by Mike Carey, June 25, 2014

Because on the west side of the state, I don’t often get a chance to fish the East Side Gems as often as I would like to. Aaron and I got to fish Eloika Lake two years ago with Craig Dowdy of YJ Guide Service. We experienced some excellent fishing for BIG largemouth bass. I was reminded of our trip when we got a few reports this past month on Eloika Lake. It reminded me what a great bass lake this is for our East Side readers. I decided it was time to showcase this lake in our monthly newsletter.

Eloika Lake is known primarily as a largemouth bass lake, but it does hold brown trout. There are also crappie, perch, bullhead, and pumkinseed available. The lake is 629 acres and has a WDFW access south of Gray’s Landing. Our readers historical reports rate April and May as the best months to target the bass.

Our Hotspot Navigator shows reports rated “4” and “5”, and filter for largemouth bass. We can see a couple locations that stand out – the far north and south ends of the lake. This makes sense, as each end of the lake features shallow reeds and lily pads, prime largemouth bass habitat. As to contour lines on Eloika, suffice to say it’s pretty straight forward. Maximum depth of fifteen feet, and deep drops-offs on the east and west shorelines, with gradual tapers north and south from the deep middle of the lake.

When you go to Eloika’s main fishing report page you can change the report filters to see just what target species you want to focus on. It’s a great tool to use to narrow your searches when doing reseach on a body of water on our web site. Largemouth bass has 137 reports listed out of 324. Perch have 101 reports, Crappie have 34. Brown trout – none. The remaining reports are not specified.

As a year round lake, Eloika also features something we West Side anglers don’t get – ice fishing. There are 73 reports specifically for the hard water anglers. Again, use that report filter, under “Method” select “Ice Fishing” and click “Search”.

So – are there some big bass in Eloika? Well, check out this picture posted by bassattack from September 2013. Five pounds, one ounce, and these are not unusual for this lake! Please catch and release these beautiful fish for others to enjoy and let’s keep this dynamic bass fishery healthy. The perch population is healthy and will provide you with plenty of delicious fish to eat.

Last but not least, check out our video we did with Craig Dowdy to learn more about what this lake has to offer, or better still give him a call.

YJ Guide Service