Happy 4th of July everyone!!
Knowing I was going to have the day off Wednesday and my work day was going to end in Renton on Tuesday, I decided to load up the JB and just keep heading south after work Tuesday. I also unexpectedly got off before noon so this worked out great! My original plan was to fish and check off Thurston County. IF, I caught one there, and had time, I would head for Mason County and try for a bonus county on my "way home". Of course plans changed once I got off work and started heading south. I remembered in my research some small ponds thirty minutes south of Offut Lake in Lewis County, did I dare try for the hat trick?! Of course I did lol. I pulled over and reoriented myself on the navigation and headed for little Carlisle Pond, just outside of Onalaska in Lewis County. First off, what an absolutely beautiful area! I could live down there in a minute, my kind of scenery! I arrived at little Carlisle figuring I could run a fast lap and just boat that pounder, but that didn't happen. First off, it helps when you don't hook your trolling motor leads up backwards...this was fairly hilarious and really messed my brain up for a second! LOL Got that figured out and had a "bite" on my first cast under a shaded tree. Had to be a three incher! What I realized later is that the shoreline was teaming with miniature pumpkinseeds who's lives were consumed with the relentless pursuit of dragonflies. The other issue was the weed growth, it was very bad in spots and a mix of milfoil and what I call 'spaghetti grass', the stuff that stops any trolling motor in it's tracks. I moved out even farther trying the weed edges and flipping the clumps, but never got a nibble. Went out by the rearing pens in the deepest water and still nothing. Saw a couple decent jumpers but they were obviously trout. I bailed, opting to save time for Thurston and possibly Mason Counties?
On the way back north I stopped off to look at two other small ponds in Centralia (Lewis County). Plummer 'Lake' has a foot only access area at Wagner Park. From Google Earth it looks doable, from the top of the hill you stand on looking down the dirt chute twenty feet below it does not! Now I see why everyone fishes it in float tubes, nothing else is coming back up that hill and if you fall on your way down at least you have something soft to land on ha ha!
Hayes 'Lake' is just to the north and the fence behind Goodwill on the access road is gated and padlocked. You have to carry or drag your boat and it's about 30-40 yards to the water I would guess? That fact and the occupied homeless camp next to the launch sent me back to my truck and north to Thurston County. No way I could drag my JB by myself to that launch and since that's what I had and I was by myself, I bagged it. Lewis County wasn't on my original list this trip anyways and I was going to make it part of my big south trip in August so I had no problem walking away at this time.
Once northbound I headed straight for Offut Lake. I wanted to fish this lake and Ohop about 20 years ago but ran into technical difficulties and never completed the journey. I arrived at the lake and launched. I had already done topo research and knew exactly where I wanted to start. Once there, the water clarity and conditions didn't hamper that decision so I was off. I started throwing a Senko around docks just to get an idea and after a couple small bites and a boated half pounder I decided the fish were possibly suspending under docks and just above the grass. I switched to a larger profile bait, a swim jig, and started slow rolling it to keep it above the grass and hopefully ward off the 'dinks'. On about my third cast, thunk! Fight was on! I knew it would count if I boated it so I gave it all the time it needed and it fought good. Finally, I managed to reach down and grab it just as it went to jump out from under the boat, DONE! Thurston County, CHECK! It was bittersweet as this is an amazing looking lake and I was only twelve minutes into my trip, however, it's not that far from home, it was only 3:30 pm and I was only 30 minutes from Lake Limerick in Mason County...so it was officially go time!
I arrived to Mason County and more speed boats than I thought should be allowed on a lake the size of Limerick?! I launched anyways, still excited by the quick success on Offut, I thought maybe I could get this done within a hundred yards of the launch and leave? Wasn't the case. The farther down the bank I got the more boats there seemed to be and there was no way I was going to try to cross over to where I wanted to be in the JB, not with that much boat activity and the potential alcohol fueling the fun. I spun around and tried to fish some shaded brush from the launch to the other side of the lake but it's the 4th of July after all, just a lot of people out having a blast and I didn't feel like weaving my way through them trying to fish so I bagged out. I did some quick parking lot research as I tried to map my back-up choice Nahwatzel. I found that Island Lake claims it has smallmouth and largemouth? It's basically across the street so I opted for that instead. Keep in mind I get up for work at 0230 so by this point in the day and with the driving, hefting the JB in and out of the truck and the warmer weather, I was starting to feel the internal battery drain a bit.
I am pretty sure they meant to say that Island Lake has a lot of 'small' largemouth, not smallmouth AND largemouth lol. I never touched a smallie but the half pound largemouth were almost every cast and at almost every depth! From one foot to twenty feet, if I got bit it was a little fish, regardless of bait or lure size! I talked to two other boats out there bass fishing and they had the same results...should have just gone to Nahwatzel I guess. I loaded up and headed home. I got the one County done I wanted to so I was happy, anything else would have just been a bonus. I look forward to return trips to Ohop and Offut in the future as they are definitely on my short list of follow up lakes!
I arrived home at 11 pm and stayed up talking with my wife until about midnight...I don't remember anything after that ha ha.
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