June 1, 2019
Fishing Time: 7:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Rating: 6
Weather Conditions: Overcast
Bait: Gary Yamamoto 5″ Green Pumpkin/Watermelon Senko with 1/0 Gamakatsu Wacky Worm Hook; Drop Shot with Poor Boy’s Baits Green Pumpkin Erie Darter and Quick Drop 1/4 ounce weight
Rod: Megabass Orochi XX Whipsnake; G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm Rod
Reel: Shimano Sustain; Quantum Catalyst PT
Line: 8-pound Sunline Sniper FC Fluorocarbon; 8-pound Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon
Total Bass Caught: 3
Final Weigh in Weight: 5.54 pounds
With the bass fishing on Lake Washington really starting to heat up, I decided to hit the lake at 7:30 a.m. to see if I could continue my success from last outing. When I arrived at the boat launch, there was little to no wind and grey, overcast skies. This set up perfectly for some topwater fishing, so I immediately headed over to the lilies right of the boat launch. I used a green and yellow frog to work the edge of the lily pads, but after going 45 minutes without a bite it became clear that I needed to switch things up. Since I caught a lot of bass on a wacky worm last time, I decided to tie one on and start working the fallen logs around the lilies instead. This switch paid off almost instantly, as I was able to get my first bass of the day on the third log that I came to. The log sat at a 45 degree and was a lot thinner than the other logs in the area. A simple cast to the base of the log was all that it took to entice a solid 1.54 pound largemouth to bite. After that, the bite went cold, so I motored over to fish the docks near Enetai Beach. The first five docks that I fished were really weedy and didn’t produce any results. However, the sixth dock that I came to had a rocky bottom and offered an opportunity to use my drop shot. Given that this was the only rocky dock along the whole Enetai Beach stretch, I suspected that there would be a bass there. My suspicion was quickly confirmed when I made a cast to the left side of the dock and felt something hammer my worm. I gave a quick hook-set and, after an exhilarating fight, was able to get the bass into the boat. When I put it on the scale, it came out to be a 2.75 pound smallmouth. The very next dock that I came to was falling apart and had three large stumps sitting right in front of it. I cast right in between the stumps and the dock and immediately saw my line jump. The quick bite caught me by surprise and a bad hook-set resulted in me losing the bass right before I could get it into the boat. The bass looked pretty big at the surface and I would estimate it to be a 2-3 pound bass that got away. This was the last dock of the Enetai Beach stretch, so after losing the bass I moved over to the V-Mac to fish the lay-downs over there. I worked the V-Mac with my wacky worm, but wasn’t able to generate any bites. I finished the day up by fishing the docks directly across from the V-Mac, where I managed to land a 1.25 pound smallmouth with my drop shot.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 64-66 degrees, which was a big jump compared to last week. I caught my bass in all sorts of different depths, with one coming in 5 feet of water, one coming in 8 feet of water, and one coming in 20 feet of water. One interesting thing that I found was that the smallmouth seemed to be in the post-spawn phase, while the largemouth seemed to still be spawning. Both species were still holding tight to cover, but were still aggressively attacking lures that came in their vicinity. All in all, it was a pretty solid day and I look forward to my next outing.