Opening Week of Trout Fishing in Washington State

Opening week of trout fishing is a great opportunity to get your kids into fishing. We decided to hold off fishing the busy weekend of the lowland lake trout opener, but we instead got on the lake first thing the following Monday. As it usually does each year for us, Mineral Lake provided exceptional trout fishing as we had a great time helping our kids catch fish.

Trout fishing chaos with our kids

I grew up fishing for Trout and Bass around Washington State and these are some of my fondest memories growing up. I can still vividly remember my first trout fishing trip to Lake Curlew in the Northeastern corner of Washington where we caught trout nonstop on the dock in front of our cabin we stayed at for the weekend. It was that trip that gave me the fishing bug and as most of you know…that fishing bug is often a lifelong thing.

I spend a lot of time chasing fish like Salmon and Steelhead these days, but when it comes to taking my kids out, they will still say that trout fishing on Mineral Lake is one of their favorite places to fish. I’ve tried to be careful when it comes to introducing them to fishing, to avoid burning them out on it. I never want to be one of those dads who drags their kids around fishing with them and not making it a special and enjoyable time. I’ve known too many dads who lament that their kids (now adults or teens) don’t want to fish with them anymore. So, whenever I take kids fishing, it’s all about making it an awesome time, or at least the best it can be given the circumstances.

We had the opportunity on this trip to take one of our friend’s sons out for the first time and help him get his first-ever fish and many more after that. Probably my favorite highlight of the trip was on the drive back when his son was sleeping, woke up with a start yelling “Fish fish fish fish!” and grabbing the air in front of him. Classic!

You can watch the video above to get an idea of how our trip went, but the main goal of this post is provide some ideas for how you can replicate a great experience with your kids.

Simple trolling rigs for Trout

The Wooly Bugger is my number 1 go-to for trolling for trout. It works great on the recently stocked trout sitting near the surface. It works equally well on the holdovers looking to feed on the surface in the shade or early in the morning / late in the evening. A few tips on this technique:

Always run this on a swivel with a 3-4 ft leader, the wooly bugger will spin a considerable amount and if you don’t have a swivel on your line, you will end up with a severe line twist. You don’t want your family getting impatient as you retie all your gear needlessly.
Troll this setup at least 50 feet plus behind the boat. I troll this as slow as my kicker motor will go, and if I’m not getting bit, I keep releasing line to run it further back behind my boat.
You can put an action disc in front of the wooly bugger with a small bead between the disc and the fly. This is optional, but the erratic movement triggered by the disc does increase effectiveness by 25-50%.

The Luhr Jensen Hotshot Plug size 50-70 is probably my number two trolling rig for these trout. We hooked almost as many fish/rod running this plug flatlined and attached directly to the mainline as we did the wooly bugger. We ran it at least 50 feet behind the boat and like the wooly bugger, we trolled it as slow as we could. I love the way fish hammer this plug!

Use light tackle

Using light tackle cannot be overstated. I watch people on the lake using heavy trolling rods with a pound of trolling gear keeping their heavy rod in a bent-over position the entire time. When your kid reels in the fish, they will get very little from the experience as they won’t feel the fish!

Both of the methods highlighted above work great on super light tackle which is a critical part of the experience.

Comfortable / Enjoyable for Kids

Much could be said on this topic, but a lot of this is just a mentality: Making sure they have a good time being more important than how many fish or how big of fish you catch is key. There are a few other key factors:

It’s nice to get on the water early, but especially in April / May trout fishing in Western Washington, it’s not necessary to be on the water at first light. Mineral Lake is a 50 minute drive for us. First light is 5:30am. I’m not waking my kids up at 4-4:30am to be on the water at first light. Not only is that harder on them, but the coldest part of the day is that sunrise + 1 hour.
Make sure they are dressed for the weather. Maybe don’t even go if you expect it to rain and be miserable. There are enough sunny windows, where you can pick your spots and have a great time on the water, without attempting to brave bad weather. Either way, appropriate clothing / layers are a big factor. Maybe even consider a tent heater in the boat if it’s cold.
One of the highlights of many a trip on my boat for the kids, is taking a pause in the fishing and making them a number of hot beverages right there on the water. What am I talking about?

The JetBoil is a great device for any remote camping, hiking, or fishing trip. You boil some water for 2-3 minutes and then add any number of instant drinks such as Hot Apple Cider, Hot Chocolate, Peppermint Mocha, Pumpkin Spice Latte, or just instant coffee (Starbucks VIA is legit great coffee).

A hot drink warms you up and just adds that special touch that makes the time out fishing such a special memory for kids.

lots of fresh caught trout — 17 Rainbow trout caught over a couple hours time at Mineral Lake

Regardless of what you do, where you go, make sure to take advantage of the incredible fishing opportunity the month of May provides and especially the opportunity to get your kids out enjoying this great sport of fishing.