Well, this will be the third member report for this fishing trip. I imagine guys are getting tired of reading about it… but for the sake of my own fishing diary, here goes.

After reading the great recent reports from wafisherman20 on our site I made contact the idea of filming and learning more about this amazing fishery in the middle of Pugetopolis. My past fishing outings on Sammamish for trout had been mediocre at best and I had been less than impressed. Despite the lake being just a dozen miles from my house I never really fished it much.

Paul, wafisherman20, generously agreed to take myself, rseas, and salmonbarry out for a day of fishing and to show us the fishery. Paul grew up on the lake so he knows it well. I have to admit, I was expecting someone – older. Paul is just out of high school, but has a level of maturity beyond his years. It will serve him well in college and I’m predicting we’ll do great in whatever endeavors he ends up in.

We met and hit the water at around 8am. So nice to be able to sleep in! (Sorry rseas, who lives in Burlington and had a bit of a drive!). The first thing that caught my eye was two guide boats. Are you kidding me? Someone is guiding this lake for trout? After that bit of a shock we ran out mid-lake to Paul’s first spot he wanted to show us. This is where it starts to get really cool. We ran out four different rods, each angler picking his choice of attack. Paul ran a longlining ford fender set up with no weight back 120 feet. Randy ran leaded line, two colors back. Barry took a downrigger and ran down 15-25 feet deep. And I ran a planer board 90 feet back and 50 feet out. We all ran different terminal gear, with one similarity – each terminal gear had a small piece of worm on it.

After a quiet twenty minutes or so Paul fittingly got the first fish and the three co-anglers all did a collective “wow”. It was beautiful, chrome 17” cutthroat, plump and full of fight. Randy hit the GPS way-point and for the next 3 ½ hours we did circles and s-turns in an eighth of a mile area. There was no need to go elsewhere. The fish were schooled and thick. I don’t think we went more than ten minutes without a fish or bite. It became pretty obvious why – we were in the middle of a vast carpet of hatching midge flies. Birds sat on the water all around us. Fish jumped here and there. We had no reason to move. The spot was pure gold.

We fished until around 12:30 at which point we had two anglers with limits and two with four, having released a couple kokanee (very nice specimens by the way) which we counted toward our limits since we were fishing with bait. All the fish were healthy 15-18” fish and only a couple were on the skinny side. The rest were plump and (verified later) very tasty.

A word on this fishery because I know there are anglers out there who are concerned with over-fishing the lake. Paul had in the past spoke with, and I confirmed with WDFW Fish Biologist Danny Garrett at Mill Creek that Lake Sammamish is a robust and under-utilized fishery. Further, some misconceptions we need to lay to rest. The cutthroats in Lake Sammamish do not migrate out to Puget Sound. They spend their entire lives in the lake and spawn in the tributaries. As noted, the winter fishery has little to no pressure. And even with increased pressure Mr. Garrett indicated the populations can be harvested responsibly. The cutthroats have a complex and predatory relationship with salmon and kokanee in the lake. Over population of cutthroat trout is not helpful to these other species in the lake. The fact that the fish are the size and health that they are is another indication that the fishery is in good shape. WDFW has looked in the past at lowering the limit to two fish, but found there was no need to do so. If they see a change they will revisit the issue.

I’d like to again thank Paul for taking us out and sharing it with our readers. Let’s all enjoy it and be respectful and limit our take to keep the fishery healthy.

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