grubowski
5/6/2018 9:50:57 PMThat makes me feel a lot better. I just moved to Washington and have been struggling to catch bass. Good to know it's not just me and that things still haven't really turned on yet. I hope it happens soon. My friend back in Idaho just had a killer day catching over 100 bass and I'm just happy if I don't get skunked :)
tony53
5/7/2018 8:44:40 AMWelcome to the state. I have been up here for two years. The trick is finding a lake that has some nice size bass in it. I have caught about 20 this size and just a little bit bigger over the last two years in Long Lake. Have not caught anything close to this size from the other lakes I have fished. Washington fish and game has a great place on their website that list all the lakes and what you can catch in them. Don't know where you live, but there are some lakes in Mason county that have small mouth in them. I grew up fishing in Kentucky for bass, but now I am fishing for anything. Good luck fishing up here.
Tony53
Tony53
grubowski
5/7/2018 11:16:09 PMI live in Elma, so I have access to a lot of areas. Mason, Thurston and Grays Harbor are all easy enough to explore, and Pierce and Kitsap aren't too far for a day trip. I've only been here since February, and the moving company didn't get me my gear until almost March. I held off on getting my year license, so I've really only been out consistently since April.
I caught a nice 18" 3lb largemouth at McIntosh a couple of weeks ago, but it was the only hit I got that day. Today I checked out Summit Lake in Thurston and did much better. I fished about four hours and caught 9 smallmouth (though they were all dinks), 5 rainbows (including one larger tubby one), and my first coastal cutthroat. It was about 14" and absolutely hammered a little swimbait rigged on a jig head. I have to say this strain of cutthroat sure fights harder than the Bonneville cutts I used to catch all the time in Utah and Idaho. I can't tell you how many fish I missed today though. They were hitting really aggressively, but still managing to miss the hook most of the time.
Apparently the larger smallmouth are at the opposite end of the lake from the boat launch. Being in a float tube is going to make it tough to get down there. It's a pretty big lake.
I caught a nice 18" 3lb largemouth at McIntosh a couple of weeks ago, but it was the only hit I got that day. Today I checked out Summit Lake in Thurston and did much better. I fished about four hours and caught 9 smallmouth (though they were all dinks), 5 rainbows (including one larger tubby one), and my first coastal cutthroat. It was about 14" and absolutely hammered a little swimbait rigged on a jig head. I have to say this strain of cutthroat sure fights harder than the Bonneville cutts I used to catch all the time in Utah and Idaho. I can't tell you how many fish I missed today though. They were hitting really aggressively, but still managing to miss the hook most of the time.
Apparently the larger smallmouth are at the opposite end of the lake from the boat launch. Being in a float tube is going to make it tough to get down there. It's a pretty big lake.