Explored another small, general regulation, hike-in lake in north central WA, but this time in 2.5 hours of fishing I didn't hook a single fish, not even one hit. Never saw a fish rise in that time and the water was mostly calm so I think I would have seen a fish rising. I'm guessing that it summer killed, as it is a very shallow lake with the deepest part I could find being 9 feet. If you've fished this lake, I'd be interested in knowing if you've caught any fish there recently, as maybe I just had a bad day there and maybe there are fish in there.
This lake had lots of blue elderberry (or common elder) on the shore (photo above).
On Thursday 10/13/2022 I went back to that lake I explored last week that I knew had some good fish in it. It was fishing tougher than last week and I only landed 4 fish in the 16 to 18 inch range, but they were good ones. Here's a photo of the largest fish (check out the girth):
It is hard to imagine that such a girthy fish would be in 2 feet of water, but all 7 fish I had on were hooked in shallow water like that. I'd normally think that a fish like this would be chowing down on baitfish to get such girth, but as far as I know there are no baitfish in this lake. All 7 fish I had on took a black rabbit fur leech.
From where I camped on Wed evening, I had a nice view and here's the sunrise I saw on Thurs morning:
When I woke up and looked around, I saw 3 doe deer about 150 feet away looking at my car. They seemed more curious than anything else. I unlocked the car which made some noise and lights flash, but they didn't run away. I raised the rear hatch and they still didn't run away. Only when I got out of the car did they amble away into the bushes. Guess they don't realize that rifle hunting season is coming right up?
Rex
