Northwest Fishing Reports

HI,

I am new to the Pacific Northwest and have read the small mouth bass fishing is very good on Lake Washington. I bought my launch pass and have done a little reading on bait fish sticklebait, salmon smolt, perch. Etc. I am not familiar with sticklebait or salmon but when I looked them up it looks like they are bronze and silver. All that said, for colors...should I try bronze, silver, green, red? What techniques do you normally use - drop shot, spinners, jigging (my preferred)? Early in the season - should I focus on the northern part of the lake for water temperaturesports. Types of lures? Other suggestions?

Thanks for any/all responses,

This is basically my home lake although panfish are usually my preferred species. There are plenty of lunker smallies in there that can be had this time of year. Some other foods to consider are sculpin and crawdads and those are stickleback minnows fyi. I would focus on the ends of main lake points or any structure you encounter in 40-50 feet of water. One reason I don't target these fish in the winter is when coming up from deep water more often than not their air bladder will become inflated (similar to perch from deep water) and unless you are adept at the "fizzing" technique or have a contraption that will release at depth then you run the risk of your prized catches becoming eagle bait. Im assuming you are C & R ing. This time of year I like the east channel, both ends of mercer island, most points on eastside and the area around the west end of the 520 bridge. Good luck - be sure to post a report

As far as lures, I stick to either a dropshot with a 3-4 inch bait or a grub/sculpin/crawdad on a football type jighead about 1/4 - 1/2 oz. A small chunk of crawler always helps too.

Thank you for the response. I appreciate the update. I will probably wait until they move up in April/May time for the spawn so I really appreciate the update. As far as colors - what are the primary colors?

I've only fished it maybe 3 or 4 times but have had some success. I had my best luck on the north end and in Lake Union. This area seemed to be most consistent for bigger fish. Most of my bigger fish all came on dropshot on points, around docks and bridge pilings. See map below.

This time of year, the smallies will be anywhere from 35-50 feet. Fish isolated rockpiles around the southeast side of Mercer Island as well as around the deeper sides and out away from the bridge pilings. There are also a few nice areas out around the VMAC that can be good for a late winter type bite. Football heads from a 1/2 up to an ounce (I usually throw 3/4 or 1 oz mostly) with a green pumpkin or brown beaver style bait is hard to beat. Yamamoto single and double tail grubs in #176 or #221 (4 or 5 inch)are usually good as well. A dropshot rig works year around, and you can even combine a dropshot and football head combo using the rigged football head as your drop weight. In late April early may you can get into some nice largemouth in the bays up around husky stadium, and you can target the big flat outside newport for nice pre-spawn fish, and the canals will typically start to get stacked up with spawners as well. Just a few thoughts to help you get started. Have fun!

David, do you still guide? The bookmark I have for your web page doesn't work anymore, and hasn't for awhile, and a search doesn't come up with anything.

Hi Tom, I'm actually not guiding anymore. I might start up again at some point, but I wasn't able to balance work, guiding, and my own personal life. I reached the point where I was turning down requests on too consistent of a basis, which is no way to run a business, even if it was just a part time deal. I'm going to just try and offer up some advice where I think it might help others out. Nice to see you're still moderating here!

I try to moderate properly and help everyone when I can.

I cant believe Ive never fish Lake Washington in the 20 some years Ive lived here.

I seem to remember reading some of the boat launches are not safe to leave your rig parked, but cant find the posts now.

Id be driving up from the Tacoma area - where would be a good place to launch?

Better than me, the only things I know about Lake Washington is that Tom Green swam across it and WDFW banned bass fishing in it last year due to salmon runs.

Gene Coulon or the Bellevue launch are Ok but are expensive. Never had an issue at Coulon and they patrol it. The public one (do not know the launch charge) on Rainier Ave is one that may not be a good idea to leave your stuff at... Time of day makes a difference but I just don't take the chance any more. Coming from Tacoma Gene Coulon would be the closest to you as well. I think it is a $25 launch fee. I buy an annual at $120.

Excellent, thanks!

Dont know how soon we will get up there. My bro had to take his truck in for tranny issues today. No word on how big a dent that will put in the fishing budget yet....

In February, from what I understand, about 40' deep is the key depth for the smallmouth on Lake Washington.
Fished for perch this month and 69 feet of water was the ticket, about 0.5 miles north of the Seahawks practice field. Perch meat doesn't work nearly as well for me as do about a 1.5" segment of nightcrawler.
Low to see the eagles swoop down near the boat and take a fish.