Fished the Lake Washington PSA trout derby with the Fish Princess on Saturday.

Launched at Coulon at about 0500. Did the usual drill – boat in the water & park the truck then drop both motors in the water and test run…everything works great, kicker even started on the second pull. So we pull the kicker up and run out to the south end of Mercer Island. Drop the kicker back in the water and pull the cord and she runs for a few seconds and quits…oh yeah, forgot to pump the bulb. Pump the bulb, pump the bulb some more, pump the bulb roughly 157,000 times and no gas…WTF??? As it turns out this was fishy Karma kicking in as all fish hit trolling 1.7 to 2.1 MPH on the main motor and I may not have started off this fast if the kicker was functional. Of course, the kicker acts up all day, and when we get back to the ramp at the end of the day, it takes roughly two squeezes and gas fills the bulb and on to the kicker…everything happens for a reason I suppose.

Started our day directly south of the island and worked our way toward the VMAC in 55’ – 75’ of water. After sketchy results trolling everything deep on my pre-fish last weekend, I decided to run one rod off the rigger and surface troll the other. I also put my experience from the pre-fish to work for me to great effect. Last week, when I was pulling the boat out of the water, there were a few dead sticklebacks in the area. They were in rough shape with about 50% of their scales missing revealing white flesh underneath. During the week I recalled that I have an old beat-up F7 Flatfish plug in my box that is missing roughly half of its paint. This oldest and roughest plug in the box out-fished everything in my arsenal (and I rigged 8 rods for the event!). I had the old plug rigged on my LCI trout rod with about ½ ounce rubber core sinker set back at 90’ behind the center of the boat.

The first and smallest fish hit the old F7 at about 0630. The Fish Princess played our first guest expertly managing to chase it around the bow of the boat when it swam underneath. She brought it to net and we promptly booted the skunk for the day! This fish came in at 14” + change and a bit under a pound. Shortly thereafter we passed Salmonbarry trolling by in the Tin Cup. Said hi and told him I appreciated his posts and we continued on our way.

After a drive by and a long release on my part (while the Fish Princess napped) we headed back across the south end of MI to ply the waters in the west channel. Got to just short of the SW corner of the island in about 117’ of water at about 0725 and heard line peeling off the drag on the old faithful trout rod. Took a second or two to get the rod out of the holder as I had closed the sliding door at the top to keep the rod from going rapid evac every time we bounced across a wave. Fortunately the fish spirits smiled on me and the cutthroat was firmly hooked. I could tell this one was heftier as it was making drag-peeling runs. I had to wake the Fish Princess from her slumber to fetch the net, which she snapped-to in quick fashion. When the trout finally made its last run and came to net she deftly scooped it in one swing, just like an old pro! Another score for the beater flatfish plug and this was our best fish of the day at about 18.5” and a shade over 2 pounds.

I got the plug fishing again and decided to abandon the downrigger and surface troll a Mack’s Double D and Cha Cha Squidder (silver and black attack) tipped with a small strip of herring. I added a ½ ounce rubber core sinker above the flasher and set about peeling 75’ of line out to run off the port side pole holder. I only got to about 65’ in my count when the line sprung from my hand with a couple of quick head-shakes. I passed the pole to the Fish Princess but by the time she got to reeling it was over just as quick as it started. Following this quick flurry of activity we had a looooong dry spell. We trolled up the west channel about ¼ mile then trolled back southward to the area we hooked the big fish. We didn’t have a bite and didn’t see any activity among the other boats. One interesting thing I did notice in this area was two fairly unmistakable schools of what appeared to be sockeye on the fish finder. Schools were loosely clustered over 25’ – 40’ of water in groups of 15 – 30 fish.

We eventually worked our way back to the east across the south end of MI and then proceeded to troll northbound in the east channel. About half way from the VMAC to Newport Bay we passed another Smokercraft with two anglers that had a nice cuttie of maybe 2.5 pounds. Just after this at maybe 1045 we hooked our last keeper of the day. The Fish Princess once again proved perfect at the rod coaxing a plump 16” cutthroat to net to join our other two guests on ice.

Last fish of the day, also on the Double D & Cha Cha Squidder combo fished off the rigger at 25’ hit at 1225. I noticed the tell-tale bouncing of the rod tip and snapped the line out of the release clip. The fish didn’t put up a terrific fight but wiggled enough for me to know it was there. As the Fish Princess scooped it I could see it had a sharply forked tail and was bright silver and I’m thinking we’ve got ourselves a koke (and one that would require measuring as it’s close to the 15” max). As I grabbed the fish to unhook and measure, I saw the large black spots signifying it as a mini Chinook. Got him unbuttoned and promptly executed a plunge release sending him back to the depths, none the worse for the wear.

We headed for the derby weigh-in at 1245. Got our fish turned in at the weigh-in table and grabbed hot dogs and snacks courtesy of the PSA team. These guys are a very hospitable group and they put on a fun derby. Met-up with Salmonbarry and G-Man waiting for the ceremonies to start and had a good time learning what produced for them. General consensus was that small baits fished (mostly) near the surface with long setbacks produced relatively well. The PSA folks closed down the weigh-in at 1400 and started the awards at about 1430. The Cabela’s Tulalip store donated Zebco spin caster rod/reel set-ups to all of the kids who participated Brad’s, Pro-Troll, and Outdoor Emporium donated a variety of door prizes and every registered angler present at the ceremony went home with something. Top prize was a cutthroat of just over 3 lbs and took home $300. Two fish ranging in the high 2 lb bracket won the $200 2nd and $100 3rd prizes. Tica donated a kokanee rod and reel that went to the 4th place and 5th place finishers and an Outdoor Emporium gift certificate rounded out the top money prizes at 6th place. Two random weight prizes of $50 were awarded. G-Man took home one of these with his 2lb 11 ounce fish and the other went to a young man who weighed in his 11 ouncer!

Final score for the day was 8 bites, 6 hook-ups, 4 fish to the boat, 3 keepers, and two big smiles. Fish Princess tallied the most 2 -1 and Fish Dawg had the biggest at 2+ lbs. It was a beautiful sunny day to be out on the water and another fun fishing adventure with the kiddo. All-in, an outstanding run up to father’s day!

Good luck and tight lines!

Fish Dawg

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