Lake Washington Trout

[Palmer]

I've been fishing Lake Washington for years. It has always been slow and I'm patient. I've noticed you have to hunt down a school and then stick with them. I've always caught 2-3# trout but one of these days I'd like to get a bow or cutt above 5#s. I heard a 17# cutt was caught 5 years ago. I've also heard stories of 15# bows caught near waverly. Over the years I've used a worm with ford fender(numerous fish), small flat fish(2 or 3 fish), rapalas (1 or 2), and needle fish (2 or 3 fish) but none of these brought in anything over 22". Does anyone have any ideas?

[A9]

I've heard most of the fish are usually around the 18" mark...Maybe try some new spots...Fish the mouth of the Cedar or the bridges or up near Juanita....

[Anonymous]

Palmer you're not alone. You're catching the same size trout I do. I've never done any good at Juanita and the Cedar only during the cutt run, mark lots of fish sitting on the bottom but I think they be smallies. I normally catch one or two an outing and I have had my best luck on either side of the 520 bridge. There's also a trench that runs due north from the tip of seward to the 90 bridge. I've had luck there too. Most fish caught between 30 and 60 ft.

[Palmer]

Thanks fellas. I just heard of a new method. Small herring with brine overnight and garlic. Fish at 30' down and 100' behind the boat. I plan to get a planer board and fish midwest style if the water isn't too warm.

[gpc]

This is really weird and I don't know if it was a fluke or not. Last year while perch fishing at Lake WA I managed to catch a rainbow on a piece of perch meat. Ive caught crappie, perch, bass and bluegill off perch meat but never a trout. So maybe a perch pattern rapala or just any plug in a perch pattern. I know for salmon they will wrap a small fillet of hearing or anchovy to a quick fish. So maybe a fillet of perch wrapped around a quick fish would do pretty well. Or a piece of perch on a double whammy hook coupled with a worm might do the trick. But like I said could have been a fluke. But the lake is chuck full of perch so it might be a step in the right direction

[Palmer]

A fire tiger flatfish works well in many lakes with bluegill and perch. Maybe I'll try tying a piece of perch on it.

[Bodofish]

GPC, I caught one on a ford fender WR and lunch meat out of my sandwich after I forgot the worms. Fatty. 30 minutes later I caught a Walley on the same. I think it was the mustard.