Steel Lake Fishing Report – Saturday, June 16, 2012


Got up this morning knowing I was going to go fishing, but I really couldn’t decide where. Green Lake kept calling my name with the temptation of catching a decent triploid or two; Geneva, which also had a planting of triploids, made me an enticing offer. I just don’t like that while fishing there it is not possible to keep an eye on your car, and having only fished there twice, I just wasn’t comfortable with that situation. Choice number three was Steel Lake, a lake that can be brutally tough for me for bass or trout. Well, until today.

I reluctantly headed to Steel Lake at about 7:00am and texted Kblackknight50 (henceforth, KBK50) to see if he was fishing at Green Lake and indeed, he was since 6:00am. He had already nailed a few.

The gentleman who taught me the ways of still fishing at Steel Lake, got to the lake about the same time I was there. Much to my surprise, the dock wasn’t crowded at all.

I tried bass fishing first. It was a total waste of time. It’s June 16th and Islandbass hasn’t even caught a dad-gum large mouth yet. Oh, the horror!

I pulled out my trout rig and let it fly into what I have dubbed the “money zone.” Since I was feeling blue, I decided a little red and white would complete my flag. Ten minutes later I got my first hit and brought it in. It was hooked in the corner of the mouth. I released it.

Sent a message to KBK50 that I got on the scoreboard. Hooked into number two and lost it in the attempt to pull it out of the water. The bite was fairly steady. It seemed that every time I was in the process of sending a text message to KBK50, I had a bite. Somewhere between hooking into a few and losing few on the take, I managed to bring three home.

I wanted to rush home and get my son to this party. We arrived at the lake at 1:00pm. The standard, Islandbass 30-minute fishing stint was in effect because we had to leave by 1:30pm to pick up his sister on time.

The fishing seemed slow but the one thing I noticed was that not one angler was in the money zone. We made a beeline for it, slapped on a red and white egg. I don’t think we waited more than two minutes when my son’s rod started to bend toward the water. I told my son to reel it up fast. Fish number one in. Yee hah! Then, as was trying to unhook the trout my rod got a hit. My son had to bring it in. After he brought it in, I stopped fishing so that I could relax and focus on helping my son.

The hits for him were continual. It seemed like every cast was a fish, but of course in reality it wasn’t. Regardless, he was having a blast. He caught his limit in about 25 minutes.

We also had the neat opportunity to share with a couple people next to us what we were using and leader length. One of them, a very nice Asian lady, said that she doesn’t have much luck here and I identified with her immediately. That was me too, until someone showed me the ropes at Steel lake just this season and not very long ago.

I told her that was not going to be the case for her today and that she would be catching fish. I showed her what we were using and set up her rod the way we had ours. It didn’t take long before she started getting hits. By the time we packed up our gear to leave, she hooked into her first fish of the day and brought it in. Her joy and her smile were all the reward I could ask for. I was simply passing on what was freely taught to me.

I felt a sense of gratitude toward Lady Steel Lake, who in the past can be and has been awfully brutal and stingy, at least to me. Today however, she gave up the ghost and I am certainly not going to complain. As I was leaving the lake, I tipped my hat to salute her and looked back to see if perhaps an arm and hand would break the water’s surface to catch a flying sword.

-IB and son

Conditions: Overcast but warm probably 70 degrees best guess
Dad’s Set Up: 7’ Okuma Celilo Rod mated to a 1500 Daiwa Sweepfire
Son’s Set Up: 7’ Berkley Cherrywood Rod mated to an Abu Garcia Cardinal 101a*

*Shhh!!! Don’t tell his sister he was using her rig, lol.

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