I have had horrible luck the past couple of weekends. Is it just me or is everyone else experiencing the same slow fishing? I have been putting my time in at Steele, Meridian, Kress (Cowlitz), Deer (Island), and
Wilderness. The only lake I have done OK at is Deer.

I will just blame it on low water temps and crappy weather for now.

I fished at Anderson Lake (Jefferson County) and it was really slow. I only got 1 bite after fishing for 2 hours. So I went to another lesser known lake and caught my limit of 5. The other lake I went to was smaller so it was probably warmer. I don't have a thermometer to confirm that, but I would say the smaller lakes would be fishing better than the big lakes just because of temperature. I don't have much experience to back this up, but it makes sense to me.

~ Dr Pepper

I beleive your right, the water temp is still down, If your trolling Try switching over to a silver blade, if you haven't already. Also try trolling a little slower, with plenty of zig-zag action and get that worm troll to flutter, slow down and speed up this should aggravate a trout into striking. If the water is real murky try a gold blade. Hope this help's you good Luck. Oh by the way I'm curious as to which lake your fishing?

I have to agree, opening day wasn't bad, but after that it really slowed down. The fish I have caught had been feeding on snails, which indicates bottom feeding. Our lakes were about 2' higher than normal and in two weeks have dropped about 18". I don't know whether this has something to do with it or not, but, as the weather warms the bite should improve.
Banock

With this cold weather, I would apply tactics similar to winter steelhead fishing - BAIT, SLOW, and IN THEIR FACE!! Expect soft, subtle takes. If you feel them nibbling, give them some quick slack, wait a second, and set the hook. Works about 90% of the time on those stubborn nibblers.

If you have a fish finder, then you can more easily identify the depth of the fish. This will help alot.

Also, try 'mooching'. Basically, no blades (or just a single or double colorado 18" above the bait), and a split shot or 2 depending on your speed and depth of the fish. If you don't know what depth to start with, you can either start at just below the surface (little to no weight and very slow) or add a bunch of weight until you are scraping bottom, then work your way up by removing some weight incrementally. Any way, mooching would be just letting the wind blow you along, with just a nice chunk of worm (and required split shot) on the business end. I use an ultra light rod with 4lb test mainline and this works great for me. Besides, the fight is so much better when you don't have a bunch of hardware getting in the way. I'll only do the cowbells, ford fenders, etc when the little stuff is not working for me (not very often).

You can also 'mooch' with a fly rod. As Carl has mentioned before, a carry special works well, but it works even better tipped with worm

If there is not enough wind, turn on the trolling motor for a few seconds, then coast until nearly stopped, and do it again.

Good luck out there! The warmer weather is only a few more days away!!

(it was snowing at my house when I got up this morning )

i've still been slappin em on a #70 chrome hotshot no weight

Tyler

I hit Martha lake in Lynnwood over the weekend. I fished 2 hrs and C&R 18 rainbows 8-14". I slow trolled a brown and black #8 wooley bugger.

I've been fishing Cascade Lake on Orcas Island.

Friday night I put in at 6:45, fished until 9:00, and saw two rises. Lost one fish on a chirono nymph.

Saturday night I put in at 7:00, fished until 8:45, saw two rises. Had one bite on a chirono nymph.

Sunday night I stayed home...

Fished Pine and Langlois since the opener. Both gave it up to me like I've been deserving some serious redemption since last year. The biggest fish out of Pine came on a Thin-Mint Leech. On Langlois gave me its best on a 4-colored mottled marabou leech. Lots of fish in water close to 60 degrees.

yeah lake fishin is real slow compared to this time last year. Ben

Well i've had the opposite luck. Fenwick, North and Angle have all been on fire. North is almost 60F Fenwich is 56F and Angle at 54F. Speed has been everything IF i'm not bobber fishing.

Huge Algea bloom at North Lake. Trolled 2 hours got 2 at North so we anchored on the east end in 10 ft of water and switched to small spoons and spinners and just cast them out and realed them in fast. Hooked 10 in about 20 minutes. Fenwick has been good for bobber and fast stripped flies. Or trolling flies or hotshots fast. Angle stumped me at first, but i decided to put a hotshot on my downrigger at 20 feet and instantly hooked up. So i stayed deep with a little weight and did pretty good. 10-12 in about 2 hours after 2 hours of roaming. Caught a small bass too flippin nightcrawlers under the south docks. Have yet to hit Steele. Today looked like the day for it was total glass. But bagged it cuz it was dang cold this mornin.

Hit the lake last night from the bank for about 1/2 hr with my 2 yr old son. Didn't have any high hopes, just needed to give my wife a break, and I wanted to try out my new Sage rod and Ross reel

There was only light surface action scattered about, so I went with a small brownish mohair (sp?) leech. Had one nice hit, but I snapped the tipped by striking too hard and fast. Doh! Put on a small olive/black wooly bugger and caught a 10 incher and an 8 incher. Not too bad considering I had a 2 yr old splashing in the water and throwing rocks.

Once the weather warms up a bit I'll head back over and try again. While I did see a few good sized fish jumping, I was surprised at how small the 2 I caught were.

Also, I wanted to note that FFF may be on to something here. The 'slow troll\retrieve' theory for these cold days may not always be the ticket. The first fish I caught doing a medium fast strip. Didn't get a nibble doing slow retrieves with intermittent pauses. Then when cranking the line in to leave, a trout just attacked it like a piranha! Mix it up a little

I fished a couple of E.WA selective regs lakes last week for three days and they were both abnormally slow for this time of year. A couple of guys were doing pretty well for small rainbows (8-11") using chironomids just off the bottom, but they weren't catching hardly any large fish (16"+). We tried all sorts of flies (princes, scuds, boatmen, buggers, damsels, etc) and nothing seemed to work any better than the others. I think this cold spring has the fish a little sluggish still. First hot spell should cause the bite to pick up.

Those crown gems of Grant County trouting Blue and Park lakes are not just slow this year they are wipeouts. There was appearently no plants made last year and all fish being caught are carryovers. The average catch rate is one fish for every two days fishing and the place is starting to look deserted as everyone finds out and leaves.
So Westsiders. Don't listen to the resort hype "that the plant is much larger than usual this year".
That's no plant, it's carryovers and their damn scarce. Save your gas.
So stay home or choose another place. Let me take care of those leftover carryovers.......well, like they say, someone gotta do it! suspect these two are on the rehab list for this fall. If not better see what F&G is up to??

FFS, my dad was telling me the same thing. He has property on Blue. I wonder why WDFW stocking report shows it got something like 20K fish?? I have noticed the info WDFW is putting out this year is not very accurate. I think you are right about Blue being on the rehab list. I saw a bunch of large bass in Blue last summer. They gotta go!

On a brighter note, my buddy fished Deep on opening day and did really well for triploids.

Looks like we might have a couple of bright sunny days heading our way this weekend . Water temps should come up and fishing should improve, hopefully.

I've been fishing at Silver Lake ( Whatcon ) And doing quite well. I am currently introducing our sport to a newcomer and he's doing quite well, judging from the grin on his face. He's definitly hooked. So every wednesday is our outting on the lake, weather permitting. Today he was telling me he think's after another couple trip's out he should know enough to take his father out. Love seeing it, I think I get more pleasure out of teaching someone how to fish, more than I like catching fish. Well almost. So now I've created another trout monster. One a year, that's a pretty good average, and it's alway's nice to see them out on the lake doing the same for other's.

Wait a second now. Am i actually hearing complaining that someone can't catch planter trout at blue? I wish i couldn't catch planters ever, but with the lakes around here you don't have much choice. I know blue is good but i'd think hearing that there wasn't a plant would make it that much better. Blue kicks booty so i could only imagine how nice it would be NOT catching the typical fish there. For how good the planters are, holdovers can only be that much better. I'd say you can only expect big fish now, making it much more desirable, unless your looking for tablefare. It's time to get technical when you fish for holdovers. I think the hunt is half the fun. Wanna go Carl? Thanks for the info FF.

Last summer was not a good summer on Blue. In fact, it was probably the worst year I have seen there, in the last ten. My dad said something about the lake "turning over" which means there is a huge temperature inversion. I guess this happens every seven to eight years.

FFF, I will venture over there with you. Can't do it this weekend though. How about next.

Ok you two, come if ya must! But you'll be sorrrrrrrrry!
Let us all know how ya did, har,har,har! Both those big ones can be real......
ELUSIVE!