The Outdoor Line Forum

Fall is here and Lake WA offers a year round cutthroat trout fishery. From October all the way to Spring time, you can pretty much have the lake to yourself. My buddy and I troll lead core line in 18-25ft of water just off the bottom. This time of year we use #2 and #3 size Needlefish spoons. Go to colors are Rainbow Trout, Brass Bikini and White Bikini. Later in the season try Brad's Mini Cutplug Lures or even full sized herring with a hood. Your speed can vary from 1.5 to 2mph. Lead core has it's advantages, as when you stop or turn your bait can drop in the water column and can often trigger a bite.

The weed lines along the shore are disappearing, but look for drop offs and points where cutthroat hide and ambush their prey. Common food sources are smelt, stickleback, juvenile trout and salmon. Find the bait and you'll often find the fish.

We have had luck around the UW Cut area where bait is stacking up, as well as along both bridges. You can keep up to 5 fish per day but just take what you need. These are beautiful fish with some topping 20" or more.

We've managed to catch some nice small mouth bass that are still hugging the bottom in 20 to 25 feet of water. They will hit small plugs and even a spoon if it comes in front of their noses.

For more information, check out my article on Fall/Winter cutthroat trout fishing http://www.kayakfishingwashington.com/?p=303

Thanks again for jumping on the air with us on Saturday Brad. We particularly liked the story about catching the 80 pound halibut at Neah Bay. Classic!!!!

Keep up the good work and please keep us posted on your endeavors

Robbo wrote:Thanks again for jumping on the air with us on Saturday Brad. We particularly liked the story about catching the 80 pound halibut at Neah Bay. Classic!!!!

Keep up the good work and please keep us posted on your endeavors

Thanks Rob! It was a pleasure talking with you and Tom. Hopefully, this will be the first of many. Tight Lines~

That is awesome Brad. I love fishing lk.wa in the winter months, mostly for cutthroat, allows me to flush the salt water out of the jet from the Blackmouth fishing . We have had some great success outside of Juanita Bay and right in front of Bill Gates house, I call it the "Billionaire Hole". We will be out there often from now till March, I'll keep a look out for you out there, stop by and say hi,maybe exchange some reports. My name is Derek

Hey Derek,
It's nice to have some company out there. My fishing buddy and partner in KFW, Todd, was out there on Saturday and did well. I like your name for Gate's house. We did well yesterday with 7 fish between the two of us. Two 20" fish and one was over 20" that slipped back in the drink before the photo could be taken. I posted some pics on our FB page www.facebook.com/kayakfishingwashington . Hope to see you out there.

~Brad

Nicely done. 7 Cutts on lk. Wa is a great day. We fished it yesterday and got 4 nice fish on orange label cut plug herring. The wind got to be too much so we went home at about 11am. Happy Angling to you!

Fished yesterday with only one small cutty taken in 4 hours of trolling. I think the fish moved into deeper water. I'll have to try a different part of the lake.

The highlight of my day was seeing 10-15 trout porpoising at the surface together. They must have been feeding on something. That's a first for me. Reminded me of seeing coho in the Sound.