Light line fishing how to… If you have ever been out on a lake and have gone for hours without so much as a bite, then it is time to try something new. Now on tough bite days a lot of us will down size our presentation but when it comes to fishing for bass there are about as many ways to go about it as you have lures and baits in your tackle box. But when it comes to getting the biggest bang f...

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It was a hot summer morning and the cold front had just recently passed through so the Mrs and I were getting a bit hungry. I was relaxing on my weed bed and the wife was foraging herself some food. I had just finished fixing the back door and I was relaxing waiting for her return. Some of the nieghborhood kids {I call them Smallies} were playing around the front of the house. I looked up and...

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WITH MANY NORTHWEST LAKES NOW CONTAINING BOTH THE LARGEMOUTH AND THE SMALLMOUTH BLACK BASS, ANGLERS WHO HONE THEIR SKILLS CAN DOUBLE THEIR PISCATORIAL PLEASURES Northwest bass anglers who become adept at catching both the largemouth and the smallmouth black bass can double their piscatorial pleasures on many northwest lakes. These two species, although quite similar, ar...

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Fishing for trout in a lake and not knowing what or where the thermocline is can make the chances of being successful slim. It could be compared to looking for Huckleberries in Odessa, WA. You are just not in the correct temperature range. A typical lake in the summer time consists of three stratified layers. The upper or warmer layer is known as the Epilimnion. The bottom or colder layer is ca...

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It was early September. Mom and Dad (I still called them "Mama and "Dada") got me up real early to go perch fishing with Grampa on Lake Washington. Although Grampa and I had taken several trips in his bass boat this would be the first one out of his garage. With all my training and practice at steering the boat, pushing miscella...

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We hit the water at the break of dawn, our poles in our hands hoping nothing goes wrong. The morning is clear the wind slightly blowing, searching for Bass,..but really not knowing. Could they be here, or there, hours spent searching, tossing our baits but not knowing for certain. We hit the pads and around all the stuctures, casting our frogs our worms and creatures that lack luster. Tro...

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It's sockeye time at Lake Wenatchee! Thanks to a huge return of these fine tasting fish (the largest run in some 50 years), sockeye salmon fishing was opened on Lake Wenatchee for the first time in 4 years on August 6th. Early reports are very good from happy anglers who are reporting quick two fish limits of salmon ranging from 3 to 6 pounds. The fishery is becoming perhaps a bit too popula...

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Things that we thought were true, aren’t… There are quite a few conceptions that the world of amateur bass fishermen operate under every day that just aren’t true. And even though this is going to create a lot of emails, I feel it’s my duty to bring to light those things that seem to be true but aren’t and explain why they are misunderstood by so many. The first misconception has to do w...

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It was one of those perfect mornings for WL.com members heading out to the 2nd annual WL.com picnic extravaganza. Clouds slowly burning off, weather a pleasant low 70s, calm winds… in short, the perfect day for a picnic. I arrived at 6:20am promptly, only to find BigBassDez had got there ahead of me! There were two other guys who I naturally assumed were part of our group. I introduced myself a...

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There are times when creating a fly pattern, the pre-packaged blended furs with sparkle or flash materials mixed in isn’t really what you want. Often the flash is very short in length and the color isn’t right. When tying my Wooly Leech pattern, I want the Angel Hair longer so that after the body is dubbed, I can pull out the material with a piece of velcro. The effect that I want is to have the A...

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NORTH TO ALASKA The big Alaska Airlines jet shook and trembled before blasting down the runway and struggling into the air with it’s capacity load of passengers--heading north to Alaska. Wes, Josh, Delmer, Kyle, Hayden and myself had eagerly anticipated this wilderness adventure and fishing trip for several months. At last we were on our way. Three and a half hours later we touched down...

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Splitshotting is not a scaled down version of a Carolina rig rather it’s… For about three weeks the lakes in Kitsap County here in Washington this last August were about as fished out and/or dead as could be. My fishing partner and fellow outdoor writer Bob Johansen and I were having a really tough time of it trying to get the bass to take any lures. And believe me, we covered the bases when...

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