March 26, 2016
Fishing Time: 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Rating: 5
Weather Conditions: Overcast
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: 1
Final Weigh in Weight: 3.49 pounds
After catching a quality smallmouth on my last outing, I was excited to finally get some decent weather, so I could head back out onto Lake Sammamish. Since I didn’t really know what the bass were looking for, I started with a three rod cycle: one rod had a lipless crankbait, one had a jig, and one had a jerkbait. After launching my boat, I noticed that the first point on the left had a water temperature of 50 degrees, which was two degrees warmer than the rest of the lake. Since smallmouth bass prefer warmer water during this time of the year, I decided to start there. I rotated through my three rods, working the drop offs and weed lines, but wasn’t able to get any bites. I figured that I must have been fishing too deep, so I decided to jet across the lake and fish the first point on the right hand side. I began by fishing the docks around there, but still wasn’t able to get a bite. I was starting to lose confidence, so I decided to go to my trusty drop shot combo. I was unsuccessful on the first two docks, but finally I came to a dock with a boat next to it. I cast right in between the boat and the dock and twitched my worm a few times. I then quickly hopped my worm and as soon as it hit the bottom, I felt something hammer my worm. I set the hook and instantly knew that I had hooked into a lunker. I set my drag and the battle was on. The bass was constantly taking line and it took me over two minutes to finally get a glimpse of the bass. When the bass saw the boat, it made its last ditch effort and quickly dove back to the bottom. I fought with it for another minute and was finally able to wear it out and get it into the boat. Ecstatic, I quickly measured it and put it on the scale and it came out to be a 18” 3.49 pound smallmouth. It had a huge stomach on it and it looked like it was fattening up for the spawn. I didn’t want to stress the fish out too much before it began spawning, so I quickly got it back into the water and released it. After that excitement, I continued to work the docks along the right hand side, but wasn’t able to get anymore bites, so I decided to head in and call it a day.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 48-50 degrees, which is much warmer than the last time that I fished. The water temperature is approaching the spawning range, so bass will begin to make their beds soon. The bass seemed to be shallower and I caught my bass in 20 feet of water. They seem to be heading back towards the docks, so hopefully it will be easier to find them as the water warms up. I still haven’t been able to get any reaction bites, which tells me that the bass are still a little lethargic from their winter slumber. All in all, the 3.49 lb smallmouth that I did catch today was one of my biggest on Lake Sammamish, making it a great day of fishing.