Shore-bound anglers can toss lures, drop PowerBait to the bottom, or suspend bait under a bobber. The latter method works best in March when planted trout are still in the upper 6 feet of the water column, and through April, until May drives the trout down into cooler water. You must include any bait-caught trout in the state in your daily bag limit, whether or not you actually keep the fish.

Fly-fishers here use float tubes, and others use pontoon boats to get away from the fishing pier. Fancy flies aren’t needed to catch fish here. In small sizes, chironomid patterns like the venerable TDC or the newer Ice Cream Cone will work throughout the year. Vary the depth according to water temperature and fish activity.

If trout are taking chironomids as they emerge, try dangling a TDC on 14 to 18 inches of leader tied to the shank of the floating dry fly. This rig gives an angler two chances to hook up. Trolling a small black, green or brown Woolly Bugger is another method almost guaranteed to put fish on your line.

The lake is ringed with private docks that, like the bridge floats, generate fish food. Tie a green Carey Special on a sink-tip line, cast toward a dock, let it sink a bit, then slowly retrieve the fly in foot-long strips.

If the trout simply won’t cooperate, you can save the day by switching focus to the bass, yellow perch or crappie that also live in Angle Lake. A small white marabou jig fished with a light spinning rod should do the trick. Slowly work around the lake, casting into and around all the docks until you find schools of fish.

GREEN LAKE
Green Lake is Seattle’s recreational jewel. At 255 acres, it’s big enough to handle all the fishing pressure plus provide some water where the trout can hide until they reach decent size. You won’t catch an 8-pound trout here, but you stand a fair chance of landing several 14- to 16-inch rainbows and browns, with an occasional 3-pounder to wow other fishers.

The lake, surrounded by a 2.8-mile path for walking, biking, running and rollerblading, is Seattle’s unofficial running capital. On any given day, 8,000 people come to Green Lake. On sunny Seattle weekends, it seems the whole city comes to people-watch, walk dogs, throw Frisbees and view the sunset. Bird watchers along the shores of Green Lake have totaled 167 species from soaring bald eagles to twittering songbirds. Local fly-fishing clubs teach fly-casting on the lawn. Then students practice their newly learned skills on a full spectrum of real fish -- rainbow and brown trout, largemouth and rock bass, channel catfish, yellow perch, carp and tiger muskies.

Scraped out by the same Vashon ice sheet that excavated Lake Washington, Green Lake is relatively shallow. Over the years, that has created some water-quality problems, though the City of Seattle has recognized the importance of caring for this gem and taken steps to cure it.