Over the past couple of weeks, some friends and I have been taking a boat(with no depth finder) out on the lake. He lives on the east side of Mercer Island so we would hit spots around there and the east side I-90 bridge. We would catch a dink smallie here and there and, surprisingly, some perch (Many of them caught on a texas rigged mighty bug or even a crankbait). But for some strange reason, after basically skunking out while on the boat, we would go back to my friend's dock, fish off there, and catch 2 or 3 decent sized smallies in an hour or so. Today at around 10:50 AM, we launched from the dock and headed out to a spot a bit south of the east side bridge. First cast on a drop shot, wacky rigged senko, set the hook on the biggest perch I've seen in this lake. After that, we roamed around different spots around the bridge. Nothing. At around 3 PM, we got back to my friends dock to try there. The friend that owns the boat had to leave but he let us stay to fish on his dock. Cast after cast, we would end up with nothing but seaweed. At around 3:30, my less experienced friend thinks he has a fish on, which I quickly assume is seaweed. However, as he reeled it near the surface, there was a huge splash. When we finally cranked it in and netted it, I couldn't believe my eyes, It was an absolute PIG smallmouth bass I'm guessing at least 4 pounds. He caught that one on the same drop shot except with the senko nose hooked. We all got excited and immediately threw our lines back in. About 30 seconds later, I set one. Another really nice smallie around 3 lbs(caught on a texas rigged YUM mighty bug, neon black). Didn't catch much except some decent sized perch after that. The sun was high, the clouds have burned, and the bass must've gone deeper. Lots of wasted time, but we were rewarded. We caught these bass in about 25-35 feet of water. The bass seem to be liking the strike king shim e stik senkos(which are cheaper than gary yamamoto senkos, work just as well). Those texas rigged mighty bugs worked too, but it's probably better to use football jigs(I don't have any at the moment). Anyways, have fun out there. Tight lines!

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