August 10, 2015
Fishing Time: 6:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
Rating: 5
Weather Conditions: Sunny with clear skies
Bait: Drop Shot with Poor Boy’s Baits Green Pumpkin Drop Shot Darter and Quick Drop 1/4 ounce weight; Strike King Green Gizzard Shad KVD 1.5 Flatside
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Drop Shot Rod; Abu Garcia Medium Veritas 2.0 Winch Crankbait Rod
Reel: Shimano Sustain; Shimano Curado I
Line: 7-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC; 12-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid
Total Bass Caught: 2
Final Weigh in Weight: 2.24 pound
After a disappointing early morning outing a few days ago, I decided to switch it up and try the evening bite to see if it was any better. As has become habit lately, I began my fishing outing by working the lilies and grass by the state park. I cast my crankbait along the weed-line and varied my retrieval speeds, but wasn’t able to manage a bite. After about half an hour of doing this, I decided to move on and try some new spots. These spots were all found using a computer program called Humminbird Contour Elite. I knew that the bass were hanging out at the base of steep drop offs, so I entered that into the computer program and it gave me all the spots on the lake where there were steep drop offs. I was then able to get the GPS coordinates of these spots and enter them into my fish finder, so that I could fish them on the lake. One of these spots happened to be near my favorite two-tiered dock. As soon as I got to the dock, I noticed a steep drop off appear on my fish finder, so I positioned myself accordingly. I then cast to the bottom of the drop off and slowly worked my lure back up it. On my fifth cast, I felt something hit my worm, so I set the hook and had a great fight with a bass. When I got it into the boat I weighed it and it came out to be a 1.23 pound smallmouth. I then moved down a ways and made another cast to the base of the drop off. As soon as my lure hit the bottom, I felt a strong bite, so I set the hook and landed a nice 15 inch trout. A few minutes later, I landed another rainbow trout, but this time it was a giant 19-20 inch one. I was extremely excited about this because that is the largest trout that I have ever caught. After that excitement, it went quiet for a while, so I motored down a ways until I came to another steep drop off. I cast my drop shot over to it and immediately I saw my line take off. I set the hook and the bass began taking lots of line. I fought with it for a long time and even got a glimpse of it, but to my dismay my line snapped before I could get it into the boat. This was one of my toughest losses this year because I got a good look at it and judging from the smallmouth’s size and strength I would estimate it to be a giant 3-4 pound hawg. I was absolutely devastated and I worked that drop off for another 15-20 minutes just hoping that it would come back and bite again, but unfortunately it did not. After that, I motored down a ways until I came to a promising dock and drop off. At this point, it was pretty late and the sun was beginning to set, so I figured that the bass would be moving towards the shallows. With this in mind, I cast to the dock first and as soon as my weight hit the bottom I felt a strong tug on my line. I set the hook and landed a nice 1.03 pound smallmouth. After having success at one dock, I thought that the bass would all be moving back towards deeper docks for the night, so I moved over to my favorite v-shaped dock. I cast around there for a good 15 minutes, but wasn’t able to get anything. I wanted to continue on, but at this point the sun had set and it was almost completely dark, so I was forced to head in.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 74-78 degrees, which is a lot warmer than it had been just a few days ago. As predicted, the bass were pretty deep and I caught mine in 20-45 feet of water. It was really nice to catch some deepwater bass and get onto some decent smallmouth again, but I am sure that I will have nightmares about the monster smallmouth that I lost. I have to say that I am really impressed with the Contour Elite computer program because the drop offs were right where it said that they would be. This could be a huge asset for me going forward in my bass fishing career. I believe that I am starting to figure out the smallmouth on Lake Sammamish and I look forward to getting out onto the water again sometime soon.
Awesome sunset!