For those who like to fish the holes,

Water level down 5 feet from last year. Water temps running 57-63. Water clarity stained to 2- Ft visibility. Fished two days in different areas that I normally fish and found some fish. Its going to be an interesting Open since I spoke to many regulars who hadn't caught squatt for two days. Hope my fish stay put or grow in greater amounts, because 16-20lbs a day will be no problem if they stay. The lake will also fish small since most of the bays are high and dry.

The Beaver hut patterns stunk.

Good Luck at Silver,
Russ

Kirk,

Glad you found a fish on a hut. I fished over 20 huts and didn't find a single fish on them. Yes the Dam is being worked on and they won't fill it until after Memorial Day. Not sure how it will effect the spawn. The fish we found all look great and look like they are ready to go. I new when I got to the ramp that my stuff was all high and dry and didn't bother to hit it. So I went looking for new stuff and got lucky and found something like I have fished in years past that had a ton of fish on it. The only question is whether Bob and I can pull two limits off of it.

Good Luck to All WBC Guys This Weekend!!
Kick some Bass!!!
Russ

Hey Chuck...last I heard it is scheduled to start rising on or around memorial day...hope it does'nt throw off the spawn too bad...they had to do work on the spillway or something.

You will be lucky to have normal pool by the next two weeks on the holes. They only raise the lake by 6-10" per week. And with it being 6 feet down, lets do the math-7 weeks to full pool if your lucky.

The good news is that no matter where the water levels are the temps are getting warmer. And we all know what that means.
RB

Well, I spent three days on Potholes and had a great time!  Didn't catch any big ones, but consistently caught 3 to 4 pounders (largemouth).

First day the wind was howling - couldn't get on the water until 3:00 in the afternoon.  Because the wind was blowing I couldn't find the light colored bottom I was searching for in the shallows so I concentrated on the few existing dunes still out of the water.  Each dune has a deep side that went into water 10 to 16 feet deep.  Believe it or not - plastics got me no where.  It wasn't until I backed way off and threw crankbaits that I nailed fish!  And here's the surprizing thing - I caught just as many nice walleyes!  Hit the rock damn on the way home and picked up 6 smallies. 

The second day was my first full day there - and the wind died down and it was like glass.  None of the spots that worked yesterday worked today.  But I was able to find a few of the spots I was looking for yesterday.  Unfortunately some of the best spots were still 6 inches above the ground.  (Another bass angler said they were planning on raising the water until Memorial Day - we'll see.)   Had a blast sight fishing - but I broke off a lot of fish.  Gotta get rid of that small mouth "thinkin" and move up to heavier line!   It was beautiful day - but I spent a lot of it just moving around getting to know the place.  A couple of beaver damns held fish too.

On the third day I only had until noon to fish, but because I knew the lake (better) and where to go, I did amazingly well for the few hours spent on the lake.  I don't have one, but I can sure see how a GPS would save a lot of time on a lake like that!  (I actually got turned around once and had no idea where I was.)  I started the day off by belly hooking a 12 pound carp - ten minutes later I was able to net it and got my crankbait back!  I found a few more great spots, and now I can see that guys who spend some time on the lake have a real advantage over those who just show up at a tourney!  After three days on the lake I feel pretty confident I could put a nice limit together.

It sure was nice change from Lake Washington!