Larry Gonczy and I went out Monday and had a very decent day - if you call 29 smallmouth decent.  We do!  The vast majority of them came in 6-12 feet of water and fell to crankbaits.  And they were all decent fish with the majority of them in the 3+ lb range.  After a great start - we set our day's goal to get 30 fish for around 90 pounds.  We'd have done it too, but the one big toad that I hooked into (5-6 pounds) came out of the water and tossed my crankbait back at me. We just looked at each other and went "Woe..."

We still jokingly wonder if we can claim 30 fish because Larry brought his crankbait in with a dink attached to it no bigger than the lure.  I think it must have had romance on it's mind because there was no way it could have thought it was supper! 

We killed off a bunch of squaw fish, (I mean released after testing the strength of their brain casing). I also caught a really nice trout!  And while Larry was taking a video of me holding it - it jumped again sending the crankbait (hanging from it's mouth) into my sweatshirt!  Ofcourse Larry got it all on tape!  Wearing a large trout as a tie is an interesting experience.

If you get a chance, give Lake Washington a shot  - it's heating up.  (And we didn't even go into the canals!)

Well, for those of you not fishing Washington right now.  TOO BAD.......  Had a phenomenal day on it today.  Not very many bites, only 6, but I put 5 in the boat.  They weighed in at 18lb 12 oz.   OH yeah.  One of the five wasn't even a keeper.   That's right 4 fish weighing in at 18 + lbs......   Topped by a 6.0 toad backed up by a 4.4, 4.2 and a 4.1    That's digital by the way......    They all came on crankbaits in 4 to 15 feet of water.   Get out there and start  a cranking boys and girls.

Good job Smitty,
  I have always wanted to go back into lake union and fish, I just need to take the time to go exploring I suppose.   I was out on Monday in the rain.  It was slow slow slow in the morning.  I did manage to see some largies in the pads though, but they immidiately spooked out of there.  I score 7 smallies  on cranks and tubes.  No bragging size, just a limit of 1lb to 2.5lb fish.  I am finally starting to feel a little confidence about fishing there.  Lord knows I have put enough time in on the water there. 

Mark

Sorry Chuck,
I won't talk about the area just North of Sand Point or the area in Jaunita Bay and especially on the southwest side of Krikland that are broad grass flats with spots of chunk rock and depths from 4 to 12 ft.  I don't want to give away all the pre spawn spots.

   

Quote:


Rev, you might remember that unless a Tournament applies for two permits, a Permit for  Lk. WA  does NOT entitle participants to fish the Ship Canal and Lk. Union (I don't recall the exact boundary). Anyway, that's something to consider. I don't know how the ABA, etc, do a T on WA, but when we had a T there, it was off limits to go into Lk. Union, because we only had the one permit.  Note that the "Mercer Slough" is closed waters to all fishing, tho I have not found any map that says where that is. I believe it is the canal that goes under I-90 NE from Newport Yacht Basin, North toward downtown Bellevue. Anybody?  

Also, I recall that there was an agreement made that T's would make the Newportay Shoreski Canalbays off-limits, but that did not happen in the Big Bass T this past Saturday. Was this a slip-up on the part of the organizers, or what was the original agreement? Who represented the fishers, etc.? Apparently the word was not spread properly, at least.  Anybody remember?

C&R, Steve

As for the Big Bass T. we just fished, their permit went all the way to the fremont bridge as chris stated...so there might have been a change...

I don't know, Steve... Some of the reg's are difficult to get straight (marine stuff), but the freshwater reg's we go by in this state are a heck of a lot easier than a lot of states I've flipped through.

You read the general rules section, then look up the lake you are going to to see if there are special rules. Not too bad.

Chris