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Seems like it's been awhile since I have had a report to post so figure I would break into 2021 with a report from my "home lake"! Had a friend of the family ask I could help him learn a few things on Lake WA with his fairly new boat. When I arrived at the launch at 7:15 and saw it was a 22' Duckworth with all the bells and wihistles mentioned right away that this may take a few times to figure it out haha! Little did I know I would be right LOL!

With a pretty stiff breeze blowing from SW I decided to try our starting troll from the mouth of the Cedar towards the big white house on the west side of Mercer. After exchanging some intel wilth fellow member, buddy and slayer of kokanee D.J. Butler wanted to keep our speed at around 1.2 mph but found that hard with the wind at our back. Started with one lead core line back 4 colors and about 115 feet and the other on the down rigger to chase marks as we found them. Had some new gear I wanted to try out so put that on to start with one tipped with corn and the other with pink gulp maggots.

Marked a ton of fish by the white house but couldn't get a bite and the wind was getting stronger so decided to go around the corner by Paul Allen's house to get away from the wind. That worked but the fish finder went blank and didn't see any marks at all! Pulled up the gear and motored under the I-90 bridge and over the north tip of the island- worked those waters for a while with no love and even more wind then we wanted to deal with so after some discussion and both of us needing to be home by 2pm for the game chose to head down to where we started and give it one more troll from the mouth north with the wind at our backs!

Got pretty close the mouth of the Cedar and went back to the basics with a mini BCP stuffed with tuna on the rigger and a wiggle hootchie fly pattern with clown dodger on the lead core with corn. We didn't even need to put the trolling motor in gear as the wind was pushing us at about 1.5 mph and about half way across the lead core starts bucking and it's fish on! I run to grab it out of the holder and it's peeling line and see a big splash way behind the boat and know it's a good one! Since there is alreay 180 feet of line back I tell him we will take turns as he has never used a lead core rod before and once it reached 80 feet I hand to rod over to him. It continues it's aerial display and after a few more runs finally Eric is gliding into the net and over the rail and it's a hawg! High fives happen and after a few Kodak moments gets bled out and onto the ice- we bait it back up and put back out and WHAM gets slammed again! This one was not as big and thought it might be a kokanee so let Eric pull it in and after getting into the net see it's just a chrome sea run cutthroat but that's fine as he wanted to bring home some dinner for 2! Called it a day as we were near the 12:30 mark and needed to get back to our homes for the big game.

Not the day I had hoped for with all the success D.J. had been having out here but as many of us know, that is what fishing Lake WA is like as it can change day to day. Still was great fellowship time getting to know a friend of the family better and 'helping' him learn his boat a bit. Definitely will need to do this a few more times LOL! Be safe out there and see you on the water!

MadMoney

2/8/2021 10:11:42 AM

SalmonBarry –

That is a hawg of a cutthroat for sure! I was out in that area till about 1pm as well yesterday, that wind sure made holding a line or speed challenging. I threw 3 different patterns of Wedding Rings out there but couldn’t get a taker.

Did you see the guy who anchored in 90 fow in a small inflatable boat? I never did see what he was up too… I think your final “drift” was right by him.

Thanks for the report… hope to see you out there soon.

salmonbarry

2/8/2021 3:26:26 PM

Thanks MAdmoney! Yeah I probably saw you out there! I saw that but wasn't sure what he was doing- there was a guy fishing in a kayak north of the I-90 bridge too that I was amazed he was fishing in that wind! What boat was yours so can watch for it next time out?

MadMoney

2/8/2021 4:49:04 PM

I was in the 28' Ablin... blue hull, white pilothouse.

Anthony

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