Howdy,

Just got back from a day trip there on Sunday with Terry. We caught a lot of both species, but we only had about 5 that were good-sized tournament fish. I personally think this is a tough time of year to pattern fish on Potholes, but there are still plenty of fish to be caught, especially if you hit a good spot in the sand dunes.

I don't know what you know already about Potholes, but to me the lake has four distinct sections: Winchester dunes (northwest), Crab Creek dunes (northeast), main lake (Goose Island, dam, and other rockpiles), and Lind Coulee (long wasteway in southeast corner). The fish will be extremely spread out this time of the year. Many of the sand dunes are covered in willows, but during August, which is nearly the lowest water elevation of the year, almost every single willow will be out of the water. This leaves the dunes looking very plain and free of cover. The Winchester side is a little harder to navigate now than the Crab Creek side. Even with a smaller boat, you are going to have problems getting around the dunes. There will be quick transitions from 8-10 foot depths to 4 inches without much warning, so wherever you go, take it easy until you figure out the way and can follow a GPS track.

Largemouth will be all over the place this time of year. They are starting to move out of the dunes toward the main lake. I would recommend two things:

1) Go into the main channel of Crab Creek and look for the deep sides of dunes near the main channel with some cover left on them. And when I say some cover, I mean a single stick or a bush. This is about all you will find, and they will hold fish. The better quality largemouth should be in these areas. If you find cover near some current, you are golden. There will also be largemouth out at the face of the sand dunes relating to dropoffs, but they are harder to find. If you have an underwater camera it might be good to cruise the face and see if you can find concentrations of fish.

2) Take a reaction bait and cover a lot of water around the dam and the various rockpiles sticking up in the middle of the lake. The largemouth move out to these areas later in the year. It is a little early right now, but by September there will be some good quality fish hanging out in those areas.

For largemouth I would recommend spinnerbaits, topwaters, small crankbaits, and small heavy jigs that you can fish the shoreline quickly with. Senkos are always good, too. When aren't they?

Smallmouth will be on the dam and rockpile areas and back in Lind Coulee. You'll run into a lot of dinks in shallow water, but if you move out into 12-20 feet you will find some larger fish. Concentrate on areas near the mouth of Lind Coulee. This place seems to concentrate a lot of smallies. I would throw small jigs, senkos, and dropshot rigs. Jerkbaits would be worth a try, too.

If you're planning on fishing the club tournament in September, remember that the lake will slowly be dropping about .2 feet per day and will look completely different than it does now.

Oh yeah - and remember that most fishing advice is a bunch of garbage, so if this stuff doesn't work, try something else that you have a good feeling about! You might just find something that no one else knows about!

This report brought to you by a slow work day...

Good luck,
Chris

Well, we had a great time and fish quite a bit.  We met some nice guys from Central Washington Bass Club who were fishing a club event there and they were all very nice and helpful.  Fishing was tough for all of us.  I think that their big bag for the first day of the tourney was 10.8lbs!  Fish were few and far between for us.  We were able to get a few small largies under a pound, but nothing worthy of a picture.   Crab Creek would fluctuate from 1/2 foot to 3 feet without notice, Frenchmans was almost not passable as it looked like a very shallow river.  We got many reports of people getting towed off of the dunes and saw a few wakeboard boats that were high and dry   Not having any experience in the dunes, we stayed away.  There was officially NO brush still in the water.  We were fishing the dam, Lind coulee, some beaver lodges, and many main lake rocks and anything that looked like it may hold a fish.  The best fish came from fishing the current from the release spillway that I think flows into Soda?  (Not sure, but I think so)  Looking forward to many more attempts at fish at this lake.  Thanks for the advice.