Hit the lake today with a friend for the maiden voyage of my new boat. The good news is... love the boat. The less-than-stellar news was the fishing.

I'm relatively new to the fishery, so we headed out to the weather buoy, partly because of all of the reports, and in part because that's where the other boats were congregated. We spent the majority of our time there, and then moved over toward Vasa Park when we spotted some birds.

We landed one decent fish fairly early while trolling a dodger and wedding ring at 35' on the downrigger. I don't have a sonar installed yet, so we were guessing at where the fish might be. We tried from 18 to around 35 feet and at various speeds, with an emphasis on 20-25', but only hooked the one fish. The weather was cloudy/rainy, with some light chop.

The water seemed a little off color, especially up near Issaquah Creek, which was the last spot we tried.

flyfisherguy

2/4/2018 2:52:30 PM

RIsky business being on that lake without sonar. There are shelves that you could hit so be careful out there, congrats on the new boat!

MoonValley

2/5/2018 9:02:06 AM

I checked out a topo chart of the lake and didn't see anything suspect, but thanks for the heads-up. The boat is an 18-foot welded aluminum sled so it runs pretty shallow anyway.

redroostertail

2/5/2018 12:01:32 AM

thats interesting, I’ve been running around that lake since the 70’s and have never known of any shelves one could accidentally run into. Unless of course you run four boat into the shore. There are plenty of unmarked stumps that one could hit especially now that the water level is higher they tend to hide just under the surface.
Flyfisherguy can you describe where these shelves might be? Unless you are talking about right at the mouth of issaquah creek I can’t think of anywhere else. Thanks.

FishingTenor

2/5/2018 12:26:02 AM

It certainly gets shallow as you near the creek and around some of the points on the east side, just north of the weather buoy.
Also a risk near the sunken forest. Like you mentioned, the trees tops are not visible with the high water. Most places are safe 20-25' deep unless you get really close to shore or near the creek.

MoonValley

2/5/2018 9:08:01 AM

Hey, Redroostertail -- Given your experience on the lake, I'd love any suggestions you have for coaxing some of those cutthroat out. It seems like folks were catching limits a few weeks ago, but things are pretty slow out there now.
I'd also like to try my hand at smallmouth and crappie, both of which would be completely new experiences for me, so I'd welcome any advice there as well.

MoonValley

2/5/2018 9:09:23 AM

FishingTenor - you mentioned a sunken forest. Where is that? Would that be a good spot for a newbie smallmouth/crappie fisherman?

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