June 10, 2016
Fishing Time: 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Rating: 9
Weather Conditions: Rain showers and heavy wind
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 Gunterville Craw Squarebill Crankbait; Livingston Lures Beauty Shad Howeller Dream Master Classic Crankbait
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Drop Shot Rod; Abu Garcia Veritas Medium Heavy Spinning Rod
Reel: Shimano Sustain; Quantum Smoke
Line: 7-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC; 10-pound Yo Zuri Hyrbid
Total Bass Caught: 8
Final Weigh in Weight: 9.71 pounds
Ever since my last outing on Lake Whatcom I have been dying to get back out there and fish it again, so when I finally found myself with a free day I immediately knew that I needed to head out to Whatcom. Since Lake Whatcom is dealing with problems with invasive species, they require boat inspections before you can launch. I had launched at the Bloedel Donovan Park Boat Launch during my last outing and lots of my favorite spots were near the north end, so I decided to launch there once again. As soon as I launched, I headed over to the first point on the right and fished the reeds and docks around there. I worked my crankbait above the weedbeds and fished my texas rig through the weeds. I got a few bites, but wasn’t able to capitalize, so I decided to motor across the lake to the docks on the first point on the left. Since the docks on the left point had a rocky bottom, I decided to switch over to my drop shot. I cast over to the swim ladder of the first dock and saw my line take off. I set the hook and brought the bass all the way up to the boat, but just as I was swinging it in it shook off. I was extremely disappointed and estimate the lost bass to be 1.5 pounds. After that I continued on and after three more docks was able to get another bite. This time I was able to get it into the boat and it came out to be a 1 pound smallmouth. I then came upon an old wooden dock that looked promising. I cast over to the sunken part of the dock and felt something pick up my worm. I set the hook and landed a 0.5 pound smallmouth. I saw a school of bass follow the smallmouth back to the boat as I was reeling it in, so I cast back to the same spot and was able to land another 0.5 pounder. A few docks later I came to a pointed dock that reminded me a lot of the V-dock in Lake Sammamish, so I cast over to the tip of the dock and twitched my worm a few times. I then let it sit and after a while I saw my line take off in the opposite direction as the wind was blowing. I set the hook and was able to land a solid 1 pound smallmouth. At the very next dock, I cast over to the sunny side of a wooden dock and felt something absolutely hammer my worm. I set the hook and had a great battle with what came out to be a nice 2.90 pound smallmouth. I missed a few more bites on the docks after that and finally came to a nice rocky point. I cast my Howeller Dream Master Classic over the rockpile and deflected my crankbait off of the rocks. On my fifth cast, I was finally able to entice a bass to bite. It hammered the lure and even jumped a few times before I got it into the boat. When I put it on the scale it came out to be a 1.47 pound smallmouth. I worked the spot for a few more minutes, but wasn’t able to get anything else to bite. Next, I worked the cove next to the rockpile and got a few bites, but didn’t get anything back to the boat. After that, I decided to motor back over to the right side and was able to find another rockpile that extended off of a point. I noticed that a lot of the bass I had caught had been spitting up crawfish, so I decided to switch over to a crawdad colored crankbait. As I did earlier, I bounced my crankbait off of the rocks and soon as I felt my lure deflect off of the biggest rock something grabbed my lure. I set the hook and was able to bring in a decent 1.34 pound smallmouth. After that I continued working the rockpiles, weedbeds, and docks around that point, but didn’t have anymore success. A few minutes later I spotted an old abandoned boathouse, so I cast over to it. I felt my line get heavy, so I set the hook and hooked into what felt like a monster bass. I began reeling it in and all of sudden I felt the bass shake its head. As soon as it shook, I felt my line go slack and I knew that I had lost the bass. I had missed a lot of bass today, but this one hurt the most. I continued working some of the docks and eventually came to another boathouse style dock. I cast in between the two middle pillars and felt something pick up my worm. I set the hook and landed a decent 1 pound smallmouth. After that the bite went totally silent and I was only able to manage catching a trout and some perch before I decided to head in and call it a day.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 63-64 degrees, which a little colder than I expected it to be. The bass I caught were all really shallow and all came in less than 20 feet of water. They all seemed to be holding tight to cover and were either around docks, weedbeds, or rockpiles. After fishing Whatcom twice now I have realized that the bass at Whatcom tend to school up a lot more than at any of the other Washington lakes. There were at least 3 times where a school of bass followed the one that I had hooked all the way back to the boat, so it is important to really work your spots because you never know how many bass will be there. Also, as I mentioned before, the bass were all spitting up orange crawdad, so that will be a good pattern to use there in the future. All in all, it was a great day of fishing and the only thing that would have made it better would have been a bass over 3 pounds.