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It had been a long time since last fishing encounter. A couple of unsuccessful trips to Whidbey for Coho in early August my last time out. Been busy caring for my wife, Boni after surgery earlier this month... but she doing much better now, so I headed for a local lake to "get the stink off". Chose Silver Lake, not knowing what kind of success I might find, but needing to get my lines in the water. Arrived at the lake at 6:45, but found (as usual) that the park which clearly states on a sign at the gate that the opening time is 6:00 AM, the gate was still locked. Had to park in the auxiliary lot a block away. Still made it to the lake by 7:00, and lines in the water by 7:15. Temp at the outset was 55 degrees, skies cloudy with light rain falling throughout the early morning. This was the first trip to try out a new toy my wife gave me for my birthday, a device called a "Fish Hawk". This instrument measures the temperature at five foot intervals throughout the water column. I cast the "Fish Hawk" off the pier, about 60' out, then retrieved it... the surface temp was 64.9 degrees, and the coolest reading was a the bottom, 20' deep, of 63.7 degrees. With that in mind, I chose a leader of 3' with pink Power Eggs on one rig, and fl. orange PE on a leader of 5' on the other (thought the fish might be suspended off the bottom a bit). An hour and a half went by with no action... reeled in and switched the pink PE to green, and shortened the 5' leader to 2'... Bingo! ... Within fifteen minutes had my first hit on the green PE and reeled in a chunky Rainbow of 12". From that point on, action was pretty consistent, reeling in a fish every fifteen minutes or so (two on green, two on fl. orange). Lost a couple more on the way to the net. By 10:00, having landed four Rainbows, decided to take a hiatus to try for some Yellow Perch under a float, using worms. First cast yielded a 7" Perch, tried for another hour and was able to connect on three more, but the bite tailed off after heavy rain showers and wind picked up. All four Perch were from 7" to 7 1/2". At 11:30 went back to fl. orange PE on a 2' leader and fifteen minutes later, reeled in my fifth Rainbow of the day, my largest, a plump Rainbow of just a tick under 13". All the Rainbows were feisty and chunky. A couple had small lesions from the Summertime parasites that plague the fish in warmer water, but disappear quickly as the water cools. Left the lake at 12:00, very surprised and pleased at today's success!
Sad to say, I had the entire lake to myself. I scanned the entire lake looking for another fisherman, but saw none. I hope others will find their way out to the lakes for what promises to be an interesting Fall fishery! PTL!

fishon

9/26/2017 5:06:56 PM

Nice bunch of fish. Were there any riser?

Stansjoy

9/26/2017 5:35:13 PM

fishon... I think your question is, "were there any rising?"... Saw some rising early on, before the wind came up. Some larger splashes that I assume were trout, but many smaller "dimples" on the water that may have been Perch or small Bass. Did notice a fair amount of midges (Pink Ladies) coming off the water in the early morning as well. All the trout stomachs were empty, or contained plankton, so nothing particular that they were feeding on. Forgot to mention in my report, as I was reeling in a Perch, a Largemouth Bass of at least five pounds swam out from under the pier and took a swipe at the Perch. What an adrenaline rush!

Geno the Viking

9/27/2017 3:38:48 PM

I love detailed reports like this . Thanks so much. I'd love to catch and release that bass too.

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