Hello All,

Here is a subjective rundown on the 1999 AWPPW-Weyco Lake Quinault Fishing Derby. If you want objective news go buy the National Enquirer. Larry W. and I headed out for Lake Quinault Thursday evening after work. The weather in town was hardly encouraging, however by the time we reached Axford Prairie the sun was out and the evening looked to be perfect for fishing. Bypassing the obvious enticements of the Red Rooster we headed straight for Wilaby Creek boat launch. We trolled our way to the inlet of the lake with ½ ½ #2 Canadian Wonders. We only had about two hours to fish and we caught several small trout and one nice dolly about 17" which I kept. The evening was mild with very little wind and even broken sun.

Friday 5AM came early but we were on the lake fishing by 6. Heading for our favorite places we trolled spoons and hunted the shallows for large Dolly Vardens. We hooked several nice cutthroat trout and kept several. Right at 9:30 AM Larry hooked a monster Dolly and was given a good lesson in big fish etiquette. When you invite them to dinner they should RSVP. This one did and Larry had a nice 23 ¼ " Dolly. I was trolling the same ½ ½ Canadian Wonder Larry was but couldn’t buy a fish. Larry released a nice 18" Dolly and kept several nice cutts. We pulled Hildabrant spinners and worms to catch several of the cutts. The big Dolly won the Friday "mini-derby" for Larry

Needless to say fishing all day without a Derby fish was frustrating to me. Flying into action we searched all of Amanda Park for Canadian Wonders. I picked up one at the Mercantile. Sometimes I think the "new" wears off these spoons and you need to start over. Saturday 5 AM seemed awful early. Equipped with my new Canadian Wonder I proceeded to catch 8 fish during the day. Two 18" Dollys and several nice cutts. We threw on blades briefly in the morning and Larry nailed a 16" cutt by the mouth of July creek. We entered Larry’s cutt and my Dolly in the Lake Quinault Lion’s Club Derby. Each of us won 4^th place in our respective categories. After the Lion’s Derby was over we proceeded to fish more. Later in the evening I scored on a nice 20’ Dolly. Larry’s 16" cutthroat and my 20" Dolly were locked in for 2^nd place in both categories in our Derby, which is open until Sunday at noon.

Sunday AM we started at 6 AM, fishing was slow. We had caught and released several small fish. Larry hooked a giant Dolly Varden out of the weeds. The monster grabbed his lure and headed back deep into the weed bed. Larry’s trout reel gave up the ghost and we wound up working the fish out of the weeds by hand. Its 26 1/2" length dwarfed my trout net but careful handling put it in the bag. This beautiful fish was first place in our derby winning Larry a guided trip on the lower Quinault. My 3^rd place fish from Saturday won me a Lamiglass 9 ½ foot medium action, spinning rod. All in all we had a tremendous weekend. The weather was different every 20 minutes and the fishing was good enough to keep us interested.