Fish Lake 8/7

[dregs]

I made the long drive to Fish Lake this morning. My plan was to troll around a bit, and if I saw anything that looked promising on the finder I wanted to stop and jig and hopefully catch my first lake trout.

Fishing high (top 10') with a flasher and worm I caught nothing but small rainbows. As I went deeper the fishing slowed down, and even at 45' I still only pulled up a small rainbow.

I did get one nice surprise while trolling - a 12" fat little kokanee. And one not so nice - a tiny perch that I couldn't tell was on until I pulled my gear in.

I saw lots of suspended fish so I stopped and jigged for a while, and immediately started pulling up splake (I think) from 40-60 feet. I'm not confident I can tell the difference between a splake and lake trout so if you are then please take a look at my (admittedly terrible) picture and let me know.

The biggest fish of the day was an 18" rainbow that hit 60' down in 80' of water.

The wind started blowing and the schools thinned and by 11 I'd had enough. It was a pretty good day with probably 15 fish total.
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[Northman]

It looks like a nice splake to me. Your trip sounds exactly like what I have experienced this year out there. I think that those Kokanee are going to be spec-damn-tacular next year as the first round of kokes will be spawning age. The few that we have got this year are in that 12 to 13 inch range and FAT. I expect they will be in the 14 to 16 inch class next year. Also each trip out I have had a tiny perch on that I have been dragging around I didn't know was on the line. Every lake will have its off years, this is Fish Lakes turn. There are fish to be caught but they are not the size class that Fish Lake is capable of.
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[dregs]

Even though I didn't catch anything really big there's definitely potential for the future and I'll be back.

The weather started off nice, people were friendly and respectful on the water - I didn't have to constantly fight waves from big boats while I was trying to jig. And for some reason I've always just liked it up there.

The only problem is it's tough to make a day trip - I spent 5 hours driving and about 4 1/2 hours fishing.
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[Northman]

The 1 day trips down there are a haul... It takes me most of the next day to recover. I've been spoiled this year because I put my camp trailer down there for the summer. So a quick hitter has been to drive down and fish the evening, spend the night, then fish the morning before heading back. I agree that the atmosphere on the water is friendly and a bit too far for most power squadron to make the trip (lots of places closer where the water is much warmer). There are Lake Trout in there up to 40 lbs with 20 and 30 lbs fish not uncommon. I just started to pursue them this summer. I haven't caught anything to write home about yet, but hopefully before summers over we will boat one.
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[FishingTherapy]

It does look more like a Spake than a Lake Trout I'm going to second the spake call. I've seen some red fin lakers at the gorge but the spots also look spake.
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[BUTLEY]

It's a splake. This should help

Fish Lake Splake

Fish Lake Lake trout

Thanks for the nice report
Don't forget to kill a few hundred perch when your up there.
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[dregs]

Thanks for the input. Hopefully I can pick up laker next time I'm out.
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