Northwest Fishing Reports

BradF: You mention trolling flies with lead line. What is the advantage of using lead line versus ordinary line plus sinkers? I had heard that lead line is not very suitable for trolling shallow, like close to the surface. Is that correct?

Mike Carey made a youtube about catching kokanee with trolling flies. Does anyone have any comments about catching rainbow with trolling flies?

Hopefully I can again figure out how to attach a photo. While paralleling a shoreline (that sloped down to the right in the photo), I inadvertently trolled shallower into 40 feet of water and my dodger/lure drug through the bottom muck, without my realizing it at first. About a minute of video showe...

Sideburns: I don’t buy the “uv enhanced” stuff either. The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation from the sun is cataloged into seven wavelength groups: radio waves (longest wavelength); microwaves; infrared; optical light; ultraviolet; x-rays; and gamma rays (shortest wavelength). Allegedly only ab...

hewesfisher: I agree with you, in general. In waters that “mix,” the temperature is irrelevant as it is virtually the same up and down the water column. But in stable western Washington lakes, different fish populations can complicate the “sonar only” approach. WDFW survey reports say that in Americ...

Is anyone convinced that an underwater camera has actually increased their fish catching? Not me, with a Water Wolf. However I have learned a few things from using it. Comments: 1. Toni does a terrific job of including videos in her posts. She edits videos to mainly show what happens when a fish fol...

Sideburns: You wondered how wide the “fishy” temperature band is, and said you were looking for 50-60 degrees. For years I’ve used a Fish Hawk depth/temperature meter, recording the temps by date at five foot depth intervals, every day that I fished. This in a western Washington lake that gets to ab...

Catching rainbow or kokanee in American seems to have gone way downhill since the good years of 2014-2015. The last NWFR report about catching kokanee was mid-September, 2018. The WDFW website shows this year’s stocking of 21,000 rainbow is less than half of what they say they stocked in 2016, 2017,...

On May 7 I trolled past 4 or 5 randomly scattered dead perch floating belly up in the southerly end, south of Silcox. And at one time, seven eagles were circling that area, and an unknown number were perched in the trees. They would periodically pick up something from the surface but I could not tel...

If you get stuck and have to troll with the 115 Merc, consider tipping it up a little so the prop wash is aimed somewhat up toward the surface. That will slow you down a some. Just be sure the water intake is well submerged and that the motor is always pumping a full flow. A kokanee fishing TV show ...

How important was water temperature in 2014? The 2014 American Lake posts show that kokanee were reported caught starting February 1st: - - tmib said 7 kokanee were landed in his boat Feb 1. - - jd39 reported landing 8 kokanee on Feb. 1. He also reported that the fish checker (maybe Katrina?) said s...

Kokanee catches are reported in Meridian, Merwin, Stevens, Chelan, Roosevelt and maybe others at this time of year. Salmonberry noted this, too. If water temperature is the key, then all these other waters are warmer than American. Are they, really?

Toni, what do you think causes a “hard year?”

In a book written by a tournament-fishing pro, the author writes about driving his boat through pad fields, using the main engine to cut up the pads. A couple of hours later, he returns and fishes those cut-up areas. One pad field in a Thurston County lake has a 2-foot wide slot in it, straight as a...

Has anyone been catching smallmouth this winter in western Washington lakes? What's your opinion about trying American Lake for them in March?