June 24, 2016
Fishing Time: 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 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 Green Pumpkin 3D 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: 15.2 pounds
For the past month and a half I have been checking the WDFW website non-stop, hoping that they would lift the fishing ban on Lake Sammamish. I woke up this morning and just like every other day logged on to check the fishing status of the lake, except this time I spotted the magical words I had been looking for: “All lakes are now open to fishing”. As soon as I saw this, I knew that I had to find a way to get out onto the water, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get out onto the water until 4:30 p.m. I knew that the bass would be hungry after over month of not seeing an artificial lure, so I headed straight for the first point on the right. When I got there I noticed that the docks on the first point had grown a lot of weeds, so I decided to work them with a texas-rig instead of my drop shot. I got a few nibbles, but wasn’t able to get anything to really commit, so I decided to head over to the second point on the right. I began with the dock closest to the beach and after an unsuccessful first dock, I decided to go back to my trusty drop shot. I cast over to the tall wooden pillar of the dock and shook my worm a few times. After a while I felt my line get heavy, so I set the hook and was able to bring in a decent 1.5 pound smallmouth. As Poor Boy’s Baits is one of my favorite soft plastic manufacturers, I recently ordered some of their new 3D Darters, so on the next dock I decided to give them a try. I cast over to the left side of the dock and instantly saw my line take off. I set the hook and fought with the bass for a while before finally getting it into the boat. When I put it on the scale it came out to be a 2.60 pound smallmouth. I then moved on to the next dock and this time I cast over to the right side of it. I twitched my worm a few times and felt something hammer my worm. I set the hook and landed another nice 2.02 pound smallmouth. At this point, I was extremely excited to have been able to catch 3 solid bass on three consecutive docks. On the fourth dock, I cast over to the swim ladder and felt something tug on my line. I set the hook and felt the bass take off. It jumped a few times before I got it into the boat, but it only came out to be a 1 pounder. The streak only continued on my fifth cast and on the very next dock I was able to bring in a 0.5 pound bass. Unfortunately, my sixth cast came up empty and my streak was ended at five straight bass. I went a few more docks without a bite, but eventually I came to a plastic dock that looked promising. I cast over to the L-shaped space created by the the two portions of the dock and twitched my worm. I was just about to reel my worm in when I felt something come up and grab it. I set the hook and was able to bring a solid 1.5 pound bass into the boat. The next few docks didn’t look promising, so I skipped over them and headed over to a dock that had both a ski boat and a jet ski parked near it. I cast right in between the boat and the dock and after a while felt my line go slack. I quickly reeled up the slack and set the hook and sure enough was able to hook into a nice 2.42 pound smallmouth. I was having so much fun fishing that I didn’t notice the threatening clouds that had been building up, but after pulling up that last smallmouth the rain began to fall. I knew I didn’t have much time left before the storm fully hit, so I motored over to my favorite v-shaped dock. I cast to the back side the dock and slowly hopped my worm back to the boat. As soon as my worm got halfway back to the boat, I saw my line take off. I set the hook and the fight was on. The bass immediately headed for the surface and I tried to keep the bass down, but it somehow managed to jump out of the water. I was afraid that it would shake the hook, but fortunately the hook stayed in and I was able to continue the fight. The bass was extremely strong and was taking drag the entire way back to the boat. It took me a while, but eventually I was able to get the bass in the boat. I put it on the scale and it ended up being a 3.66 pound smallmouth, which is one of my biggest ever caught on Sammamish. The rain was really coming down at this point, but I wanted to try one more dock, so I quickly moved over to the rock dock. I cast over to the side of it and felt something pick the worm up. I set the hook, but the knot must have been weakened from my previous fight and the line snapped. I was extremely disappointed and wanted to continue fishing, but with no rain gear and heavy downpours, I was forced to call it quits.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 65-67 degrees and was a little more stained than I remember. The bass were all hanging close to docks and were extremely particular about where you put the cast. With the month and a half ban, the fish were all well rested and put up some of the best fights I had ever gotten on Lake Sammamish. I caught my bass in 15-30 feet of water, so the bass were definitely spread out amongst the depth column. With 8 bass in two hours and a total of 15.2 pounds, today was most definitely one of my best fishing days on Sammamish. It’s great to see the lake producing quality bass and I can’t wait to get back out there and get into some more big bass.