Friend, Pete, and I have developed a "lust" for perch. Decidedly a lot of fun while waiting for Fall rains to trigger trout and salmon fishery later on. Trying to extend our list of lakes to fish for perch, we settled on huge Lake Washington and targeted Magnuson Park. My first time to fish the lake. We arrived at about 6:00 AM and began to search for a site to fish. Overcast skies and temp of 58 degrees at the outset, water temp at 72 degrees at 8' off pier. A strong, persistent wind blowing from the south. Began near the swimming area... Shallow and gravelly lake bottom... no bites, and decided to look for something more promising. Headed for the boat launch to try off the piers there. Were fishing worms under a small Thill float. After covering the water off the end of the pier, began having bites on the leeward side, back toward the shoreline. Not long before landing the first perch, followed by another. From 7:30 on, had pretty much non-stop action. Landed perch, bluegill, rock bass, smallmouth bass, crappie, even one pikeminnow... all on worms under the float. Perch were 7" to one behemoth of 11".
Pete had moved to the shoreline, casting over toward the pier and getting bite after bite. The wind was making casting off the pier a bit of a chore, so I joined him there. Pete was having a little trouble setting the hook in the hard mouth of the perch, but after a little coaching, he began to get the hang of it. Reeling in a nice perch, we both saw a huge fish lunge at his hooked perch, not once, but twice, chasing that perch right to the shore... we were both stunned by what had just occurred. A few minutes later, as Pete was reeling in another perch, the same thing happened again. We hadn't come prepared to do any bass fishing... so not much chance of hooking such an enormous fish. It was just about 9:00 and I made a cast near the side of the pier in front of us... reeling verrry slowly, I felt a slight resistance and set the hook, hard... expecting a nice perch... my 8' UL rod tip bent toward the water, and all h*** broke loose! A huge splash thirty feet out on the water's surface, then huge headshakes and bulldog runs... I was into a giant of a fish! It took at least ten minutes to get the fish to the beach... fishing with 3# leader... no net. Pete scrambled down over the rocks and was finally able to grab the spent fish. A huge smallmouth bass (I am not a bass fisherman, have never caught a smallmouth before, would one of the WALakers more familiar with the species please verify my identification from the pics, thanks!)... measured at 18+" and weighed 3.5# on my digital scale at home after laying in my bucket all day.
Continued to fish for perch... wind grew even stronger, even as the sun began to burn off the cloud cover. We continued to fish the leeward side of the pier, but fewer and fewer bites... then it hit me, the fish were all facing into the wind, looking for food brought to them on the current. Began casting along the windward side of the pier, and caught a half dozen perch in short order. Kept 30 perch and several rock bass... had a blast fishing, and left the lake about 2:30 to beat the traffic home.
Spent much of the day chasing away the resident Great Blue Heron which had a fixation on Pete's bag of fish, once grabbing it and downing several fish before we saw him. Lots of fun! The launch is very busy, dozens of boats going in and out, large and small, including an air boat, even a one man submarine. Will make this place a target for future fishing excursions. Anyone know if there may be Cutthroat caught from this shoreline? PTL!

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