If you slept in and finally hit your favorite opening-day trout lake at 9 or 10 a.m. Saturday, instead of at the crack of dawn, you probably felt that you would catch about as many fish as the bleary-eyed 4 a.m. crew and would have the advantage of smaller crowds, an easier launch, and lots more elbow room.
You may, however, have foxed yourself. It seems that a bunch of other folks had the same idea.
“We did notice what seemed like a later fishery this year,” said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regional fish manager Curt Hughes at the agency’s Region 4 Mill Creek office. “Instead of our peak effort counts occurring at 7 or 8 a.m., they seemed, in many cases, to fall later in the morning – say, 9 or 10 a.m.”
Regardless, it turned out to be a pretty good opening morning around north Puget Sound – sunny weather and only light breezes in most areas. The vast majority of anglers contacted by various state personnel seemed to be enjoying the event and catching fish, Hughes said.
Observers noted a phenomenon which first became fairly widespread last year or the year before – more and more anglers catching and releasing hatchery rainbow, rather than taking them home to the table. One extreme example, Hughes said, was at Pine Lake, in King County, where about 600 rainbow were reported landed, but fewer than 200 kept. Some 38 anglers were checked at Deer Lake on Whidbey Island, and reported keeping 135 trout for a per-rod success rate of 3.6, but releasing 277 more, for a rate of 7.3 trout per rod.
Whether local fishers are increasingly following a “catch and release ethic,” or are releasing smaller trout in hopes of finding a multi-pound holdover or triploid (a practice called “creaming”), or are simply enjoying the event and the day on the water without the bother of cleaning and caring for a limit of fish, isn’t certain.
“The question most often asked of our people opening morning was ‘Where are the triploids?’” Hughes said
Fishing pressure seemed a little higher than last year on a number of King County lakes, Hughes said, but was down a little on several of the most popular Snohomish County waters. Crowds on lakes Ki, Martha (Alderwood Manor), Armstrong and Silver all appeared somewhat below last year’s opener, he said.
Department creel checks showed success rates generally on par with the past three openers – all three considered good ones.
Here is a list of opening morning creel checks around the area, showing both the success rate for trout caught and kept, and (when available) the rate for trout caught and released:
Snohomish County: Lake Armstrong, 4.3 trout per rod kept, and 4.9 per rod released; Bosworth, 3.5 and 7.0; Ki, 3.1 and 4.2; Martha (Alderwood Manor), 3.1 and 4.7; Howard 1.3 and 4.0; Crabapple, 1.6; Echo (Maltby), 0.9; and Wagner, 5.0 and 7.5, but low effort.
Island County: Goss Lake, 4.5 per rod kept and 5.3 per rod released; Deer Lake, 3.6 and 7.3.
Skagit County: Lake Erie, 4.1 trout kept and 5.8 released; Heart, 4.2 and 5.4; McMurray, 4.2 and 4.7; and Lake Sixteen, 2.6 per rod, mostly all kept.
There was an unconfirmed report of an 11-pound bass caught and released in Whatcom County’s Cain Lake, Hughes said.
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