Northwest Fishing Reports

I will add some links when I find the time.

14.9 cutt. Nice article, we got to get together and catch these guys. From your pics and info sounds like you already know where they are.

So you have not been using a downrigger so far to catch them sweet fish? Banana weights? Lead line?

Does anybody know what kind of shad are in lake WA?

Dude...it's on! Thanks for the article

gpc wrote:Does anybody know what kind of shad are in lake WA?

I have a feeling they are referring to the longfin smelt and not shad. There are no shad in lake wa AFAIK.

maybe the author of the article was reffering to a small minnow that inhabits the lake just like you said, there cant be any "shad" like the "shad" that run through the columbia in the spring, or there would be a spring fishery in front of the dam.

i was wondering about that to.

bpm2000 wrote:

gpc wrote:Does anybody know what kind of shad are in lake WA?

I have a feeling they are referring to the longfin smelt and not shad. There are no shad in lake wa AFAIK.

That's my thoughts exactly. There might be the rare shad that enters the lake but I don't think there's a spawning population. I think he meant lonfin smelt too. Also, the record isn't 14.9 pounds as the fish wasn't registered. I'd like to see if the Lake WA cutts are really cutts and if they are what sub-species they are.

Bill

AFAIK, the cutts in lake washington are partly of sea-run origion, and some are the larger "lake" cuttthroats.

i dont know if they are a sub-species but they get BIG

Does anybody know if that 15lber that the Sok Keo guy caught was released or not?
That thing has some great genes if it can grow that big, and I hope that thing spawned a few times...

Probably a lot of mercury in that fish from sitting in the lake that long....

I was thinking the same thing about the shad. But the guy who wrote the article was pretty specific about there being a shad population in lake WA, but I guess you cant believe everything you read.

That fish was a freak. There are big cutts out there, but that fish was crazy big, who knows how that happened...

Max, there has to be something different about them as the record for the sea-runs is 6 lbs. The Lake WA ones are just plain jumbos. 14.9 pounds isn't even close to 6, it just plain dwarfs it. So... they have to be different as in a different subspecies.

That's why I was asking about the possibility of them being Donaldsons which have the steelhead genes added.

Also, the 14.9 pounder was et.

gpc wrote:.... But the guy who wrote the article was pretty specific about there being a shad population in lake WA, but I guess you cant believe everything you read.

All one needs to do is look at the publication name: Fishing and Hunting News

'nuff said.

yea it was for sure not a sea-run cutt that the man caught. but i think there was talk fo them being regular run of the mill "lake" cutts. the ones that wdfw stock in lakes around the state.

what some people dont realize is the massive amounts of food that is present in lake washington. smolts, baitfish, baby crappie etc. there is just a ton of food. these fish dont rely on the bug hatches like their cousins the rainbows. they eat a very good diet which makes them grow to massive proportions. i think that is one of the main reasons why they get so big in LW

I hear that huge fish was in fact eaten. It was not officially weighted in either, or as seems fairly obvious from the photo, it'd be the record holder for the lake. For the record, the primary concern on consuming large resident fish from Lk Wa is PCBs, not mercury.

People can and should make up their own minds on all this--I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, more encourage people to read the somewhat disappointing findings and make up their own minds for what they (and their kids) should eat, and how often... The best/most recent data I've seen is here:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0703024.pdf

Me personally? All things in moderation.

irishrogue wrote:I hear that huge fish was in fact eaten. It was not officially weighted in either, or as seems fairly obvious from the photo, it'd be the record holder for the lake. For the record, the primary concern on consuming large resident fish from Lk Wa is PCBs, not mercury.

People can and should make up their own minds on all this--I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, more encourage people to read the somewhat disappointing findings and make up their own minds for what they (and their kids) should eat, and how often... The best/most recent data I've seen is here:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0703024.pdf

Me personally? All things in moderation.

I cant catch enough fish for it matter anyway

There's three subspecies of cutts in WA state, 1) Lahontans, 2) Coastal cutts (aka sea-runs) and 3) Westslope cutts. The cutts in Lake WA only look like coastals and not the other two.

Actually, if this is a trivia question there may be other cutts in WA state. MBS cutts were stocked here years ago.