August 17, 2016
Fishing Time: 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Rating: 6
Weather Conditions: Sunny with clear skies
Bait: Strike King 3/8 ounce green pumpkin football jighead with Gary Yamamoto 5” Green Pumpkin Hula Grub; Drop Shot with Poor Boy’s Baits Green Pumpkin Erie Darter and Quick Drop 1/4 ounce weight
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Drop Shot Rod; G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm Rod
Reel: Shimano Sustain; Quantum Catalyst PT
Line: 7-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC; 8-pound Sunline Super Sniper FC
Total Bass Caught: 7
Final Weigh in Weight: 7.60 pounds
After going for a long stretch without being able to get out onto the water, I was finally able to carve out some time to fish Lake Sammamish. As has become custom as of late, I decided to start my outing at the cove after the third point on the right. I began by working the drop offs near the docks with a jig, but wasn’t able to have any success. I then switched over to my drop shot and cast over in between a dock and a piling. As soon as my weight hit the bottom, I felt something nibble my worm. I set the hook, but came up empty. I then let my worm sink back down and twitched it a few more times. Finally, the bass came back and ate it. After a decent fight I got it back to the boat and unfortunately it came out to be a dink 0.5 pounder. I fished my drop shot for a few more casts, but then decided to go back to my jig. I cast over to a buoy and slowly hopped it back to the boat. I could feel my jig slowly crawling over the rocks and all of a sudden I felt it come through some weeds. I quickly popped my jig and as soon as it popped free something grabbed my lure. I set the hook and managed to bring in another dink 0.5 pounder. I continued to work the drop offs around the cove, but wasn’t able to get anything else to bite until I came to a floating dock with a buoy tied to it. I cast my jig over to it and instantly felt something swimming away with my lure. I reeled up the slack and quickly set the hook. I had a great fight with the bass and after getting it into the boat it came out to be a solid 1.79 pound bass. I then spotted another buoy, so I cast my jig just past it and slowly worked it back to the boat. About halfway back I felt something bite, so I set the hook and was able to land another dink 0.5 pound smallmouth. Since I was having so much success fishing the buoys, I decided to cast over to the next one. As soon as my jig settled on the bottom I felt it snag up on some weeds. It took me a while to get it off and as soon as it popped free, I felt my rod begin to shake. I reeled up the slack, set the hook, and knew that I was into a big bass. I fought with it for a few minutes and eventually managed to get it into the boat. I put it onto the scale and it came out to be a nice 2.81 pound smallmouth. After that the bite went cold, so I decided to move over to fish the drop offs by rock dock. I fished all of the rocky drop offs without much success, so I decided to go back to what was working and cast over to another buoy. Once my jig hit the bottom, I gave it a few twitches and then saw my line go slack. I quickly picked the slack up and set the hook. I got the bass back to the boat and it came out to be a 1 pound bass. I then cast over to the side of rock dock and felt something grab my lure. I set the hook and landed a dink 0.5 pounder. I finished the day by fishing the sunken forest, but didn’t have any success. Overall, it was a pretty good day.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 76-77 degrees, which is a lot warmer than the last time that I fished Lake Sammamish. The bass actually seem to be a little shallower and I caught all of my bass in 15-25 feet of water. The bass are all hanging around drop offs and seem to be holding tight to buoys and isolated weed piles. One thing that I found interesting was how hungry the bass were. Every single bass that I caught choked the lure and it was really hard to get the hooks out today. I am still looking for the 4+ pound smallmouth that I have hearing about and I will have to continue to try new spots in search of these monster bass.