Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
So kind of hard to say no when the area president of Us Foods asks you to take a day off to take he and his son fishing while visiting from Salt lake city! Was hoping to at least get him a fish or 2 but was surprised at the success we had today!
Met at the boat launch at Gene Coulon at 5:30 am to just a glorious morning with very little wind and went over some basic 101 of fishing on the Tin Cup! Had an excited little 11 year old who was anxious to get his first WA state fish ever so we motored over to the south tip of Mercer island to start our troll. Wanted to try something different today after fishing with D.J. Butler in the north end last weekend as I noticed he fished in my much shallower water then I usually do- so we started in 65 feet of water parallel to the shoreline heading west at 1.8 mph.
Put out the lead core rod with an orange spinner tipped with worm 120 feet behind the boat, tipped with a night crawler- one down rigger rod with a blue kokabow sling blade and a mini cup plug black with a pink tail tipped with a herring strip and the other with an orange wiggle hootchie with a pink gulp maggot. Figured had something out there some fish would want to eat! Right off the bat we get a hit on the lead core rod so Benson was reeling in his first fish of the day! Wasn't fighting much and soon realized why as it was a perch! At least the skunk was off the boat!
Put it back out and rounded the corner of the tip staying in the 55 to 75 feet of water zone- now I informed them of the large amount of sockeye in the lake and explained if we hooked one we would have to release it. No sooner did I say that then the rod with wiggle hootchie buries down and pops the clip and it's fish on! I say this looks like a sockeye as I hand the rod to Benson as it's got some weight to it and making some huge runs; he is handling it like a pro and soon we get it close to the boat and I notice it's a huge cutthroat so in the net it goes and it's high 5's all around!
Next as we pass the big white house I see some big marks at 65 feet in 75 feet of water and hoping they are not sockeye put one rod at 55 and 1 at 65 and WHAM! The rod at 55 with the mini cut plug goes straight down and pulls off the clip and I say okay this is a sockeye as it peels off about 50 feet of line! I hand Matt the rod and he works this fish close and see it's another nice cutty! In the net it goes now they each have caught one and another round of high 5's! After a little lull and working back and forth along the shoreline staying in the under 80 feet range I change out the wiggle hootchie to one of the new RMT spinners I had got at the sportsman show with a matching splatter sling blade tipped with gulp maggots.
Picked up another perch on the lead core so end up retiring it so we could focus on the 2 rods on the riggers- suddenly the RMT rod goes off and it's another screamer! Benson get's back on the rod and now he's working it like a pro slowly bringing the rod back and reeling down until soon I see it's another slab! Wow! 3 nice cutthroats by 8 am is much more then I had hoped for for sure but soon the bite died for awhile and we both started getting calls from work so were getting ready to head in around 9:30 when just as I was bringing in the last rod felt a tug and WHAM! A fish hit it on it's way in so we finished the day with 4 nice fish and some happy smiling faces to brighten my day!
Now it's back to the home projects for a couple weekends so not sure when I will be able to get back out again but if I do I'll see you on the water!
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service