Quillback

I launched at Lost Bridge North today, last time I launched at Indian Creek one of the dock cables was stretched across the ramp about 3-4 feet under the water. Didn't want to test that one as the lake has dropped a few inches since then, so went over to LB north. I motored over to Indian today to check it out and the cable has been moved out, so all is well. COE does a good job of taking care of the courtesy docks on Beaver. Lake was glass for most of the morning: Saw a couple of stripers swirling on top right after I launched. Cast at them for a few minutes, no luck, but saw a pack of them busting some shad about 50 yards away. Jumped on the TM and got over their as fast as I could, got bumped on my first cast, swam the swimbait a little further and had a striper nail it and it I tell ya, the drag was screaming and then it just came off. Bummer. I did pull a couple of chunky smallmouth out of that surface activity and then it stopped. I went to fishing the Ned around trees and rocks for a couple of hours and they weren't having it, one hard pulling bite that got off and that was it. Spent another hour fishing a 3.3 Keitech in 20 FOW and caught a couple more smallmouth and called it a day around noon. Total - 5 bass, 4 were smallmouth and of those 4, 3 were keeper sized. A bit slow, things should improve slowly but surely. WT 48

That is one fat spot!

It's good, they moved the dock out to match the water level. At Big M. I assume ER has been moved too, but have not been there to verify.

Pressure seems to be increasing. I wonder if the walleye can handle it. Might help to start stocking fingerlings on a regular basis. As I understand it, MDC only stocks fingerlings in TR if they have a surplus left over from stocking other lakes. March 15 is when AGFC does their brood stock capture on the upper Kings, it will be interesting to see how they do.

Snagged this walleye trolling rig. Looks to have been in the lake for a while. I can use it for blue cats over on Grand. There have been lots of walleye fishermen in the Big M area of the lake, many more than I have seen since I've been fishing here. They are catching them I hear.

Very nice day, lake was glass all morning. 75 degree air temp when I left around 1 PM. Weather was too nice for the fish. It was slow, caught 5 bass total, A couple of them were keeper spots, and also caught an eating sized walleye. Drug the ned rig around for a few and caught a couple on the 2.8 swim bait. Just a bite here and there, no pattern that I could make out. Couple of boats came into the ramp the same time I did, none of them had caught a single fish. Talked to someone that was fishing mid lake where they found shad, loons and all that and they only caught a couple of bass. Sounded like a tough day all around, but I'm sure someone, somewhere on this lake had a good day. But hey, a good day to go fishing! WT 43-46.

This may have been my worst score ever. I hear Cherry won it fishing a yeller grub. Next tourney starts this week, wonder if it is FFS allowable? Don't have time to look now, heading out there door for some real fishing.

Yep, threw it up there to see if anyone would notice. 😃

Rolled over to the ramp about 0830 after waiting for the temp to get above freezing. Warmed up fairly quickly and turned into a nice day. Caught 4 smallmouth in the first 30 minutes, then it got a lot tougher and it took me about 4 hours to catch another 4 for a total of 8. Funny thing about today is that I only had 8 bites and I put all 8 of them in the boat. Ned rig and 2.8 swimbait is what I caught them on. Fish I caught were in water from 5 to 20 feet deep.

Used to use them all the time back in my salmon fishing days. I see a few in use on Beaver for people fishing for stripers.

1st bass caught - Loberg with a 3.8.

OK, got my money sent. 1st tourney kicks off in about half an hour. No FFS, should be interesting.

Caney?

Dave - I don't have Venmo - can I Paypal you? @dwiebenga

Hey Dave - I do not have a Venmo account. I can do Paypal or send you a check if you PM me your address.

There's a trail that runs up the river once the road ends (I think the road ends there). Never been on it, but I believe there are a couple of tributary creeks up there too. I don't know if the dollies get into those tribs, but you would think so. If you get off the trails it is really rugged country, but you may find fish that have never seen a fly in their lives. Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest | North Fork Skykomish Trail 1051 | Forest Service

One stream I have fished and would recommend is the North Fork of the Skykomish. Really neat stream in some fantastic mountain scenery. It may or may not be open in August, they may close it if the chinook run is low. Might be a few summer run steelhead up there in August too. If open, it will probably be what they call "selective fishery rules" which are single barbless hook which would suit you and Pat being fly fishers. Mainstem Sky below the forks might be open too. There aren't a lot of them up there, so your work will be cut out for you if you choose to fish there. The only place I caught dollies was in the Skykomish incidentally caught while fishing for steelhead, so I don't know a heckuva lot about them. Here's a link to a post on the WA flyfishing forum. You could join it and ask around, those guys can be kinda secretive, but if you stress you are there to catch and release they may give you some other places to fish. There's a guy on there with the handle "smalma" who is very knowledgeable. Skykomish Dollies | Washington Fly Fishing Forum