Northwest Fishing Reports

Well its getting to that time of year when the trout either a) stop biting and are almost impossible to catch, or b) when you do catch a trout it taste so awful you quit fishing for trout. So I was thinking it would be a good idea to make a list for, lakes that produce trout all summer, techniques for catching summer trout and recipes for muddy tasting trout. I will start the list.


Lakes that produce trout into the summer:

Potholes reservoir (grant county)
Deer lake (Stevens county)
Mineral lake (Lewis county)

Techniques:


Fish in the morning and evening and at night
Locate the thermocline

Recipes:

Smoke the trout

Lake Langlois (King County)
Lake Stevens (Snohomish County)
Lake Margret (King County)
Lake Washington (King County)
Lake Sammamish (King County)
Summit Lake (Thurston County)
Riffe Lake (Lewis County)

And also pretty much any high mountain lake. All of these lakes have produced well for me late into the summer for various trout species. My favorite of all these is Langlois because I catch a lot of nice sized trout later in the summer without the crowds or pressure of the bigger lakes and because it is around 100' deep at it's deepest point most of the trout do not taste muddy. Good luck to the late summer trout fisherman as I never do summer trout on odd years because of the Pink Salmon fishery on the Snohomish River System. So it is all yours have fun and tight lines.

Or try hitting some spring-fed lakes and find the spring.

TLC

pine lake in king county. good sized trout as well. fish deep water in the morning. power eggs and a short leader has been worknig for me.

Well.. since you are all such a great bunch of guys I'll let you in on a little secret that I stumbled upon accidently about 10 years ago.....

There's a very healthy run of sea run cutts that works it's way up the puyallup river and then into the ohop river and then up through lake Kapowsin and they ultimately spawn in the ohop river upstream of Kapowsin.. they don't go all the way to Ohop Lake.....

You can start catching them in Kapowsin in early august... they aren't quite as bright as they are when they're in the salt but the meat is still red and delicious.. the biggest one I ever caught was about 14" but the smallest was around 12.... they hit the lures hard and they fight like heck..... they move in the upper column so just about any kind of thing that trolls shallow works... I caught them on small shallow rapalas, worm harnesses, and little hot shots (the size 40 to 60 models)... I didn't ever try sand shrimp but a little hunk of sand shrimp behind a small spinner would probably be very deadly....


It's one of the few places where you are actually allowed to catch and retain sea run cutts and I've always thought that was because the WDFW has sort of overlooked this run......


but the fish biologists know about it.... about a year after I started working this fishery I went to a salmon seminar in Olympia and talked to a biologist who gave me the scoop as to timing and where they spawn......


I haven't worked this fishery for a few years and will probably never fish kapowsin again (not because I don' like the lake, rather because I've just figured out too many other fun things to do in August and Sept and Kapowsin will probably never get high enough on the list again to deserve a visit). The last time I fished it was before they opened the new access. I had to carry may canoe about 1/4 mile before I could drop it in the water... it may very well be that the new access has greatly increased the pressure on this resource but I doubt it... most of the yahoos headed for kapowsin this time of year are after bass and they are probably still overlooking the searuns..... even when one of the bassers catches one accidently they undoubtedly think it to be just another mushy planted rainbow and toss it back in the water.....



oh yeah..... there is also a huge run of sea run cutts that works it's way up the cowlitz river starting in August....

this is a growing fishery...... I worked it for the first time about 2 years ago... unlike salmon and steelhead, sea run cutts continue to feed when they go up the rivers to spawn. Even if you don't want to fish for them it's very interesting to just walk along the shore at blue creek in the evenings in August, Sept, and october and watch sea runs work the hatches. The fly fishers have figured it out and you will always see a few casting to the rises now but I've always done very well with a small jig (for some reason I like the little tube jigs for this application.. use the smallest size you can get..) dangling below a slip bobber and with a little hunk of shrimp on it. The biggest I've ever caught out of this fishery has been about 14" but some of the guys say they catch larger 18" and 20"er's from time to time.........