Rented a rowboat from UW today and rowed out to Webster Point. I hate rowing, but it payed off. Caught only one fish, but a nice one....close to the 4 lb mark..on a bitsy bug. Not sure what the depth was exactly, probably 30 feet or so. They are finally starting to show their colors this time of year.....gorgeous fish.

Tight Lines,
Danny

LMAO!!   

I thought this was a bass club...Hhhmmmm

Rich

Well, Caleb may have topped the clam on a rev rig.  He caught a mussel on a drop shot...

Also I believe the State Patrol has a Traffic Distraction Exclusionary Zone where traffic accidents have prompted a buffer......heard it once by a trooper when I worked a car wreck on the 520 bridge......


0.2cents

I think the real reason for the distance regulations has something to do with the large cables that anchor the floating bridge.  These cables do not go straight down, they go out at 45 degrees to large cememnt blocks.  (You can see them on your depth finders.)  Those fishermen trolling near them would be snagging them constantly with lines and anchor ropes and perhaps doing damage.  That's my one and only humble theory.

It says in the Regs, Westside Lakes-Special Rules, p.66 of the '04/'05 regs, under Washington, Lake, (King Co.): "CLOSED to fishing from a floating device within 100 yards either side of floating bridges." It doesn't say anything about the non-floating ends of those bridges.  I think the object of this reg is to keep the trollers from decimating the salmon that bunch up adjacent to the floaters, but when the rule isn't very specific, you never know when some gung-ho's (as opposed to just plain ho's)   will choose to hassle us bassers.  

Ok OK, so here's the story.  Chris and the rest of the gang.  I ran into the net with my rev rig.  There were actually two net's in the area.  One had a very small mesh to it and it didn't have any smallies in it.  All small perch, pike minnows, etc....  the other net was located about 100 yds away.  It had a larger mesh to it.  I snagged both with the rev rig while trying to fish my point that had the smallies I caught last week.  There is a small creek that flows into this area and a small rocky point made by the creek.  The larger gill net I pulled up with the rev rig that  got snagged in the net.  Chris will know the area.  I have caught alot of smallies in this area, as it is a classic early staging area for the smallies.  There is DEEP water near by and alot of rocky / gravel flats in the area for spawning.  When I first snagged the large gill net. I had no idea that it was a research net.  When I snagged the second one.  I checked the float out and seen the U of W bouy tied to it.  I knew then it was for research and if I disturbed the nets, it was for getting my rev rig out of it and not to try and screw up any research Chris and the gang was doing.  Sorry Chris if I disrupted anything...  My sincerely apologize.
  As for fishing around the floating bridge, I had no idea that there was a fishing restriction around them.  And is the restriction just around the floating bridge sections and not inclusive of the pilings or what.  I know of alot of guys that target the pilings sections of the various bridges and would like to know if these are deemed off limits or not.

Mark

I wonder if Mark meant in his post...."Ran Into" meant he got it wrapped around a prop or in a rev rig? Will try to get some more info.......

Well, if there is someone else out there that Mark ran into, I offer my apology for the previous post. But to my knowledge, no one else from the UW is doing research involoving gill nets on Lake Washington.

Chris

P.S. Doug - we will be sure to contact you for the alligator rescue operations... CRIKEY! lol.

I heard the story yesterday, but as I heard it Mark ran across the researchers doing the fish count and helped them with their research work.  Maybe I heard wrong, I sure Mark can give us details.  Chris is you need some detailed fisheries info on WA I will be out on Friday and you and your team can follow me around.  I usually catch tons and tons of all varieties of fish.  Even possibly the occasional alligator...

Rich,

(carefully stepping down)

Our nets aren't out very often. It is usually on a seasonal basis. But if you see one that we have set on the bottom, there will be an orange buoy with "UW research" written on it. You won't be at risk of snagging into one with your prop, but you may hook one with a lure if you are nearby. If any of the float lines are near the surface where people could catch them with props, we clip buoys directly to the float line.

In case anyone is worried about all the gillnets being set in the lake, I want everyone to know that right now we are the only folks doing any netting in the lake. We have a permit for it from WDFW and US Fish and Wildlife, and they keep track of how many fish we catch. We are heavily regulated as to how many we can get.

Yesterday as an example, we had 6 nets out. They are about 100 feet long each, which is much smaller than the huge gillnets people picture from commercial fishermen. On a typical day with that many nets, we might catch 50-100 fish including perch, pikeminnow, cutthroat trout, suckers, peamouth chub, and the occassional bass.

Chris

Chris,  I don't need info on the project, although I figure if it is for research more power to you.

I just need to know where to get one of these nets and if they are legal at fishins and tourneysHAHAHA.

Actually I was wondering if these nets are posted or marked so that we won't get hooked in them?  Is there something we should look for to stay away from them?  I just want to avoid them so that you can stay off your soapbox.  It is a long way down so watch the first step.

Rich

Hey, Mark, I'm going to have to get on my soapbox.

I hate to sound like a pain in the butt, but it's EXTREMELY frustrating to know someone would pull up research nets that are currently fishing. One of our nets today, yes I helped set them, was pulled way off its location. I don't know if you touched that one, but it screwed up our day at that site and we will have to reset it because it was fishing in the wrong depth and all tangled up. That is an extra day of taxpayer's money toward our research. We have only had our nets obviously tampered with one other time in the four years I have been working in this group.

And regarding the smallmouth, I am not sure which net you are talking about, but unless you picked the fish out by hand, we only picked 2 smallmouth out of the 6 nets we set yesterday. One was about 3 pounds, and the other about 1.5. They came from a net set just south of Coleman Point. Smallmouth by their shape and nature, don't get caught in gillnets very often, and I can say that in hundreds of days of gillnetting on various lakes, if you get more than 3 in a net, you have had a rare day. If 6 fell out because you pulled up the net and they flopped out, which is rare but possible, then those fish were truly wasted.

For anybody wondering what the research is for, we are looking at predation on juvenile chinook that enter the south end of the lake from the Cedar River. We are setting near creek mouths and other areas that harbor small chinook this time of year. The samples caught for diet analysis are also being used in a contaminant study for the state to see if the fish people catch and eat in Lake Washington are full of PCB's and Mercury. No, I don't personally feel like this is a waste of fish.

The moral of the story, please don't touch a research net. It is a potential waste of our time, and a waste of the people's money paying for the project, in this case, the City of Seattle and State of Washington.

Chris Sergeant

P.S. If you want more information on this project, send me a private message.

A note on Lk. WA. The special regs forbid fishing within 300' (I think) either side of the floating bridges. The question, then, is it legal to (bass) fish under the ends of the floating bridges, where there are columns? I think the intent of the law is to deal with salmonids that bunch up on the bridges, not being able to figure out how to go under them or around the ends... concentrated slimers for the trolling crowd. Anybody?