I decided to hit cottage lake. I was hoping to go to the river but no waders yet. Also I did not get up as early as hoped so this nearby lake was perfect. I arrived a little before 7 am and inflated my boat(good for lakes). I got on the water shortly after than and no bits for a time although I saw fish surfacing. One other boat on the water trolling with worms. I was using a lure mainly and ended up tipping it with worm. I caught 3 ugly looking small rainbow. release two.. as barely hooked and kept one. I had a nice cutthroat on that I got reeling in but he threw the hook. I have several others that shook off. They were near the surface. Made me wish I had my fly set up. I bet they would have gone for that. So mainly I trolled a Joe's fly short striker. It looks like one of those emerging midges. brown flecks of orange and red with a brown tail. That thing got hammered..not just by the trout. I caught several yellow perch all too small although I kept one due to hook being deep. I have one nice perch that came off probably 10 inches. The highlight of the day for me though was when I pulled in a fat 10 inch crappie. I was a beauty and I decided to keep it..never having tried crappie. It hit right near the middle of the lake as my short striker sank. I am just sad I could not find the school and I did not have the anchor so could not keep to a spot. I used a small weight but with bait and the short striker about about 12-15 inches of leader.
That crappie made it home alive even though I had been out for hours. I bleed it,cleaned it and cooked it up on the grill. That fish tasted amazing.. with just a touch of cooking wine and flaky pink salt. Wow good solid tasting fish. Now I want to go back and see if I can find more of those crappie. Wish I knew better how to fish em here in the PNW. In KS we just used real simple red and white jigs. dropped to the bottom and brought slowly up or reeled in. Anyone know crappie. love to hear from you.
All and all it was fun to be on the water. The other fellows caught their total and left. I trolled around a while longer and waited for the 1130 am feed. Basically the fish feed about 730am -930 and then dead until after 11 am. I hope I can get into the cutthroats soon.

oxmary

9/9/2015 4:13:00 PM

Just curious what you meant by 3 "ugly rainbows". Parasites, etc??? Thanks for the report!

Heatherlyfish

9/9/2015 4:46:00 PM

@ oxmary. They are looking a little less parasitic no worms on these(some odd splotching though) but the coloring just looked real dark. Not bright looking rainbows like I am used to seeing. They also were all small like 9 inches. All of them seem about that size. The other fellows out there said they pulled in some nice 15 inch cutthroats. The rainbows I have eaten out of cottage taste like pond slime. I fish Langlois more often and those trout just taste better.

jonb

9/9/2015 7:19:00 PM

the cutthroat are the real prize as far as eating goes.. i prefer a cutthroat over most salmon. only coho and kokanee compare to how good cutthroat are in my opinion.

Heatherlyfish

9/9/2015 8:10:00 PM

Cutthroat in cottage lake are pretty good but flavor sometimes is a bit off. Best Kokanee I ever had.. and it was amazing. came from cascade lake(Orcas island). hubby prefers the landlocked steel-heads from Langlois( say steel-head cause they are the plants they wanted to put in the river but were prevented by concerned environmentalists. Basically the hatchery raised them from sea run steel-head eggs). They are a nice pink color and flesh just tastes different and have less rainbow color.

N E 1 FISSION

9/9/2015 10:27:00 PM

Check out Lake Larsen in Bellevue off of 148th, blueberry farm,...check out reports!!

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