them. what an incredible group of fishermen and compassionate people. Rseas, Salmonbarry and mike are some seriously talented fisherman and i learned a multitude of information from all of them. i also had a fantastic time filming the adventure today. great to have some fish caught on camera, hopefully there are some good shots. after the video comes out, if you have more questions please message me! the video is going to be great, but no video can tell all. i also probably forgot to mention some things :)

i will give a post when the video comes out (my apologies in advance for my video skills... but at least the fish weren't camera shy!) (also sorry for the sniffles if you hear them... it was cold out there and that gets my nose running!)

until next time, tight lines and good fishing to all!

P.S. yes, we did take a decent amount of fish out of the lake today. the ones i have taken home have been consumed. no laws were broken (remember barbless happens jan 1!) and all trout and kokanee released were handled with care and safety. lake Sammamish has a strong population of fish, i haven't been out this winter and not found them hungry.