Sunday morning started off overcast with a smattering of drizzle, man does it ever feel like fall has arrived. Concentrated on the Southwest end of Mercer Island and just North of the sunken forest on the West side of Mercer Island. The bite was inconsistent however we managed 3 fish apiece between the two of us. The surface temps were down quite a bit from last week and we were marking fish between 20’ and 60’ down in the water column. The majority of the action came down deep and we also managed zero incidental sockeye encounters even though they were all over the lake. We caught fish on a variety of gear, stacked bead spinner, mini hoochie, spoon and mini apex all fished behind a dodger or mini Abe and Al style flasher. We managed to successfully release all but one fish, she came from way down deep and didn’t expel enough air on the way up. Try as she might, she couldn’t make it back down and I didn’t bring a venting tool with me, I ended up taking her home for the smoker. Called it a day around 2:30, with the sun having fully come out of hiding and the winds picking up out of the Southwest.

I find it interesting to examine the stomach contents of these fish as you’ll never know what you may encounter. Contrary to popular belief, not all large cutts target kokanee and smelt in this lake. This fish obviously was a bottom feeder, which may explain why it didn’t properly adjust its buoyancy on the way up after being hooked. The fish weighed in at around 3.5lbs and I found the remnants of several sculpin, one quite large, and of a good sized crayfish in the stomach. The meat also had a very nice dark orange color to it, much different than that of fish I have caught which have eaten mostly kokes, smelt and sticklebacks.

---