Find out what a day of kayak fishing on American Lake in Pierce County, Washington is like so you can plan your own trip. Read Fil Martinez’s story below:
“I am cruising in my Hobie Adventure on the glass flat surface of American Lake as the dawns first light come over the horizon, Mount Rainier silhouetted in the distance with a never ending sky changing from orange to a deep blue. It is mid April and spring is finally here, bringing with it the opportunity to consistently catch Kokanee and trout in my local haunt.
American Lake is a 1,000 acre lake in the heart of Pierce County, Washington State sharing shoreline with Joint Base Lewis-McChord as well as several city parks and public launches. It is a well known lake for producing good Kokanee action in the winter, spring, and summer with some real hogs caught last year up to 20 inches. This year’s kokanee action is lining up to be one of the best seen in recent history with limits of 13-15 inchers, even during the colder winter months when the action usually slows down. American Lake also offers good to excellent trout fishing in the spring and summer sometimes to the point where you can’t drop your line in the water without bringing one in.
Sunrise on American Lake, with Mount Rainier in the distance.
The South Sound contingent of Northwest Kayak Anglers decided to head out on this perfect day, the first target on our list was the kokanee salmon. If you have ever tasted one, you know why, they are one of the sweetest, tastiest little landlocked salmon you can ever eat. I started out trolling next to Dick Wark and his son, Devyn. During the winter months “kokes” run fairly shallow, sometimes even schooling at the surface down to about 20 feet. Once the water warms up and the thermocline develops they go deeper. Today the lake was turning turnover, the schools could be found all over the water column. Because of this Dick and Devyn switched up their techniques; Devyn was flat lining his dodger and hoochie, standard kokanee gear, with a half ounce in line sinker above the dodger. Dick had his setup on a downrigger, running at 30 ft deep. Devyn’s flat lined presentation proved to be the right choice as he caught his first kokanee that morning, then lost another, out fishing us seasoned Koke addicts on his first try. It was a bright sunny day and the fish went deep, losing interest in our presentations. It was time to switch over to some tout fishing.
I pedaled over to an old faithful trout producing area on the lake and fished with Todd Switzer, Northwest Kayak Anglers 2013 Angler of The Year. He fishes from his old faithful Tesla sit-inside, a yak that he has had longer than I’ve been alive and is one of the greatest kayak fishermen I have ever had the pleasure of fishing with. I watched as he pulled fish after fish with ease, catching a fish every 5 minutes or so. Todd said the secret to catching these stocker trout was to go fast, 3 knots. “it’s a bit too fast for them to keep up with, but when you see the initial strike, slow down a little. They catch up and crush it.” He paused while explaining this to me and in textbook fashion hooked up on yet another stocker size ‘bow. We were using number 1 blue fox spinners and small spoons, with anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 oz in line sinkers to get the presentation a little deeper.
It didn’t take long before the group of us had our fill of fish catching so we headed back to the launch to grill some chicken and chill out on the shore, just one of many successful days to come out on American Lake.”
Want more kayak fishing destinations? Check out the Forgotten Coast, Florida.
