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Sammamish Lake Report
King County, WA

Details

01/15/2017
31° - 35°
Trolling
Cutthroat Trout
Worms
Copper
Sunny
Dodger
Morning
41° - 45°
01/17/2017
1
1546

Decided to give Lake Sammamish a try after reading some pretty positive reports on Cutthroat recently. We were on the lake by 9:00 AM. Would have been earlier, but took some time at the launch to de-ice! Was 24 degrees, so anything wet was well frozen. But it was a beautiful sunny day, with glass flat water so I wasn't complaining.

Headed up to the North end of the lake in a large "S" pattern to see if we could mark any fish. Nothing showed up on the sonar. Decided to fish the East side off Weber Point. Rod 1, Dick Nite Dodger in pink splash with Mack's wedding ring in pink, tipped with 2" of nightcrawler. Rod 2, Mack's double-d in hot pink, homemade wedding ring in red/green, tipped with PowerBait. Both rigs were scented using Mike's Glo Scent. It was about this point that I realized I'd left my downrigger weights at home. After I was done cursing myself, we opted to add a bit of weight to our setups to get down at least a bit.

30 minutes trolling this setup at 1.0 to 1.4 mph. Any faster and we were just about skipping off the surface (which had me cursing myself again).

Every 30 minutes, we'd move locations, switch up gear, try different scents...through the course of the day we tried a variety of dodgers, lures, bait, boat speed...nothing. Several times gear was brought back in with the bait gone, but not sure if it was fish being crafty, or just losing it.

Finally, about 30 feet off the active weather buoy, Rod 1 lights up and line starts stripping out. Fish on! Judging from the hit, and the payout, it was a nice one. I say "was" because moments later, she goes Air Trout on me about 2 feet out of the water, shakes her head, and spits the hook. I swear that fish was looking at me and laughing. Rod 1 at this point was a Dick Nite dodger in Copper Hot Orange Tractor Tread UV, Elgin God's Tooth lure Frog Pattern, tipped with nightcrawler and Mike's UV Trout Scent. Ran this same setup for a couple more passes around the weather buoy, but the only result was another large strike without a hookup.

And so it went. On the water at 9:00 AM, back to the dock at 3:00 PM. Great day on the water, but nothing to show for from a fish standpoint. Did see another boat land a fish (appeared to be a trout) about 100' off the buoy, but that was all we saw for the day.

Downriggers may have helped. Dunno. Maybe weather conditions were not optimal, and with glass flat water, the bite seems to slow down in general. On the good news side, it sure was a nice day to be on the water, and the boat ran like a champ.


Comments

pcorazao
1/19/2017 10:22:00 AM
Get that line 200 feet behind the boat, try to get it down 20-30ft (downrigger or leadline will do it). needle fish (perch or rainbow) or wedding rings (green an silver) tipped with worm and a bit of trout gel.

Once you hook up, get that reel going, keep constant slow pressure and they will not jump link that (at least it should minimize that).

Sounds like you had a big one, keep at it!
Bat_Fish
1/19/2017 12:17:00 PM
Thanks for the advice! I was running 125' to 150' back, but I'll extend that a bit more. Did try Needlefish in perch and metallic perch. Will give rainbow a shot as well. Still kicking myself for leaving my rigger weights at home, but they'll be loaded on the boat next time...guaranteed! I usually only forget gear once, but there's a lot of gear to forget. Cheers.
ElginFishing
1/19/2017 5:45:00 PM
Hi Bat_Fish,
As a hard core user of the God's Tooth spoons for trout, I don't know if my set up works in Sammamish or not but thought I would mention it if you have not tried it before. I troll with 4ft of fluorocarbon leader 4-6lb and attach to a small swivel using 8lb braided line for my main line. I never use scent or tip the hook with a worm/powerbait etc. Tipping the hook will affect the action of the God's Tooth and not in a good way IMO. I do not use a dodger either. I enjoy using the Frog, Rainbow Trout, Perch and Pink top patterns to start with. I also reverse the hook after trying a few patterns if no action as that can make a HUGE difference. I have found the braided line hooks the fish much better than other lines since there is no stretch. You can view my previous reports here if you wish. Thanks for a great report and hope my two cents worth can help someday!
Bat_Fish
1/20/2017 12:27:00 PM
Thank you for the information on fishing the Elgin God's Tooth. I will certainly give your setup a try next time out. And it was the only lure that got action last Sunday, so using it properly could yield some nice results!
DjButler
1/20/2017 7:19:00 PM
Hey, thanks for your report. I am no expert by any means and what i have learned is when its that cold the fish tend to drop down. I have gone out about 3-4 times with limits each day. I never see any fishing boats closer to the boat launch which is where i slam the cutts. 18-25ft down have been very consistent for me. You really dont have to travel very far. GL
WsSwede
1/20/2017 10:26:00 PM
I was out there the same day on my Kayak and caught 5 lost 3 just north of the bouy. ~18ft on the downrigger, speed 1.4-1.7 Small dodger (I don't think color really matters tbh as long as the fish can see it), red wedding ring tipped with worm. If you hook up once start doing figure 8's, the fish are there.
Bat_Fish
1/23/2017 2:00:00 PM
Went back to the buoy and marked quite a few fish, but they weren't picking up what we were putting down. Moved South towards the launch where WsSwede has been getting Cutties, and had a lot more success. Conditions were cloudy/overcast with varying winds and rain from gale in the morning to mild as the day progressed. They were hitting on Dick Nite dodgers and homemade wedding ring spinners. I had the most success with Dick Nite in purple splash, and a wedding ring consisting of faceted orange crystals and black glass beads. Used a #3 Colorado blade in UV copper. Trolling at 1.2 to 1.4 mph. Didn't limit, but there's some nice size Cutthroat in that lake so what I didn't get in numbers I made up for in size. Thanks again for all the advice!
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Available Guide

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

Phone: (509) 687-0709