by The Troutist, May 13, 2013

As I have said many times before my main office is my boat on a lake somewhere in the NW. Over the years I have found more times than not that a successful meeting has been accomplished over a trout hook-up or two. The other day was just such an occasion as I met up with Editor Kelly Riordin to discuss what future stories should be included in upcoming issues of this magazine.

I was up at 4:30am getting all my gear ready for just such an occasion. Not that we were going to be on the water at first light but mainly taking care of stuff I should have done the day before. I guess that goes back to my old saying “always put off today what you can do at o’dark thirty.” As it turns out this was another one of those adventures. We were set to meet at one of those lakes that I enjoy working two or three times a year. Yes our destination was Nahwatzel Lake and while we were discussing our game plan I couldn’t see any harm in trolling a few different Smile Blade Flies around the lake. What I like about meeting places like this is you don’t having to worry about interruptions or walls growing ears. After all if you can’t enjoy your work then it’s definitely time to change professions.


We were slated for a three and a half hour meeting that was to start at 8am at the ramp. After talking to a few other anglers and getting the skinny on how things were going we were off. Kelly started out with a brown Woolley Bugger and a bronze blade, my combination was black and purple. In less than five minutes on the water I had my first hook-up with a feisty little 13-inch rainbow. My first thought was that this is going to be a successful meeting and as it turned out I was correct. After I had another hook-up Kelly switched over to my color combo and a few minutes later he had a hard take down and you could hear the reel singing as this fish peeled line off of the reel. After a brief battle and with no warning at all this monster snapped the leader.

Now you would think this would put a damper in our discussion of future events but it just fueled the conversation. After hooking and releasing another four or five trout and the loss of another trophy our meeting had come to an end. We accomplished a great deal and I think you will enjoy what is in store for our upcoming editions. For me I will not only be covering trout angling in the south sound area but also some more salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon adventures.

On a side note, the trout we hooked and released were all very feisty and put up some great battles and ranged in size from 12-14 inches. After our meeting came to an end I worked the lake for another hour and a half with a few different color combinations and hooked and released another four with an olive and black Woolley Bugger and a black smile blade. This was a very bright and sunny day with the temperature up around 70 degrees and the water temperature started out at 56 degrees and climbed up to 60.

Although this was not the most successful day I have experienced on this lake it was still very enjoyable. I believe that this lake is going to produce hours of fun for anglers and judging by the amount of other boats on the water I am not the only one that is having these thoughts. Join me on my face book page Uncle Wes as I will be posting photos of the waters I work.


So until next time may your next trout be your trophy mount.

The Troutist-“Uncle Wes” Malmberg.




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