June 14, 2015
Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Rating: 9
Weather Conditions: Sunny with clear skies
Bait: Drop Shot with Poor Boy’s Baits 4″ Green Pumpkin Erie Darter and Quick Drop 1/4 ounce weight; Strike King KVD 2.5 Sexy Shad Squarebill Crankbait; Strike King 3.5” Green Pumpkin Coffee Tube with 1/4 ounce Bite Me Zona’s Tubehead
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Drop Shot Rod; Abu Garcia Veritas Medium Heavy Spinning Rod; G-loomis GX2 Jig and Worm
Reel: Shimano Sustain; Quantum Smoke; Quantum Catalyst
Line: 7-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC; 10-pound Yo Zuri Hyrbid; 8-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC
Total Bass Caught: 6
Final Weigh in Weight: 7.98 pounds
After doing some extensive research on nearby bass lakes, I came across Lake Whatcom. In the past, I’ve heard and read a lot of good things about Lake Whatcom and decided that today was the day that I would give it a try. The city of Bellingham has had problems with invasive species recently, so I was forced to undergo a full boat inspection before I could be let into the lake. After passing the inspection I launched my boat and got to fishing. The first thing that I noticed was how clear the water was. I could see about 10 feet deep, making it one of the clearest lakes that I have ever fished. The boat inspector told me that the cove around the boat launch was usually pretty good, so I decided to start fishing around there. I worked my way around the cove, but the water was extremely shallow (less than 9 feet all around) and I wasn’t able to get a bite. I then spotted a sunken forest and motored over there to try my luck. On my first cast to one of the pillars, I felt a bite and was able to land a small 0.5 pound smallmouth. After that the bite went cold again, so I decided to move over to the first point on the left hand side. The docks on the point were a little deeper, so I had hope for them. On the second dock, I felt my line get heavy, so I set the hook and landed another dink 0.5 pounder. I then spotted another point on the right hand side of the lake, so I jetted over there. There was a weed patch that dropped off to a gravel flat on that point, so I picked up the KVD 2.5 Squarebill and cast over to it. As soon as I ripped my lure out of the weeds, my bait was hammered. I set the hook and landed yet another 0.5 pound smallmouth. Since I was having so much success with fishing points, I motored over to another point on the left hand side of the lake. As soon as we got there, a guy came out and told us about a bass that he spotted by his dock. I put on the polarized sunglasses and sure enough there was a bass on its nest. I cast my drop shot over to it and the bass immediately hammered the worm. I set the hook and after a great fight, landed a monster 3.08 pound smallmouth. This was the first time that I had been sight fishing for bass and I have to say that it was a great experience. After that I came to a point layered by rocks. I cast my KVD 2.5 into the middle of the rocks and let my lure deflect off of them. I then noticed a drop off next to a pile of rocks, so I cast over to them. I was just about to pull my lure up and recast, when I noticed a school of followers. I stopped my lure and jerked it a few times to entice the school to bite. On the third twitch, one of the bass came up and grabbed the crankbait. After putting it on the scale, it came out to be a nice 1.54 pound smallmouth. After working the point for a while more, I moved down a few feet and came to some rocky drop offs. I have been researching tubes and just bought some Strike King Coffee Tubes, so I decided to give them a go. I bounced the tube up and down off the bottom and on my fifth cast, I felt a massive bite. I set the hook and landed a solid 1.85 pounder. A few docks later I saw a bass and tried sight fishing again. I cast over to it and saw it pick up the tube. I set the hook, but the bass spit it out and took off. After that I decided to call it a day and head in.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 65-68 degrees, which is a lot colder than I would have expected. However, it is a pretty big lake so I can see how it is taking a while to warm up. As I said before, with 10 feet of visibility this is one of the clearest lakes that I have ever fished. This lake is very rocky and has little weeds, which makes it smallmouth haven. Along with this, it has a lot of rocky drop offs and structure that smallmouth can relate to and the bass seem to take full advantage of it. I was able to catch my bass on three different techniques, which helped to improve my versatility as an angler. Along with this, I caught my first bedding bass sight fishing, which was a very cool experience. All in all, it was a great day and I feel like this outing greatly helped to improve my angling ability.