Northwest Fishing Reports

What lakes do you guys think hold the biggest populations of lunker bass?

The state record largemouth came out of Banks weighing in at a hefty 11.57 pounds in 1977.

The state record smally came out of the Columbia River (Hanford Reach) in 1966 and weighed a whopping 8.75 pounds.

There is some food for though.

what about pattison lake?

I would have say in my option that the biggest bass reside over in eastern washington lakes .. any of them are good lunker lakes ..BBD

I agree with fishnislife.....THE BIG ONES HOLD BIG ONES

espn did a check to see the best 5 fishing lakes in washington. 2 of the 5 were on the west and 3 of the 5 were on the east. true eastern washington has the potential for big bass but so does the west. the number rankings are 1 pothole, 2 lake washington, 3 lake wallula, 4 banks lake, and 5 lake whatcom. so if the current state records are held by lakes 3 and 4 dont you think potholes or washington is the place for the next large lunker record.

check the link for the article on the best 5 bass lakes in washington.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fish ... bass_lakes

The state record Largemouth was rumored to being caught down in California, and transported up into the state. Thats the story I've heard and have heard some good points to it also. Maybe true, maybe not, but Banks is definetly not the best lunker LM lake in the state.

i think the potholes is probably best for good numbers of hawgz.

but i also think that if you are looking for a state record you should concentrate on smaller westside lakes. a lot of big fish have come out of these small "trout" lakes.

CK14 wrote:i think the potholes is probably best for good numbers of hawgz.

but i also think that if you are looking for a state record you should concentrate on smaller westside lakes. a lot of big fish have come out of these small "trout" lakes.

Yup, yup. I would have to agree. Just stay out of the ones I'm fishing.
There may not be a ton of hawgs in them but I bet some on these smaller lakes hold potential record breakers. There is always at least one monster in every lake. The king of his domain. But these fish aren't stupid. They have a routine down pat. And I would bet that most of them eat at night. You'd either really have to know what you are doing to even be in the right place fishing for them or get completely lucky to stumble upon one. I just hope it's not some asain guy who can't speak any English who catches the WA state record.



fishnislife

Biggest populations for lunker largemouth I'd say Potholes and Silver Lake,not sure for smallmouth,don't really go for them except when were at Potholes and catch them accidently when were walleye fishing.

If you are looking for a big fish,I would say Coffee pot or the Pend Orellie River.
Lake Chelan has been putting out good numbers of big Smallmouth the past few years.
Silver and Clear lakes in Spokane county have good fish in them.
Some of the biggest Bass that I have seen in this State have been out of Chapman lake just South of Cheney.
A friend of mine took a 11 lb 3 oz fish out of there on a Waterdog some years back.
I think the days of 9 and 10 lb fish in this State are over.We still have lots of lakes that hold good numbers of 5 and 6 lbers but the big boys seem to be gone.

ChrisB, that is very interesting, I was wondering if you have a link to a website or if you could tell us some of those things that support this theory. I have never heard of it and I am very interested.


I also have to agree with CK14, potholes has the largest population of big bass, but the state record will be tough to get out of there. Also with the smaller lakes, that will probably be your best bet of getting a BIG hog, but there will only be 1 maybe 2 hawgs in a lake like this. But I would take a lot more pride in catching the biggest fish in the lake compared to potholes where there might be 1,000 bigger fish in the lake other than yours

In the snake river I put on my scuba gogles, and saw two 5lb+ bass swimmine in the river.
I also saw alot in the salmon river in Idaho.

Lake Kapowsin has plenty of big bass food and has had no real public access until last year. A friend of mine who does not usually exagerate claimes he had a 15 pounder up to the boat when it broke off.

Moses is great for LM. I fished over there a few weeks ago and more than a few big bass came to the weigh-in. There was a 6.29, 6.71, 5.24, 5.60, 5.11, 4.77.....

Chelan for smallies. And Ive heard the snake river is also good for fat smallmouth.

Bass Tracker wrote:Lake Kapowsin has plenty of big bass food and has had no real public access until last year. A friend of mine who does not usually exagerate claimes he had a 15 pounder up to the boat when it broke off.

Hey Bob, I thought we had an agreement that you would only tell me about these kind of things. J/K
Man I can't image what was going through his mind. He needs to get a net. I would have shat myself with a hog that big on my line. And losing it, man I would have cried. But at least I would know where she is and what she bit.
Ya know they do grow a lot more when you lose em. The big ones always get away.
I bet now Kapowsin is going to have a bunch of guys out there going big.


fishnislife

sorry guys...just got back and i got it!! you need not fish there now!!

i've seen alot of big bass in the smaller lakes mostly on the eastside. last year the wife and i saw one monster of a bass that came out of the depths to check out a bass i was fighting with that was 5-6lbs. this bass was easily twice its size. as was said, i also feel there is at least one huge bass in each of these smaller lakes and ponds, most people are not after bass in these lakes. most don't have the proper gear even if they did hook one, most are shore fishing which will spook the fish deeper when they feel the footfalls of people. most people don,t check the whole shore area's of these waters, and my experience is that the big bass are where most fisher's won't or can't get to except for the few hard cases that just have to know whats lurking in these spots. we have alot of good large bass waters all over the state and you bass fishers would know better than i which are the better ones. but i think the next largemouth state record will be in a smaller or less fished lake. <')//<

I think it will come from Stan Coffin in the quincy area CnR only for largemouth..If they rehab Sprague and get rid of the Walleye and the Smallies that lake will produce some whopper bucket mouth in a few years...the carp and the tench gotta come out of there too....Bring it on over there.