July 19, 2014
Fishing Time:7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Rating: 5
Weather Conditions: Overcast with heavy winds and rough, choppy water
Bait: Drop Shot with Green Pumpkin Sapphire Strike King KVD Dream Shot Worm and Quick Drop 1/4 ounce weight
Rod: G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm
Reel: Quantum Catalyst PT
Line: 8-pound Berkley 100% fluorocarbon
Total Bass Caught: 2
Final Weigh in Weight: 1 pounds
I decided to give Lake Washington a try for the first time this year and I launched around 7:30 in the evening. I immediately noticed that it was really windy out and the water was really choppy, so I decided to hit up the canals because they were shielded from the wind and it was generally pretty calm in there. It was pretty shallow in there with depths from 3-8 feet and water temperatures ranging from 72-73 degrees, which wasn’t the most ideal, but I figured that the fact that it was shielded from the wind would be enough to offset those two other factors. I started out with my trusty drop shot and cast along the rock walls. It was extremely weedy and I was constantly pulling weeds off my hook, but then I came to a nice dock that seemed pretty weed free. I cast to the far corner and almost immediately I hooked into a small 0.5 pound smallmouth. I worked the whole rest oft he canal without so much as a nibble and then decided to head back out and try some of the docks in the open water. It was around 8:30 by the time I headed out and the wind had died down a little bit, so I was optimistic. I tried a few docks to the left of the canal, but it was too weedy to get anything, so I headed over to the docks to the right of the canal and found a few docks that didn’t any weeds. I didn’t get anything at first, but as soon as it struck 9:00 p.m. the fish just went crazy. With every cast that I made, I was able to land a fish. Unfortunately out of the bunch only 1 of them was a bass and it was another 0.5 pound smallmouth. The rest were perch and crappie. The crappie were absolutely huge and I just kept racking them in until it got too dark to see at around 9:30.
Observations: The water in Lake Washington was a lot colder than in Lake Sammamish coming at around 70-73 degrees, but that is only to be expected because Lake Washington is a lot bigger. Due to this lower temperature the bass were a lot shallower. I caught my two at 7 feet and 12 feet, which is significantly shallower than where I catch them in Sammamish.