Didn't have to break ice on a central WA seep lake 3/7/2025

[Starman77]

Was wondering if I'd have to break ice on a small, central WA seep lake, but even though it was still half covered with ice 10 days ago, on this outing yesterday it was totally ice-free. In fact, the water temperature was surprisingly warm at 47 to 49 degrees. The water was murky with about 18 to 24 inches of visibility (typical for this lake in early spring), but better than I was expecting. @Buzzy met me out there and he was the early bird, which paid off for him, as he caught the largest fish of the day (I'll let him tell you about it and post a photo). I found the fishing kind of tough and mostly found fish in the 14 to 15 inch range (but they were very good fighters for their size):



Here's a photo of the 20 inch rainbow, which looked like it had never been hooked before and fought like it:



For me, the fly pattern that the fish seemed to like was a #10 Muskrat Nymph (gray), but I don't know that the particular fly pattern is all the important, as @Buzzy used a different fly pattern that worked well for him. The Muskrat Nymph is just an all-purpose, generic nymph pattern that can be used to imitate many types of nymphs:



I was mainly casting and stripping the fly on my RIO Aqualux II clear intermediate line in the 3 to 5 foot drop-off zone.

Anyway, it was a nice start to the seep lakes season and good to see @Buzzy back from southern California.

Rex

 

[SurfnFish]

Was wondering if I'd have to break ice on a small, central WA seep lake, but even though it was still half covered with ice 10 days ago, on this outing yesterday it was totally ice-free. In fact, the water temperature was surprisingly warm at 47 to 49 degrees. The water was murky with about 18 to 24 inches of visibility (typical for this lake in early spring), but better than I was expecting. @Buzzy met me out there and he was the early bird, which paid off for him, as he caught the largest fish of the day (I'll let him tell you about it and post a photo). I found the fishing kind of tough and mostly found fish in the 14 to 15 inch range (but they were very good fighters for their size):

View attachment 144557

Here's a photo of the 20 inch rainbow, which looked like it had never been hooked before and fought like it:

View attachment 144558

For me, the fly pattern that the fish seemed to like was a #10 Muskrat Nymph (gray), but I don't know that the particular fly pattern is all the important, as @Buzzy used a different fly pattern that worked well for him. The Muskrat Nymph is just an all-purpose, generic nymph pattern that can be used to imitate many types of nymphs:

View attachment 144559

I was mainly casting and stripping the fly on my RIO Aqualux II clear intermediate line in the 3 to 5 foot drop-off zone.

Anyway, it was a nice start to the seep lakes season and good to see @Buzzy back from southern California.

Rex

that fly well suits 'if I could only have one sub-surface fly'

 

[Starman77]

that fly well suits 'if I could only have one sub-surface fly'

I don't tie those Muskrat Nymphs myself. I buy them online at either Sierra Trading Post (not in stock usually) or https://bigyflyco.com/products/muskrat. I use #10 and #12 sizes. They are cheap enough ($0.89 each) that it isn’t worth tying them up myself.

 

[Starman77]

@Buzzy posted his photo in another thread, but I'll re-post it here as it goes along with this thread. Here's a photo of the large Tiger trout he landed and released:



Here is the jig leech fly pattern @Buzzy used to catch that Tiger:

 

[Islander]

Wow, nice tiger! Great report and pics, I checked a few of my local lakes yesterday, still iced over but showing some thinning areas. I’m jones’n for some stillwater!

 

[Scott Salzer]

Buzzy - you need a bigger net! Or, fish for planters....

 

[Billy]

Of course @Buzzy is going to catch the only tiger in the lake before I have a crack at it. Well played Pat...Well played

 

[Shad]

Of course @Buzzy is going to catch the only tiger in the lake before I have a crack at it. Well played Pat...Well played

Big as that thing is, it likely ate much of the potential competition, so it may well be the only tiger in the lake!

Beautiful fish....

 

[Starman77]

I forgot to mention that @Buzzy also caught a brown, so he caught rainbows, a brown and a Tiger in the same day. Last year he also caught a yellow perch, so there are at least 4 species of fish in that lake.