Olympic National Park, you know the lake.

Aleforme

Steelhead
Forum Supporter
Well, I was hoping to post this Trip Report in it’s own section but the wind had other ideas this day. The wife and I went out to the lake hoping to fly fish but the sustained wind and gusts were just way to much for us and our limited fly skills. So, out with the gear!

We did some wading along the shores and other than the wind and some decent wave action, fishing was pretty good. When I say good, I mean for my wife. I landed 2 and I think she stopped counting at 8? I taught her everything she knows about fishing and she laid the smack down on me during this trip. That being said, I was only a little wounded and was actually super proud of her. Even if she was giving me a complete attitude! “Huh, still just the two fish”? I did get a “little” revenge satisfaction with she slipped on a rock and swamped her waders. Just a little though.

We hit some spots that looked accessible and fished the drop offs where it went from about 3 to 5 feet to what appeared to be down to the center of the earth. The trout were holding right below the drop off and hit anything green. On a previous trip to this lake, a random little boy (maybe 8?) who was hiking past us with a rod told us green is the ticket. Since then, his wisdom has not been disproven and you never know who is going to turn you onto the fish. We used perch colored Kastmasters and some metallic greens spoons from Steelhead Slammers. Single hook barbless of course. We mainly caught Beardslee trout but landed a couple Cresscenti cutthroat as well. Max length was probably 15 to 16 inches. My wife’s catch of coure. I’m not really sure about the first trout below that I landed but pretty sure it’s a cutthroat. It’s color around the head threw me off a bit due to some blue but the rest of the body and the very slight red cuts suggest it’s probably a Crescenti.

It was just a quick day trip so we only got in about 5 hours of fishing but it was well worth the drive out to the lake. It’s just such a beautiful lake and knowing it holds two species of trout that are only found there is icing on the cake. Hopefully next time the wind will be much lower and manageable and we can get some fly action in.

Beardslee or Crescenti Cutthroat?

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Can you spot my wife?

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Beardslee - The matallic blue on these trout is just amazing.

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A little windy!

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The color!

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Sums up my day, messing with my line.

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Best laid plans..........

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