Was looking for an excuse to go test out a 15hp outboard my brother loaned me and decided that the Lake Samm. Chinook would be a good reason. Invited forum member Realfisherman to go drag some gear around this morning. I'd intended to get to the gate early, but got there even earlier than intended. Turned out to the be the first in line at 5:30. Gates don't open until 6:30. The next guy didn't show up until about 15 minutes later. About 6am a good number of trailers showed up, but half seemed to be bass boats (guess there was a tournament today). When the gates opened, we got our game on and everyone seemed to launch in quick order. We had our gear in the water by 6:45. My partner didn't have his gear in the water two minutes and his rod starts bouncing. It wasn't a big fish and i'd thought he'd hooked a trout, but up came a 14" catfish stuck to his plug. We had a good laugh about getting the skunk off and proceeded to troll, dragging various dodger/hook/plug/spoon combinations out from the mouth of the creek along with the other 10-12 boats. Although we saw a few fish surface we didn't hook or see any hooked while we were out there. Beautiful morning. Quit about 9:30 as did most everyone else. No fish, but the motor ran well, so mission accomplished. Although we marked a lot of fish on the sonar, most seemed to be smaller, so probably trout and perch with a few big arches in the mix. The water temp was 74 degrees according to the fish finder.

ARK

8/24/2014 9:55:00 PM

According to the fish count at the locks, only 3301 Chinook have entered the fresh water. About 330 were natives.

Steelhead6438

8/25/2014 12:06:00 AM

The prediction is a low return on the Sammamish Kings. They are pretty colored when they get up to the creek.... but still a lot of fun to fight. Troll very slowly around 35' with a blue hook and chartreuse yarn with garlic scent..... Usually does me well. Sometimes those fish are pretty large around 20-30lbers. Enjoy.... going to be another hot week so will still be pretty slow I imagine.

BentRod

8/25/2014 7:37:00 AM

There were definitely a few around. Saw a couple dark ones roll near us. @Steelhead6438, funny you mention that setup. That's pretty much the gear I ended the day with at 32' down (krill/anise scent though). I kept our speed around 1.5 mph. Just enough to keep the dodgers wagging. That was about the speed everyone else seemed to be dragging too. I didn't expect much in the way of action and wasn't disappointed. We figured we were most likely out there for some C&R fun if we managed to hook anything. Probably won't get out on Samm. again this season as I will be targeting Coho on the rivers when they start showing.

Bank drifter

8/25/2014 9:45:00 PM

Nice you got out, heading to the Columbia/Cowlitz Wed...

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