July 17, 2016
Fishing Time: 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Rating: 10
Weather Conditions: Overcast skies
Bait: Drop Shot with Poor Boy’s Baits Green Pumpkin Erie Darter and Poor Boy’s Baits Pilenzler Melon Erie 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: 8
Final Weigh in Weight: 11.83 pounds
I spent the past few weeks on the east coast and while I had a great time in places such as Boston and New York, the one thing that was missing was bass fishing, so when I finally got back home I immediately headed to Lake Sammamish. I got out to the lake around 5:00 p.m. and noticed that the water was pretty warm, so I knew that I would have to fish deep in order to catch some bass. However, there were also overcast skies, which told me that the bass wouldn’t be as deep as they normally would be. With these two factors in mind, I decided to start up by Bass Cove and Eagle Point because they have some of the deepest docks on the lake. I fished the first few docks with my Green Pumpkin Erie Darter, but after coming up empty handed, I decided to switch things up and try a new color: Pilenzler Melon. I worked a few more docks with my worm, but didn’t have any success until I came up to a plastic dock that extended out to 25+ feet. I cast over to the side of it and hopped my worm a few times. All of a sudden I felt something pick up my worm, so I set the hook. At first I didn’t know how big it was, but once it saw the boat it began to take some serious drag and I knew that it was a nice fish. After a while I was able to get it into the boat and it came out to be a solid 2.40 pound smallmouth. I then moved down a few docks and came to an old wooden dock. This dock was a little shallower, so I decided to cast a few feet short of it to cover some deeper water. As soon as my weight hit the bottom, I saw my line go slack, so I quickly started reeling and set the hook. I had a great fight with the bass and it ended up being a 1.5 pound bass. On the very next dock, I cast over to the swim ladder and twitched my worm a few times. I then let it sit for a while and eventually something picked it up. I set the hook and brought in a dink 0.5 pound smallmouth. At the third dock from there, I was able to hook into another bass. Unfortunately, it jumped up and managed to shake the hook and get away. At this point, I was nearing the end of the docks on Eagle Point, so I decided to fish one more dock and then head over to the v-shaped dock. I cast a few feet away from a two-tiered dock and slowly hopped my worm back to the boat. About 3/4 of the way back to the boat, I felt something bump my worm. I quickly set the hook and managed to bring in a solid 1.5 pounder. After that I headed over to the v-shaped dock. When I got there I noticed that the water was a little warmer than in the rest of the lake, so I decided to work the deep drop offs instead of fishing the docks. I cast out into the deeper water and worked my worm back up the drop off. My worm was almost at the top of the drop off when I saw my line begin to move. I set the hook and sure enough hooked into a bass. I put it on the scale and it came out to be another solid 1.5 pound smallmouth. The next few docks and drop offs were unproductive, but eventually I came to a nice drop off that ran down to 30 feet. I cast down to the bottom of it and immediately felt my line get heavy. I set the hook and was able to land a nice 1.67 pound smallmouth. After that the bite went cold for while. Fortunately that cold streak ended when I came across an anchored water trampoline in 28 feet of water. I cast over to it’s anchor line and let my worm sit for a while. I twitched it a few times and hopped it up and down off the bottom until finally I felt something grab my worm. I set the hook and after a nice fight brought a 1.76 pound smallmouth into the boat. I then fished a few more docks on the right side before deciding to move over to the docks by the sunken forest. When I got there, I noticed a lone buoy sitting in 35 feet of water. I cast over to it and once my worm hit the ground I saw my line take off. I set the hook and managed to land a 1 pound bass. I fished for 1o more minutes after that and then decided to call it quits.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 71-73 degrees, which is a little warmer than I expected considering the poor weather we have been having. The bass are definitely moving to deeper water and I caught all of mine in 20-40 feet of water. The bass still seem to be near docks, but were about 10 feet off of all of them in deeper water. The drop offs around the lake seem to be productive and that seems to be where the bass are hiding out at this time of the year. Unfortunately, I did miss a lot of bass today and the bass seem to be jumping a lot more, which makes it even harder to get them back into the boat. Also, the bass I caught all swallowed the bait and had huge stomachs on them, so they are definitely active and hungry. All in all, today was a great outing and the only thing that could have made it better was a 3+ pound bass.