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As usual, the launch was difficult. Got on the water by 645 and headed to the south side that had a lot of hot spots from previous reports. Picked up a 13" rainbow on the way there. No action on the south side. Headed NE picking up 1 or 2 randomly. Was getting pretty windy, and the action was not good, so we headed back to the launch and trolled the north side from the launch up the lake about a mile. Repeat. Was almost too easy. We picked up 8 of our 10 fish in about 80' of water with downriggers set at about 8 to 10 feet, 35 feet back. We put the downriggers down to 30'-50' to see what the large fish on the sonar were, and found that they were brown trout. Picked up a nice juicy 19" brown full of eggs down at 50'. Picked up our last and second brown at 30'. We were using a mix of orange/red/yellow Mack's Wedding Rings and Rainbow Trout speckled Apex lures. Most fish were 15"+, with a few at 17". Were these the planted Steelhead? I've no idea how I would tell the difference between a Rainbow Trout, and a sea-run Rainbow Trout that has never nor will never see the sea. Speeds varied from 1.7 to 2.7. Did not seem to matter much. On a side note, my new Ram Rebel pulled the boat out of the lake with ease, and it is pretty much necessary to have a good 4 wheel drive vehicle to get a 20' boat in and out on this lake.

justinspotanske

4/24/2016 3:41:00 PM

The steelhead all have adipose clipped fins . You can't miss the difference.

Aaron

4/24/2016 3:42:00 PM

Good to know. Thanks!

kenbarb

4/25/2016 9:45:00 AM

That's really a nice rig you have Aaron, both the truck, and boat. I have a 21' boat/Jeep Grand Cherokee, the trailer is tandem axle so I don't have to worry as much about that abrupt drop off at the boat launch, have heard that some people have broken their trailer suspension trying to pull out, after dropping over the ledge. First time I launched there I wore hip boots and waded out for a hazard check, after that it was pretty easy. Goood report, Rock is a beautiful place to fish.

Aaron

4/26/2016 7:38:00 AM

Thanks KenBarb! I have been lucky enough not to drop off the ledge so far. Hope I never do. I'd launch at one of the alternative spots if the bank anglers didn't get their vehicles jammed in there so early. So far I've launched in 3 different spots, and the main one is the worst of them. One of these days I hope something gets done about the entire launch area. Would be a dream to see it rehabilitated, owned and maintained by the state, with a nice deep launch with a dock.

SPAWN.TILL.YOU.DIE

4/28/2016 7:39:00 AM

Did the brown have anything in its belly? I caught one two weeks ago with a big gut on it but to my surprise his belly was empty.

Aaron

4/28/2016 7:43:00 AM

SHE had a big belly. I just thought it was from the fact that we caught her a little deeper than the rest and her air bladder expanded. She had eggs in her, but not enough to fill the large belly.

underdoc1

5/19/2016 9:41:00 AM

Sorry Aaron I just couldn't disagree more. Putting a ramp in would kill the best Brown Trout lake in Washington due to over fishing and would lead to any number of people being put in jeopardy. As you know this lake gets downright dangerous in a New York minute and 4 people in a 14' Valco aren't going to make it back from the inlet in a 25mph wind. Keep it the way it is, keep it in private hands and keep the State out of it.

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