We headed out to Sammamish to do some family fishing time from the inflatable raft again. Launched at 10am from the boat launch and started the morning off by trolling towards the weather buoy area. Plan was to troll for an hour, and if the trout bite was not hot, then switch to yellow perch to make fish cakes.

Marked some fish on the Deeper fish finder, about 40-50 deep in 70 feet of water. With the water temperature at the surface being 57 degrees, I expected a bit higher up. I was conflicted about what depth to target because shallower fish often are missed by the narrow portion of the cone on a fish finder. Since we had three people, we fished lines with varying amounts of lead on the dropper rig.

I did end up hooking one fish with 3/4 oz of lead, about 100 feet back, trolling about 1.5 to 2 mph on a perch colored God's Tooth spoon 15" behind a plaid sparkle tape 5.5" sling blade dodger. Unfortunately, the fish threw the hook near the surface before I could get it in the boat. I believe it was a small trout. After that, we got one more quick hit and run on wedding ring with a yellow painted Indiana blade, but then no more bites.

Since we only have a limited about of time before having to head home around 1pm to take my daughter back home for her nap, we decided around 11:30am to switch to drop shot rigs and target some yellow perch. We moved closer to the shore, and found a few schools of perch near the bottom in about 50 feet of water. We got a few fat ones that were about 10.5" long, but it was hard to maintain our position over the school of fat yellow perch due to drifting. We tried to relocate the position but weren't successful for a while and the Deeper fish finder ran out of battery. Eventually we found another school of yellow perch, but this included some small ones that we threw back. Soon we had enough keepers for fish cakes and made our way back to the boat ramp.

Fish cakes were delicious. We substituted the perch fillets for cod in our favorite fish cakes recipe which uses potato, green onion, eggs, garlic, and panko. Shaped with a measuring cup and chilled lightly in the freezer prior to frying, they kept their shape well and paired perfectly with a homemade tartar sauce. We also had a side of homemade crab soup, inspired by Maryland style crab soup, made with red rock crab we caught by Admiralty Inlet.

Overall, a nice morning fishing trip on Lake Sammamish aside from being cold. Still haven't unlocked the secret of Lake Sammamish's cutthroat trout fishery, but will keep working at it or wait for water temperatures to drop further so that they come closer to the surface where it is easier to hit them with a flatline troll.

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