Went to another western WA lake for my first outing of the new year. As you can see, it was rainy and a typically miserable winter day, which explained why there were so few fishermen out on the lake. It was just me and a float tuber, and the other guy left early so I don't know how he did. The first few hours I didn't even have a hit and I was beginning to think that I'd be starting out the new year with a skunking. But fortunately, I found a spot where there were some fish (or maybe the fish just decided to start biting), mostly coastal cutthroats like this one:
The fish were mostly in the shallow water near shore in 2 to 6 feet of water. I did hook 2 fish in the deeper water, about 15 feet down in 24 feet of water.
The cutthroats were all very thin and looked like they were starving to death. However, the 15 inch rainbow I hooked in the deeper water looked normal.
When I was packing up, another guy was packing up an inflatable, but it turned out he was not a fisherman, but instead was a trapper. He had a dead 25 to 30 pound beaver that he'd trapped on the lake. He said that previously he'd caught a 60 pound beaver, so those beavers can grow pretty large at this lake. He sells the pelt and skull (I didn't know there was a market for beaver skulls), and eats the meat (he says beaver tastes pretty good). Just never know who you'll run into on these lakes...
Rex
