by The Troutist, July 28, 2013
It was quite an ambitious schedule my brother Brett and I had put together for our angling adventures this past weekend. Our first stop was American Lake up in Pierce County then shooting down south to Cowlitz County launching out of the Kalama Marina. We definitely logged in some miles in search of some hook-ups and I am beat up and tired. I-5 on Sunday’s is always challenging especially in the afternoon. I often wonder how some of the people driving actually passed their driver’s test. You know the ones I am talking about, the guy that cuts across two lanes to make his exit, or how about the ones that will pass you to squeeze in a six inch space only to slow down in front of you.
My favorites are the ones that have a cell phone in their ears doing eighty as they blow past you and then weave in and out of traffic to get ahead of where they were by one car. It’s not the angling that is all that challenging it’s trying to get home safely, that is the true challenge. Well enough of this rant it is not going to stop the traffic accidents and the inevitable traffic jams that are becoming all too common. After all look at your gas mileage when the speed limit is between 10-25 mph.
American Lake was our destination for Saturday. This lake covers 1,162 acres reaching depths of over 90 feet and is more well known for its kokanee fishery than anything else. Yes it does have a nice population of koke’s and a lot of them are pretty sizeable and worth your while to take home. Our target as always was trout and hopefully a trophy or two. I haven’t worked this lake for many years and Brett had never been there so it seemed like a great little challenge. We arrived at the American Lake Park boat launch at 8:30am prepped the boat and watched one guy in the park beating on his chest and talking to himself. Then another guy trying to rubber neck and see exactly what I had in my rig. I’m sure too his dismay the only thing he spied was garbage. I was hoping I would get lucky and he would break in and clean it out. Unfortunately at the end of our adventure it was still full of garbage. I then proceeded to go pay the launch fee, I was shell shocked to find the $15.00 price tag. Now don’t get me wrong the parking area, launch, and docks were in great shape. I just don’t think it was $15.00 nice that might explain why the parking area wasn’t full with rigs and boat trailers this late in the morning.
We were on the water by 9am and headed to the island to work the water in the 20-40 foot of water. Brett started out with an olive bugger and a chartreuse blade and I tied on a black bugger with a purple blade. Half way around the island Brett had a nice take and set the hook, after a short battle Brett brought a nice fat 13-inch kokanee boat side. We were both quite surprised to see that a kokanee had taken a fly. After admiring this little beauty he was quickly released. About five minutes later Brett had another solid take this time it was a very plump 12-inch rainbow and he put up a good scrap. As we started to complete our trip around the island I changed out to an olive bugger with a green and white blade. I know sooner had it in the water when I had a good solid take it was another very nice and feisty rainbow. Yes it seems that the olive bugger and some sort of green blade was going to be the ticket for the day and as it turned out it was. Normally we would have kept working that area but we both agreed that this was going to be an exploratory day and we would try and work the whole lake.
We started skirting the lake again trying to stay in the 20-40 foot of water. This tactic produced another five trout in the 11-12 inch range along with six baby bass and two perch. We completed our round trip about 1pm and it was like someone flipped a switch and the bite stopped. With the sun right over headed and the temperature getting quite warm we decided to call it a day. The one thing that surprised me was that the surface water temperature started at 72 degrees. I would not have guessed that it would be this warm on a lake this size.
As we loaded the boat I had the opportunity to speak with the officers from the Lakewood Police Department as they were getting ready to head back out and patrol the lake. The one question I had was what seemed to be the one violation that cropped up? The answer I got was quite surprising. “They didn’t really have any major problems; in fact everyone they had stopped earlier all had their boater’s safety cards”. “Because everyone knows they patrol this lake could be part of it but they also said they spend most of their time educating the boaters”. I know we didn’t have any problems out there much to our surprise.
Sunday morning had us on the road long before the rooster even thought about crowing our destination was the Kalama Marina. We had booked a trip with Bruce Warren of Fishing For Fun Guide Service (253-208-7433) in hopes of hooking up with a summer steelhead or two. This year the reports on this fishery have not been very favorable in fact everyone I spoke with said it has been a very disappointing season. The one thing we had was a plan “B”, and that was if it was slow we would do some hook and release sturgeon fishing. After a few hours of working the area around the mouth of the Cowlitz, along with 45 other boats we decided to go to plan “B”. After seeing only one steelhead hooked and landed then released because it was a native and a very strong outgoing tide this decision was a no brainer.
We headed back towards the Kalama launch to work a few of Bruce’s spots in hopes we would have some success. The last time I was here we were filming a DVD with Mike Carey of WashingtonLakes.Com and we had a great day. This outing was to be no different in fact what took us the most time was running from spot to spot. What I like about this fishery especially when we go with Bruce is it is just a matter of a few minutes after you are baited up and in the water you start getting hits. On this day we were using San Shrimp with a little pro-Cure scent added for flavor and it produced action. We compared it with the sand shrimp without scent and it out produced them 9-0. The one smelt bait went 1-0 with the Pro-Cure scent making the difference.
I have got to say Brett and I had a great time as we hooked and released a total of 10 of these prehistoric fish and one time we had a double hook-up going. We were constantly getting hits and unfortunately we also missed several. I tried to figure a way to blame Bruce for this but I couldn’t come up with a good enough fishing lie to do it. Although the steelhead fishery was a bust as it has been all year on the Columbia the hook and release sturgeon fishing was great. If this is something you have never done before I recommend you give it a try. I would even recommend that you give Bruce a call at 253-208-7433 and book a trip.
His knowledge, boat, and equipment are all first rate and he is one of those teaching guides. That means he is willing to share his knowledge with you so if someday you would like to try it on your own it will increase your odds of being successful. Brett and I have been out with Bruce on several occasions and have always enjoyed ourselves. We are looking forward to our next outing with Bruce and I know we will not be disappointed. Well that’s it for this week’s column, another great weekend put into the books.
So until next time may your next trout be your trophy mount.
The Troutist-“Uncle Wes” Malmberg.
Buy Western Washington Lakes Guide By Wes Malmberg Here
