August 25, 2015
Fishing Time: 7:15 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Rating: 6
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
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Drop Shot Rod
Reel: Shimano Sustain
Line: 7-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC
Total Bass Caught: 2
Final Weigh in Weight: 2.13 pounds
After a solid outing on Lake Sammamish a few days ago, I decided to get back out onto the water to see if I could keep the good luck rolling. Since the boat launch now closes at 8:30 p.m. I had a very limited amount of time to fish, so I immediately headed over to the second point on the right to fish the drop offs over there. I started by fishing the docks near the beach on the second point, but unfortunately came up empty handed. I then continued to work my way down the point and once I made it to the first marker buoy, I got my first bite of the day. I set the hook and after a tough battle, I was able to land a solid 1.03 pound smallmouth bass. The bass looked really healthy, so I figured that there could be a school of bass around the marker buoy. I cast back over to it and before I could even reel up the slack, I saw my line take off. I set the hook and was able to get a nice smallmouth into the boat. After I put it on the scale it came out to be 1.10 pounds. On the very next cast, I cast over to the right side of the buoy and felt my line get heavy. I set the hook and instantly knew I had a monster on. My pole bent all the way down and I had to set my drag to the highest setting to keep it from taking too much line. I fought with it for quite a while and thought that I had it, but as soon as it saw the boat it made a final surge and snapped my line. I can honestly say that that was the largest bass that I have had on my pole and I would estimate it to be 4+ pounds. I was absolutely devastated after that and I think that it somehow got to my head because after that I could not hook into another fish. The problem wasn’t a lack of bites either, but rather a failure to capitalize on them. I continued on like this for a while and then finally decided to call it a day at 8:30 p.m.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 72-73 degrees, which is down a little from my last outing. However, the bass were a lot deeper than expected and I caught both of mine in 40-50 feet of water. I noticed that they were all hanging out around marker buoys, so I will have to investigate this pattern in the future. This is my second time having a monster bass on my line, so it gives me hope that there are some big bass to be caught in Lake Sammamish.