My friend and I went to Rock Lake to get some steelhead action. The report last week said they were in the 16 inch range and biting well. Now the question was, are they biting this week.
So with the wind and rain in our face, we left the launch, and were on our way to catching some steelhead. We were not disappointed, and with the bites comming every 4 or 5 minutes we were not a bit cold. Wet but not cold. After 20 minutes we had our first two steelhead. Then to our suprise we had a double, which quickly turned into quadruple, and a first for both of us. Another 30 minutes and we had our limits. 7 steelhead and 3 rainbow. All cought in a 3 hour peroid.
My friend cought the 3 rainbows on a black fly with a gold bead head, and the 2 steelhead on a needle fish with a rainbow pattern.
All 5 of my steelhead were cought on Thomas lures. Both silver with red black and yellow dots. and bronze with the same dots.
Looking back on the trip we noticed that the best bite was during the heaviest rain, when the surface was disturbed. My friend used about a quarter ounce weight on the fly and no flasher. The thomas and needle fish lures were ran with no weight added.
A real good day on the water. Now I will dream about going in the Spring when the steelhead will be 18 inches and stronger.

Bent hook pontoon

10/5/2016 1:34:00 PM

so considering rock lake is a lake and not a river or reservoir and therefor not a body of water that would have a searun, what makes these fish steelhead and not just a big rainbow?

hewesfisher

10/5/2016 2:32:00 PM

These are hatchery steelhead raised to have been released into west side rivers until stopped by a Wild Fish Conservancy successfully filed suit against their release. WDFW had somewhere around 800,000 fish to decide where they should go. Over 300,000 ended up in Sprague Lake and I can't recall how many ended in Rock Lake.

Seattle Times article can still be pulled up here - http://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/hatchery-steelhead-find-a-home-at-sprague-lake-in-eastern-washington/

ChuckVH

10/5/2016 4:42:00 PM

Thanks hewsfisher. I can't remember the number in Rock Lake either. We thought of going to Sprague Lake and decided on Rock Lake becauise of the clearer water, or less algea bloom.

brent338

10/5/2016 5:21:00 PM

500k were put into Rock. If you know the lake and where the flats and like structure are, try throwing a rainbow, or similar pattern Rapala, 1/2 oz or more very aggressively in the shallows, near shore... hold on tight! there be big browns in there....

Bent hook pontoon

10/5/2016 6:22:00 PM

Fantastic! Thanks for the info and the report! I have seen some huge browns from there on rebel crawfish pattern crank baits off the flats. Like 10# plus fish. Green with red eyes pattern.

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