Loaded up all the electronic goodies and headed for Lake Washington early this morning. Water was a bit rough with a strong wind as I headed out of Gene Coulon launch. Once I got enough depth I put out a hoochie 18" behind a blade 75' behind the boat and dropped it down 35' with the downrigger. I had picked up a LARGE three blade attractor at the boat show and put it out about 60' and 35' down on the other side of the boat just to see what would happen.
I ran up the East side of the lake to the Seahawks training facility and as the wind was getting stronger I fired up the gas trolling motor to assist and save on batteries. I went West from there over to Mercer Island and worked South around the tip. Just after rounding the tip when I was heading North the pole jumped, the Chamberlain release let the line loose and it was 'fish on!'
After a good fight I pulled in a nice 16" cutthroat and put it in the live well. I set everything back up and went a bit further then turned around and followed my same track back just in case there was another hanging around. Boom! At almost the identical spot the pole shook and I was fighting another fish! It fought different so I suspected it was not a Cutthroat and when I got it up to the boat the nice little 13" Kokanee proved I was correct. Two fish in the boat!
I turned around and made the same run again to about half way down Mercer then went West and made a run South up the shore line. It was rougher than a cob and the wind was really kicking up when I noticed a LARGE blob at about 65' down. The last time I saw a 'blob' that big I hooked into a large King and really was not interested in hooking another but the 'blob' started rising... This time when the line popped off the downrigger it started stripping line and bent the pole tip to the water. By the time I got the pole out and started slowing it down almost all the line was off the reel! Got it nearly to the boat and it snapped off the hook but it was a good fight!
That was it for the day!

salmonbarry

4/16/2017 8:36:00 PM

Great report and good for you to hang in there against that wind! Know how that is and that is about the same area I got mine yesterday! Not sure what you tied into but sounds like it could have been either a monster cutty or maybe a chinook but either way, sounds like you got a good fight out of it! Yea I think I need to bring out the riggers on my next trip and start working some different depths! So how does that attractor work? Never thought of running something like that when fishing alone hmm.... I've got some those school of fish attractors and may be fun to run those out on the other side to see if attracts any interest.

The Quadfather

4/16/2017 9:20:00 PM

Cool mystery lunker! Thanks for the report!

Fish Dawg

4/16/2017 10:52:00 PM

Sounds like some quality time on the water despite the blustery weather. Good to see the fish are biting. Thanks for sharing your report.

Report doesn't specify how many anglers so probably no issue. Just in case, remember two pole endorsement does not apply on Lake Washington (one pole per angler).

Good luck and tight lines out there!

TrackerPro16

4/17/2017 12:00:00 PM

One angler but have verified as long as there are NO hooks on the second line you are good. You may (will) get stopped and inspected, but the second pole is not an issue. Probably breaks the boredom for them... They get to rip up the lake with their hot rod boat!

greenboater

4/17/2017 4:02:00 PM

Wondering if that is the case would it be lawful to put as many poles as you cold attach to the boat out with as many attractors as well or even better a big downrigger with 300 pound cable an load it up every 10 feet & run it to the near bottom depth with the fishing line as close as you could get it to the other line , as Fish Dwag says well ? maybe it might be easyer to just drag a net? most who fish these waters or have done it enough times know that when the wind gets to be more than about 5-7 MPH the odds go way down on catching fish good clue fallow Salmonbarry's reports then, note the weather conditions or check underground weather on line reports see what the winds are predicted to be
good report anyway, its no fun fighting the wind to keep the gear where you want it, been there done that just guessing that You have a larger boat

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