Columbia River Smallmouth Bass

My last fishing trip of summer 2010 in Washington state had to be something different from what I normally encounter in California. So, I went after Micropterus dolomieu. The Columbia River has a world-class fishery for them, even in the heavily-developed parts near Vancouver and Portland, Oregon.
Got to my spot a little later than usual, sun was fading fast and I didn't have much time to fish. I wasn't expecting much, as evening always seemed to be a bad time for smallmouth fishing for me. The heavy pleasure boat traffic wasn't really helping either. So, I was super glad to spot 2-3 fat fish tailing my jig after I made a few casts. Couldn't get them to commit, so I switched up to a the beloved Yum Dinger, shad color. Boom, fish on, second cast. These kids can FIGHT! The one pictured above was only 13 inches, but he refused to come to the shore on my 4lb test ultralight gear.

Lost two more fish on the Dinger, than switched to back to the jig. Nothing. So, I grabbed one of my hand-poured drop shot minnows. Immediately I had fish on, unfortunately most of them came off. I managed to land one, this scrappy little smallmouth bass. I also hooked and pulled in a yellow perch, surprise, surprise. Didn't expect that at this spot, I guess the warmer weather really brought them in. I love catching fish on lures I've made myself, great feeling.
Goodbye (for now) Washington. It's been a splendid summer.
Hello, Cali.

Round Lake Washington Sunfish Fishing

As my summer in Washington was finding down, I went back to one of my favorite lakes, Round Lake. Situated in Camas, Washington, it's the little brother of the Lacamas Lake. Both are popular for warmwater fish, although Lacamas receives most of the attention. I started fishing for bass but switched to ultralight gear for the sunfish. This is my first crappie from Round, great feeling to finally catch one in Washington!

I caught mostly bluegill, although I did nab two yellow perch, and the crappie. There is a lot of small yellow perch schools here, not quite big enough to eat. Bass are harder to find, although I've caught decent ones here before.

I love this picture. Look closely, you will see the crappie stacked up, hovering in the water underneath the log. I had to fiddle with the photo's contrast settings to get it to turn out. There was probably double this number, all schooling in the area. They were insanely hard to catch, refusing all manners of jigs, baits and micro lures.

I caught most of the fish on wet flies (small ant patterns), microjigs, or Berkely plastic trout worms (great!). Did manage my last fish of the day on a Yo-Zuri Aile Killifish, one of my favorite sunfish lures. It's a floating topwater, diving on retrieve, with a tight wiggle. Back has a tiny, plastic blade, giving off little fluttering motions when twitched.

More SW Washington Bass Fishing

This blog is about to undergo a BIG change (I recently moved!), but I have a couple of left-over trips I would like to post beforehand. Enjoy these photos from one of my outings about a week ago, at some quarry ponds. The fish weren't as large as they've been in the past, but they made up for it in numbers. I also scored my first Washington swimbait bass, a skinny 14 incher that hit my Megabass Rainbow Trout 3.5 inch swimbait on a steady retrieve (top left fish in the collage). Oh, happy days of summer...

Hand Pour Plastics for Bass

Found an old jar of plastic worm liquid. Still had a few molds left over, plus a few RTV custom molds I had made. Oh, and three bottles of worm dyes. Warned everyone, then cracked open the windows on the house, turned all the fans onto "High" and started messing with some hand pours. They turned out pretty well, for not having done any pouring for 5 years+

Making your own lures and catching fish on them absolutely rocks. It's one of the most satisfying experiences in fishing. Tackle Underground is where I love to get new ideas for custom lures, the guys on there on super skilled.

Klineline Park Bass

I have been a little disappointed with this pond at Klinline park in Vancouver, Washington. Usually, I can count on it to produce several quality largemouth and other species. However, I fished it hard Friday evening with nothing to show for several hours. Not even a nibble. I threw plastics, Rooster tail's, Rapala's and topwater poppers. Nothing.

Came back the next morning, got there a little later than I wanted and the sun was already high in the sky, sending the fish deep. Managed this nice bass off of the shore on the Dinger, but nothing else.

Here's a little close-up action on this guy, great fish. Klineline (Salmon Creek Park) has some decent fish, but they can be tough to find. If anyone else has caught largemouth there, send me some pics, I'd love to see them.

Camas Bass Fishing

I fished my favorite secret bass ponds in Camas with a friend last Friday, taking the raft out for one last summer spin. Saw enormous carp, hordes of baitfish, sunfish and dink largemouth bass. Managed three fish, including one on a Gitzit jig lure.

D-d-d-dink!

Nice largemouth bass, great fighter for its size. Probably just a little over 1lb, but the best bass I caught all day. Wacky-rigged Yum Dinger, 4lb mono, caught him in 10-15 feet of water. Nice hot weather, pushing all the bigger fish deep. I should have dropshotted the place, but I couldn't bring myself to tie on another rig, lol.

Fishing for bass and sunfish in Tulsa, Oklahoma

I spent about 1 week in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fishing was great, cost of a five day license for non-residents was not great. Still, I got my money's worth, fishing hardcore, even with the triple digit temperatures. Tulsa is a great place for anglers, loads of public ponds and lakes all over, with all kinds of warmwater species. I hit up the Arkansas River, near Zinc Dam, and other spots. Also fished many different public parks with little ponds all over Tulsa. These are loaded with warmwater species, most anglers fishing them just do the old "bait-and-wait" routine, so the fish certainly don't mind lures.

Look at this little fat bluegill! Great colors, real bruiser. Caught while fishing a Berkely Gulp Minnow, Shad pattern, wacky-rigged.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty!
(Channel Cat, Arkansas River)

(See the nasty sores on the green sunfish in the collage? Gross)
I caught quite a few largemouth bass, fishing shaded areas heavily during the clear, sunny weather. Yum Dingers and Berkely Gulp minnows seemed to be the ticket. I did toss out an old favorite of mine, a Berkely purple worm, almost 6 years old, still catches fish.
I'll miss the fishing in Tulsa, but I certainly won't miss the weather.
Super thanks to my friends in Tulsa for taking me out fishing!

Top Pacific Northwest Fishing Forums

Fishing forums keep the fishing itch under control until I can get onto the water. While I'm away from California for the summer, I have been using several of the Pacific Northwest fishing forums, like iFish and WashingtonLakes. I found a sweet article with a summary of some of the better ones for NW anglers on Associated Content, check it here.

I'll be doing a little fishing in Oklahoma in the next few days, so the blog might go quiet (hopefully I'll be able to update it from there). Tight lines!

Raft Bass

Lovely largemouth bass cover.

Pulled this healthy fish out of the stickups just a few minutes after the previous photo was taken. Largemouth hit it pretty softly, but went berserk once I set the hook. I was worried he would break my 4lb test line after fighting him for much longer than I expected. This bass only went airborne once, but really kept diving deep, desperate to get back into the logs. Finally netted him with some help from a friend (thanks!). This is one of my better fish from Washington State, I'm having a ball fishing this summer. Trusty 4'' Yum Dinger does it again, Texas rig. Unfortunately, I've gone through my only pack of them, got to buy some more ASAP.
Oh, and on a fail note-I put a huge gash in the inflatable raft as I carried it back to the car. Stupid piece of metal, now I have to hit Sportsmens Wharehouse and get a new patch for the boat.

Klineline Northern Pikeminnow

Another fishing trip, another catch. I don't know if it is the cooler mornings or the earlier sunset, but the bass fishing at this pond at Salmon Creek Park in Vancouver, Washington, hasn't been the best lately. However, the big northern pikeminnow (previously called "squawfish" until such nomenclature was deemed insensitive) still come out to play, smashing the Senko clones with abandon. This guy was 16 inches, on one of my last casts of the day. I set the hook, battled him for a bit, then the line went totally limp. Sighing, I reeled in the slack-only to discover he was still on the line, he had just been swimming right towards me! This was on last Thursday, haven't been back to the pond since.
I went out fishing again on Saturday, with a friend, to a spot near Vancouver Lake. We both had watercraft-his was a kayak, mine the Sevylor Fish Hunter. I managed a grand total of one lost Yum Dinger and zero fish landed; he got two largemouth bass. Good times!