Lake Mayfield is open all year for fishing.
April 22, 2006
I can believe that I haven't written a report since December 2005!
Time to get fishing again. Friends of the Cowlitz have planted 6,000 1/2 pound Rainbow Trout already this spring with more on the way. Today the lake surface temperature was 54° at 1:30 PM. The wind was gusting from the NW at 5 - 12 MPH.
Large Mouth Bass - The weed growth in the lake has been slow to get going. Hopefully with a few more bright sunny days in a row we will see some bright green weed growth. Spawning will not take place until the water temperature moves into the upper 50's to lower 60's.
Smallmouth Bass - No news on Bronze Backs yet. With cool water temperatures it will be a few more weeks until they become more active.

Rainbows / Kokanee - We can't put our finger on it, but the trout bite is off right now. We were out Tuesday for four hours in the main lake area near the hatchery and didn't boat a single trout. The best fishing for Rainbow's has been in Winston Cove just down from the Youth Camp swim area. Slow trolling a spinner rig with a red wedding ring dressed with worms produced a couple of nice fish.
Perch - A few small perch were caught this past week. Wax worms on a small jig did the trick.
Cut Throat - None have bee taken in the lake yet, but we have seen good numbers in the closed waters of Winston Creek. When these waters open we expect the fishing for them to be good. Muddler minnows and stone fly nymphs will be the ticket. We have seen small numbers of large adult Stone fly's a good distance from the moving water where they hatched from. There has also been a nice hatch of small sooty brown colored Caddis coming off in the early afternoon.
Tiger Musky - We scouted for Tiger's in the shallows this week but haven't seen any yet. We raised one on a 1 oz. double willow white spinner just North of the old county park boat ramp.

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