Rattlesnake Lake

troutpocket said:
Anyone else caught a smallmouth at RSL? I did around 2000. I wonder if it was attempted bucket biology? Decent sized maybe 14-15”.
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Never have. I suspect it was the result of bucket biology.
dflett68 said:
i had always thought it was an old defunct reservoir also - mostly because of all the stumps, and because there seemed to be some kind of minor dam structure at the outlet, if i recall. in the early 90's i lived just down the hill on the south fork, and one drought summer it got incredibly low - so low that we could explore most of the lake bed and found old concrete structures from what must have been the town of moncton. but also the low level made it clear that the exposed area had at one time been wooded and felled - i guess now i'm finding out that was to accommodate the town? with the water that low you could also see the skids that were set up on the inlet side to move logs.
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I don’t know if all the stumps are from trees cut to build Moncton, or if they were salvage cut before the water got too high.
 
Like @RCF, I used to roll out the donut at RSL pretty frequently 30+ years ago. We used to find good fish near the inlet and deeper channel by the stumps. As @Tim L noted, kicking into a stump 2' down at twilight will wake your ass up. Haven't wet a line there in long long time time.

@troutpocket Now that you say it I remember seeing a couple back then in the 10-12" range, but no little ones. I would think BB instead of bird introduction.
 
Matt B said:
That was pretty crazy, when WDFW had to get rid of hundreds of thousands of steelhead smolts due to a legal settlement, they put tens of thousands of them in RSL, amongst other places, and just opened it up for a free for all. Those little things were roving around in giant schools on the surface. It was kind of a hoot for a little while. I kept some and brined and smoked them. They weren't that good to eat.

The lake is back to year round selective gear regs, daily limit 2 minimum 14" if I'm not mistaken.
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Correct. It is currently Selective Gear rules. 14” minimum.
 
Way too much of a zoo during the summer with swimmers, partyr’s , and clowns parking on the boat launch for me…..but that’s just me.
 
Bambooflyguy said:
Way too much of a zoo during the summer with swimmers, partyr’s , and clowns parking on the boat launch for me…..but that’s just me.
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If you get there early enough, parking isn’t that bad of an issue. The last time I went, it was like you say by the time I was ready to leave at noon. But not when I arrived around 8:00 am. I nailed the second closest spot to the launch.
 
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