Well, it has come to an end... My last report of the winter as i am going back to college in smoggy and congested ol California.

SHORT REPORT:
after an omelette breakfast my buddy and i headed with lines in around 9:00. ran up to the north end and trolled down into bass cove. picked one up right away, then action was pretty slow until we got into the cove around 10:00. after that we averaged a fish every 10 mins. fished til 1 and caught about 20 on the day including a Hatchery Chinook (Safely released and kept in the water...) I fished a Kedka Tackle mini trolling fly for lots of the day, my buddy fished a self-tied wedding ring, and we both tipped with worm. reached our limits with lots of fish in the 17" range. great fishing.

LONG REPORT:
MAN WHAT A DAY... I could not ask for a better last day of fishing on this wonderful lake. the plan for the day was to meet at 8:00 and have wafisherman20 specials for breakfast and then hit the water around 9:00 and hopefully hit some big fish.

my buddy rang the doorbell just before 8:00, and i had just started cooking our wafisherman20 specials... (so he got to sit with a cup coffee watching me cook because i was running behind schedule... but thats ok... he at least had coffee)... In my opinion, a good breakfast is the start to a great day of fishing, you gotta fuel up! So, the wafisherman20 special was born (i like cooking almost as much as i like fishing). the components of the special is: 3 egg omelette, sausage, toast/english muffin, side of seasonal berries, and coffee or juice. if you are feeling extra hungry (as i often am) you can also have a side of breakfast potatoes. its pretty good if i do say so myself. IF YOU WANT THE OMELETTE RECIPE READ NEXT PARAGRAPH... IF NOT SKIP IT AND GO STRAIGHT TO THE FISHING.

here is an in depth look at the wafisherman20 omelette: Dice up bell pepper, onion, cooked bacon, and mushrooms. heavily buttered pan and mix ingredients in with salt and pepper. sauté until onions, mushrooms, and peppers are nicely caramelized. in bowl, mix 3 eggs with a dash of milk and beat heavily. in a second heavily buttered pan, pour eggs and monitor until bottom side is properly cooked (maintain fluffiness of egg, but don't over cook!) flip egg and cook for 20-45 seconds longer. then put egg halfway on the plate, put veggies on, add cheddar cheese, cover the veggies with the other half to make omelette then garnish with parsley for color...WALLAH!

After breakfast, we hopped in the boat and headed up to the north end of the lake. my plan was to troll down covering as much water as possible to find the fish. The past couple trips out with Rmrauscher and Petdawg we found the fish in pretty small windows of water. We had the lines in just after 9:00.
buddy's rod: pink wedding ring with a clown dodger
my rod: green Kedkla Tacke Company mini trolling fly and a watermelon dodger.

right away, my buddy had a fish on! a beautiful 15" trout in the boat. he was a little smaller than i like to keep, but i usually keep the first fish that way you don't go home skunked and dinner-less. after that fish, the rods went silent for the whole ride down to bass cove. during the troll, i switch up to a pink fly with an added smile blade and a pink sling blade. right as we entered the cove, my rod got slammed! after a great fight i was shocked to find the fish was a 9" DINK! oh well, safely released for next winter.

before i could get another worm on the hook, fish on for my buddy! this was a 17.5" beauty.. fantastic fish. there's the second keeper. I knocked and bled the fish for him while he got back to fishing, and 30 seconds later, he had another one! i still didn't have my rod in the water and he introduced another big fish to the boat. 3 keepers! i finally got my rod in the water, and then fish on again for my buddy! this fish was about 15" and we let him go for next year. my buddy got fishing again, and 10 minutes later he brought another big fish to the boat.

For the rest of the day, i did circles around this one area until we kept our limits of fish and caught 20 in total. I ended up taking the fly off as it liked to troll faster than the wedding ring to impart a little more action it and the wedding ring was having lots of success on a slower speed. off the water at just after 1:00

I also caught one of my coolest catches on Sammamish this trip: a hatchery chinook! thought he was a kokanee at first, but upon further inspection and the realization of no adipose fin and a black mouth it was apparent he was in fact a king. that was super cool to see a 9" chinook coming from the Issaquah Hatchery on its way to the ocean! he was kept in the water and released safely with minimal stress.

Kedka tackle makes great custom-made trolling flies! if you like to pull flies, you should check them out. they sponsor NWFR and go by the name "kedkatackleco". they have their website linked, and dave is a great guy. I caught fish on them!

if you haven't already, check out the NWFR lake sammamish cutthroat video! Mike Carey made a simply fantastic video filled with Sammamish action, tips, and great information about the fishery, cutthroat trout, and Lake sammamish kokanee. thank you mike, rseas, and Salmonbarry for such a fantastic video!

well, this December has truly been incredible. I have caught lots of fish, fished alongside some awesome fisherman from NWFR, and gained some truly fantastic friends/fishing buddies. Yes, its going to be hard to go back to college now.... i will ride the memories i have made this winter all the way until summer when i can come back and catch some more fish.

thank you to all who have read my posts and left such great comments, I love posting on this site and i hope my reports could entertain you a bit while still be useful.

for the last time in a good while, tight lines and good fishing to all :)