Having read last week’s report on Cassidy crappie fishing by member ilvcassidtlake Gringo Pescador and I decided to try something different and give a shot at these tasty slabs.

The weather forecast was looking good for a Sunday trip and the Seahawks had an evening game so double good. We arrived at the lake at a leisurely 10am and put the toon in the water. One other angler was also launching. The weather forecast was for partly cloudy to clearing skies from late morning to the afternoon. Ya, right.

I rowed us across the lake, watching the fish finder as we went. (a nice new addition to my toon). As we crossed the deep part of the lake I saw occasional marks down at the bottom. Arriving on the far side of the lake across from the rough launch we began working crappie gear toward shore and off the bottom with slip float rigs. We kept this up for a good hour with not a nibble and no sign of fish on the fish finder.

About this time the heavens opened up with a nice downpour of rain mixed with hail. Ahh, winter fishing in the Pacific Northwest!

From there we decided to head out the deeper part of the lake and worked 22-24 feet deep water off the bottom to see what those marks were. I’d done some research which indicated that winter crappie tend to migrate to deeper waters in lakes and school up there. Not sure if you can believe everything you read on the web…

No luck in deeper water, until Mark’s rod doubled over and he played a fish (briefly) back to the boat, coming unbuttoned before we could see what it was.

We fished another hour or so, called it a day at 3pm. As we came in a father with his son and daughter were heading out.

“We saw a report on NWFR and thought I’d get the kids out of the house” said the dad. For me that made the day worth it and is a perfect example of how I think NWFR works so well for motivating and introducing anglers to new fisheries. Ilvcassidylake shares a nice report and instead of two groups of anglers sitting around on a winter day we each decided to get out and explore new waters and techniques. Others would cry that ilvcassidylake was ruining “his” spot by sharing a report.

Balderdash!

BTW, I may give Cassidy another try. I am up for a challenge to figure it out! And, it beats standing shoulder to shoulder with a couple dozen anglers on the Skykomish or playing bumper boats floating down the river.

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