My pool shooting friend, Ron, invited me to go fishing with him in tidewater of the Trask River, in his old drift boat. I told son Ken about it. Ken said, "He’s an ornery old goat. He yells at everybody on the river." I said, "No, that can’t be Ron. He’s a nice guy. You just don’t understand him." Ron is an imposing and intimidating figure, big and burly with a scruffy grey beard. He’s alm...

Read More

And how to be a generalist to solve the problem… Mike Carey the owner and Editor and Chief of washingtonlakes.com and I went fishing on American lake on the first day of May this year. We started at the south end called Little American and then later moved out into the main lake to scour the islands that dot the lake. We didn’t have much luck and went away with only one good strike to our cred...

Read More

Jigs are hard to use correctly but you need them on your side. Jigs are one of the most popular lures in all of fishingdom there are used in fishing for both fresh and saltwater and are used for fish as small as perch and crappie and as large as halibut. The reason for this popularity is because of its simplicity of design and the fact that it can be fished under all types of weather and wate...

Read More

Milestones - defined as "a significant point in development". It seems we’ve been having a few of them here on WashingtonLakes.com. Every month Aaron and I check the visit statistics and compare to last year, a new record number of visits is registered. It’s a trend that has been going on for about as long as the web site has been running. But recently we marked a special milestone worth mentioni...

Read More

Bedding bass are spooky but catchable… In springtime when the water temperature has risen to about 65 degrees the bass in any given lake begin to start the spawn. This is a most exciting time for most bass fishermen because it is the only time of the year when you can see great quantities of bass in shallow water. I would like to stress here, right up front in the beginning of this article tha...

Read More

Needing a partner to go fishing with on opening weekend (Apr 30th), I contacted Mike Carey and made plans to go fishing at Lake Chelan. It was a very simple plan. We would meet in Chelan, get a hotel for Saturday night, fish the lake Sunday, stay at a local resort on Sunday night, and fish some of the other area lakes on Monday. Mike had a much better idea though. He suggested we contact Darrell a...

Read More

Depth is the key to spring time crank baits… Early in the spring when bass first begin to move into the slightly warmer shallows, when it is still cold out, but the sun has warmed up the sand, gravel or rocky bottoms, the temperatures in these small shallows rises by a few degrees. It only takes a couple of days of warm weather to accomplish this and the bass will move in and stay, leaving th...

Read More

WASHINGTON'S KING COUNTY OFFERS ANGLERS MANY OPPORTUNITIES FOR BOTH LUNKER LARGEMOUTH AND FEISTY SMALLMOUTH BLACK BASS Washington's King County is not only the hub of Homo sapien population in the great Northwest, but also an area of many angling opportunities. Located on the briny shores of Puget Sound, and hosting many fine rivers, it was for decades...

Read More

Took some time off work to entertain my son, daughter and nephew during Spring break. The three of us made the 1 1/2 mile hike into the lower Ancient Lakes from the end of Ancient Lakes Road off or the western end of Road 9 near Quincy, WA. This is a level walk through a sagebrush coulee with basalt cliffs surrounding you on three sides. It was perfect hiking weather - a very slight bre...

Read More

Plan your fishing trip using every tool at your disposal… By Joe Bucher Every fisherman wants to come home after a fishing trip with as mush success as possible and with as little problems as possible. This is why we plan so hard and try to account for every contingency. After all, we want to catch as many fish as possible and as large a fish...

Read More

By John Kruse – For Washingtonlakes.com The Quincy Lakes opened on March 1st to Trout fishing but so far, the fishing in these Central Washington waters has been decidedly slow. Quincy and Burke Lakes are favorites with most anglers on the March opener. However, checks of these lakes revealed the fishing was more akin to single shot than rapid fire for the five thousand 8 to 10-inch catch...

Read More

Knowing how to choose the right reel for the right situation is imperative… In the world of fishing the reel is arguably the most important element other than the rod, you need to know and understand completely. Besides knowing how to cast the different kinds, you also need to have a good working knowledge of the mechanic’s of the reels so you can do simple repairs, maintenance and other imp...

Read More