I haven't see any reports from Sammamish for a couple of weeks, but the weather forecast seemed too good to be true. But it was true. I would have given the day a 5 star rating if that was a separate category. It was like glass all day. I ran the entire time with nothing but an electric trolling motor at about 1.5 mph from 11 am until 3:30 pm and still had plenty of battery power. Wind and chop eats a lot of power.

The first two hours were a steady, but not fast rate of action. Several drive by's and losses near the boat, but we did get 5 nice fish to the boat. I wasn't really concerned about keeping fish, just wanted to get out of the house because of weather and you never know now how much the restrictions of movement could be in the near future. We practiced proper distancing and kept the rod tips at least 6 feet apart. No boats got any closer than six feet, so we should all be good. (No, I'm not being serious here). Lots of fresh air and clear skies was good for mental health.

So the basics (which is why you are reading this) are: 1.5 mph, about 15 ft. down, red and white dick nite about 18 inches behind a slingblade. I've used the same dick nite for about 30 years, and it has worked all that time, so I am lazy and just stick with it during the winter months. Maybe other things work better. I rarely saw any fish to speak of on both frequencies of my sonar, so I was guessing they were up too shallow to see. You would think they would go deeper with so much sun, but never got anything deeper than 21 feet.

Hope everyone stays well out there and can get out and enjoy some time on the water.

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