I had 45 minutes to kill tonight so I drove down to Waverly Park just north of downtown Kirkland.

Little did I know I had an impending showdown with mother nature. So out on the dock I went.

My new starting activity is a worm, straight down under the dock. Good sign ... a 4 inch bass, then a 5 inch perch, then a couple of this year's bass minnows.

By then the rain and wind were picking up. I told mother nature in no uncertain and certainly NSFW terms that I didn't care how hard it rained or how hard the wind blew, I was fishing and that was that. So I cast out from the dock with my perch trawler. It acted really funny on the cast, more on that later. In short order I had another perch, maybe 6 or 7 inches. But by this time it was getting darker, and raining harder, and blowing harder, so I glared up at the sky, and it rained harder, and I uttered some choice words, and then it pretty much was in full on torrential downpour mode. Water soaking through my clothes in 3 minutes, dripping off my hat, soaking through my shoes, basically I was nearly as wet as the fish. And then suddenly it stopped raining, and the gale came, almost blowing my net and tackle box into the water. And then 3 minutes later the wind died down to what it had been before.

I kept fishing.

I did have one more bite, but I was monkeying around with the other pole and didn't get to it in time. From how it was acting, I'm guessing catfish, but who knows. Could be anything in Lake Washington.

In any case, back to the funny action on casting - I figured it out. From the dock at Waverly, you can cast into water that is DEEP without even casting hard. I'm guessing 40 feet or so. Also, the bottom is very rocky. Not much weed hangup, and a lot of chatter from the sinker on the bottom.

It seems to be a much different habitat than what I've been fishing. I will have to return when I have more than 45 minutes of daylight, and I'm not directly under a thunderstorm.

And on a final note, I really wish that people would stop feeding the vermin. Seems everywhere I go around Lake Washington, there is some pathetic scavenger lurking. Seattle side it is blue herons. I would happily feed a blue heron a fish, with a big hook in it, and take it home to feed to my cat. And chop up anything the cat wouldn't eat to use for crayfish bait. Other than that it has no use. It is a wild animal which should not be begging from humans. At Waverly it was a seagull who some idiots had clearly been feeding little fish to. I chased it away at least 10 times and it kept coming back. It too would make good cat food. It is really unfortunate that people do not think about what they are doing.

G-Man

9/3/2014 11:16:00 AM

The lake bottom has a cut in towards Waverly Park that stays at 40+ feet almost to the end of the dock. It is as if some had dredged it just for the Park, as it isn't all that wide.

whorde

9/3/2014 11:41:00 AM

Interesting. Thanks for that info. I wonder how that impacts what can be caught from that dock? I would imagine that the steep dropoff provides varied enough habitat to increase options, but I suppose that could be my imagination.

Jungle Jim

9/3/2014 12:58:00 PM

Whorde: Am I reading too much into your post, or were you fishing with 2 rods? Or did you have a companion? Your 2 rod endorsement does not apply in Lake Washington. By the way, how you feel about the blue heron is how I feel about your cat. :)

pugduke

9/4/2014 1:54:00 AM

Well said , Jungle Jim ,I did'nt know blue herons were classified as "vermin" . Must have missed that some where along the way.

whorde

9/4/2014 9:22:00 AM

Anyone with a backyard pond understands. Herons come to your pond when you're not looking and not just eat fish, but eat EVERY fish, and those which they can't swallow they just spear and kill and leave on the side of the pond. The only thing worse than a heron is an otter, as an otter will kill every fish in a pond in a day, seemingly for sport, where a heron is much slower. Back home herons and otters are both kill on sight. Which one would think would be easy, as shotguns have decent range, but is actually very difficult, as out in the country these are wild animals, not beggars. If you get within 200 feet, they're gone. To the best of my memory, despite repeated efforts, we never managed to get one. I have a feeling that one day soon one of these vermin is going to steal one of my fish off the dock, or from my stringer. It will be very bad for the vermin, but the crayfish will be happy. Circle of life, and all that.

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