Western WA's husky rainbows 4/30/2024

Starman77

Starman77

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I've been posting about the husky rainbows in central WA, but western WA also has some husky rainbows. Check out this husky rainbow hooked today on a western WA lake (a general regulation lake):

20240430_140955 p.jpg

It was 21 inches long (based on my Measure Net) and 5.25 pounds (based on my handheld scale). It had nothing in its stomach. It took a BH Dark Olive Rabbit Fur Leech that I was casting and stripping about 6 feet below the water surface in 12 feet of water. It was a very good fighter and jumper.

Rex
 
Starman77 said:
I've been posting about the husky rainbows in central WA, but western WA also has some husky rainbows. Check out this husky rainbow hooked today on a western WA lake (a general regulation lake):

View attachment 112604

It was 21 inches long (based on my Measure Net) and 5.25 pounds (based on my handheld scale). It had nothing in its stomach. It took a BH Dark Olive Rabbit Fur Leech that I was casting and stripping about 6 feet below the water surface in 12 feet of water. It was a very good fighter and jumper.

Rex
Click to expand...
Healthy looking fish. Those colored up fins stand out.
 
Curious how it eats compared to the C WA huskies.
 
Starman77 said:
Since I'm finding empty stomachs on both sides of the mountains, I guess they compare similarly.
Click to expand...
I didn’t realize that was how it works! Interesting theory anyway.
 
Tried this western WA general regulation lake again on Thursday 5/23/2024 and although I spent the first 5 hours mostly practicing my fly casting, the perseverance paid off, as in the evening the fish finally started biting and I ended up landing 17 fish, including this 20 incher that weighed 5.25 pounds:

20240523_181802.jpg

Most of the fish were hooked on a BH Dark Olive Rabbit Fur Leech, but I don't think the particular fly pattern is that important. A Rabbit Fur Leech is just very easy and quick to tie for me. Getting the depth and retrieve style right is way more important than the particular fly pattern. I also landed a 21 incher and two 19 inchers. Two other nice ones were lost. I wish I'd have gotten a photo of the 21 incher, but it jumped out of the net after I unhooked it, and before I could get a photo or put it on my stringer. All the larger fish were good fighters, especially the 20 and 21 inchers. The 20 incher and the two 19 inchers were retained and all had totally empty stomachs. The rest of the landed fish were small ones in the 9 to 12 inch range mostly. It is nice to find husky rainbows in some western WA lakes.
 
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