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Hit lake Washington yesterday (Thursday 10/5) since it was going to be such a nice sunny day. Didn't feel like making the run from Coulon boat launch to the I-520 area to target coho since reports of the nets being in seem to have killed the bite up there. Decided to stay in the South end of the lake, and I'm glad I did.

Sent the fishhawk TD down to the bottom to get a temperature read. Surface temp has dropped to 65 degrees and stayed that way till below 40 ft. Good fish temps were about 55 ft again so that's where we started. Had a friend on board today so we decided to target different depths. One rod from working 40ft to 65 ft and the other from 65 to 90 ft. The rod at the shallower (around 40ft) depths kept running into perch that would chase down the DD green dodger and pink kokobow lure at 2mph. The deeper rod was running a 9" (the big one) UV green herring bone pattern sling blade with a white coho killer on it, since that worked last time. It worked this time also! Switched out the other rod to an 5" sling blade in UV blue herring bone pattern and a cop car coho killer, went down to the depth where the other rod was and it was game on! We pinched the barbs down on both just in case of any unintended bycatch. We used coho killers most of the day and never caught a single coho or king for that matter.

The nice thing about using those bigger presentations is we caught the bigger fish, go figure. All 9 trout we caught and kept were very plump and hefty. All caught at the 75 ft level on line depth. Total for the day was 8 rainbow, 1 cutt and 1 kokanee. We released 6 perch and 2 socks. The trout ranged from 16 to 19 inches. Found almost all of the fish at the SW corner of Mercer Island area in 120ft of water.

One very strange thing I have never seen before in lake Washington was as we trolled around we passed numerous sockeye (males) that were just swimming around in the middle of the lake about 2 ft beneath the surface, middle of the day. They did not care about the boat or the noise as we trolled by them, they didn't even swim off. Probably saw about 30 or 40 of them throughout the day. It was strange.

It was a little cold when we launched (45 degrees) but as the sun came up higher it was an amazing sunny day with light winds. Fished from 8:30am to 4pm.Truly on of my nicest days out on Lake WA. The trout are still out there biting so go get em!

Quick question for anyone. When do the nets go in and out North of the 520 bridge?

Be safe out there! -G

yowz

10/6/2017 11:10:41 AM

What is the sonar picture showing?

gcban

10/6/2017 11:18:57 AM

Meant to post a pic of the sounder when we had a double hookup on but accidentally posted sonar pic of my downrigger ball going down to the bottom of the lake and back with my Fishhawk TD temperature device attached, when I was taking a temperature reading.

Sheltered

10/6/2017 8:20:04 PM

Out of pure curiosity, how big were the sockeyes?

gcban

10/7/2017 10:26:22 AM

They were average size, about 3 to 4 lbs and all fire truck bright red.

iwnt2retire

10/7/2017 6:08:37 AM

Thanks for the report. I never considered the importance of temperature. i usually just try different depths, based on current weather but it makes sense in Summer usually 55--80 Winter all the way up to 25. Where did you get the temperature gauge and what temperature do you think is best for trout?

gcban

10/7/2017 10:35:30 AM

Got the temp gauge at Cabelas online. FishHawk TD. Cost about $130 or so. It really helped with locating the sweet spot for the fish in Lake WA I was targeting this summer. Many times there would be absolutely nothing on the sonar but being down at the proper water temp depth would produce fish. I have noticed a big increase in my hookup rate due to it. The Lake WA buoy data online will help if you dont want to buy a FishHawk. As for the proper temp for fish species just look around online. Just google "fish water temperature chart'. You will find plenty of good info. Good luck. -G

gcban

10/7/2017 10:42:24 AM

Just realized I didn't completely answer your question. For rainbow trout I shoot for a temp between 52 to 59 degrees. The FishHawk website has a chart. Here is the link. -G

http://www.fishhawkelectronics.com/salmon-walleye-fishing/preferred-water-temperature

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