Made a trip out to a new lake after seeing that it was stocked about a week ago and that the size per lbs was 0.90 which based on the WDFW is almost 3 times the size of the normal sized fish that is planted locally. Yes I know, 3 times seems a whole lot bigger.

Small, small lake out in the middle of somewhere...Cumberland I guess. First time within 10 miles of this area in my life. Small narrow steep launch might shy boats away, besides little parking on top of the hill.


Started out with a Intermediate Line with a Olive Willy and a Hairs Ear Nymph trailer on the fly pole and Flatfish on the other. Some rising action but not a huge amount. Made 3 counterclock wise circles of the lake with nothing and changing the spinning rod every lap. Different size, different color after a few more laps, still nothing.

Put on a 1 size DN 50/50 Spoon with no weight to try the upper column and finally a fish just before I was about to change it. A nice 15” Bow that fought really good....worth the wait I guess. As I was unhooking it, my fly rod gets banged after being motionless for a good few minutes. Small Bow maybe 9” took the nymph. Got a few more on the DN but the fly rod was dead so I stopped to try my TM Bobber set up which I thought would be good to try. Silly me I tried it while finning while still fishing the fly rod. I missed several strikes on the Trout Magnet set up. Reeled in the fly rod and caught 6 Bows and 3 different colors while I watched another boat do very well with Bobber worms....my guess they got their 15 that day.

I ended up getting a few more on the fly rod and ended up with 14 total.most were not the 0.90 fish. Most were 9-10” and few 13’s”.

The lake edges have a fair Rock Bass population which were really small and a few Pumpkinseeds too.

Pretty tough lake for a 12 acre lake that was resently stocked with a good bite from 7-9am and very slow after that. Pretty lake with some high peaks near it made for a nice day.

fishon

6/10/2018 7:38:39 PM

Glad you were able to fish a new lake. I read the stocking report too and spiked my attention too. Its a long drive from where I am. May consider making drive.

TMBob

6/10/2018 9:10:24 PM

Fishon, I need your email address.....had a good fly lake for ya 3 weeks ago not too far from home. Caught 20 in the 17-19”range and one about 5lbs over 2weekends....slowed way down now, but it will happen again next year.

Sideburns

6/10/2018 7:57:09 PM

Ive fished 3 times since the recent stocking. Dick nites, small plugs and night crawler behind ford fenders all worked well. A lot of fish were taken out of the lake the first few days! It has slowed considerably. The 1+ pound fish recently stocked were very dark and look to be recently spawned brood stock. Kept a few at first but the meat was mush...(don't care much for trout anyways) IMO catch and release is surely the way to go at walker. The holdover trout are usually grotesquely covered in parasites, (copepods). I hear tales of nice sized cutthroat in the lake, and the tiny panfish were a blast for my daughters to catch.

TMBob

6/10/2018 9:06:41 PM

The fish jumping out of the water looked very dark.....so of course some of the ones that I caught were darker, but I released them so fast I did not notice any copepods.

Sideburns

6/11/2018 4:13:54 PM

Darker fish didnt have them. Most of the smaller fish stocked earlier in the year have some already. I would guess that the fish that were completely covered have been in lake for much longer. The bobber and worm fisherman (almost always there) said that usually the larger fish that he catches deep in the middle of the lake have none...? I have seen mention of these parasites on this site from old reports, but I have never seen them as thick as this!

Leave a Comment:

Login

Flag

×

Why is this comment inappropriate?

Close Submit

Delete this comment? Provide reason.

No Yes

Edit

×

Cancel Save