It is funny how my fishing plans never turn out as planned. This morning I was going to try to catch Largescale Sucker and Brown Bullhead fish and instead I caught a Largemouth Bass (not a new species for me) and a Brook and Coastal Cutthroat Trout.

I started by fishing at Rattlesnake Lake at about 6 am in attempt to catch Largescale Sucker fish with a bottom rig (1/8 ounce egg sinker, small barrel swivel, about 12-inches of four-pound leader, and size 6 hook with bit of earthworm). I got no bites and so by 8am I gave up and headed to Lake Alice in an attempt to catch Brown Bullhead. That might have been futile since I am not sure that was the right habitat to catch Brown Bullhead. Instead, I caught a small Largemouth Bass.

After about 45 minutes at Lake Alice I headed to Plum #1 River Access Point about five miles away on the Snoqualmie River thinking of bottom fishing for suckers. Again, I think misguided since I think it might have been better for trout. There was a beautiful side pool and I fished that with the same bottom rig described above. I kept on losing the rig to snags. Eventually I thought to myself this might be a pretty good place to catch a trout (and not a bottom fish) and so I tied on a 1/8 Kastmaster spoon lure (silver and red) and after about 5 casts I hooked a trout which fought me pretty well and turned out to be a beautiful Brook Trout.

I tried that lure a few more times but then lost it to a snag. I then switched to a small white in line spinner and that led to no bites and was also eventualy lost to a snag. Finally, I thought, ‘why not try a bobber and worm in the pool?’ I set it up, cast it out, and within a minute hooked another fish. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I posted it to iNaturalist, and the AI identified it as a Coastal Cutthroat Trout. That was exciting, since I had been trying all week to catch that endemic species. About an hour later, someone confirmed the ID on iNaturalist.

So, overall, a very successful morning—and my species count went up by two.