August 13, 2018
Fishing Time: 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Rating: 8
Weather Conditions: Sunny with Clear Skies
Bait: Gary Yamamoto 5″ Green Pumpkin/Watermelon Senko with 1/0 Gamakatsu Wacky Worm Hook
Rod: G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm Rod
Reel: Quantum Catalyst PT
Line: 8-pound Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon
Total Bass Caught: 4
Final Weigh in Weight: 5.48 pounds
This week marks my last week before I have to head back to college, so in order to make the most of it I decided to hit the lake to see if I could end the fishing season with a bang. In order to maximize my fishing time, I got to the lake a little earlier than usual and headed straight for the I-90 bridge. I was initially planning on working the pillars and drop offs with a drop shot, but when I arrived at the bridge, there were heavy winds and I decided to opt for a crankbait instead. I used my crankbait to work the areas just above the drop offs, but after going a while without a bite I decided to get out of the wind and fish the rocky docks on the east side of Mercer Island instead. The first few docks I came to were pretty weedy, so I decided to switch to a wacky worm and skip it under docks. I didn’t catch anything on the first few docks, but on the fifth dock I came to I was able to entice a 0.5 pound smallmouth to bite. A couple of docks later, I came to a sunken wooden dock that looked promising. I made a nice cast to the broken swim ladder on the left hand side and was able to get another bass to bite. This one was a little bigger and came out to be a 1 pounder. After that dock, I came to a very shallow and weedy dock on the southern point of Mercer Island. The dock was absolutely infested with weeds, but seeing as it was on a point I decided to give it a try. The dock was raised pretty high out of the water, so I skipped my worm all the way to the back of the dock and slowly let my worm fall on slack line. Before it even hit the bottom, I felt my line tense up, so I set the hook and felt the reassuring weight of a bass on the other end. It took me a while to pull the bass out of the weeds and to keep it from getting tangled on the dock, but after a few minutes I was able to get the bass into the boat. This one was a largemouth bass and weighed in at 1.98 pounds. I wanted to continue on fishing the point, but unfortunately there was a lot of boat traffic after that, so I decided to motor back and fish the rocky docks that I had fished during my last outing. Once I arrived there, I spotted a dock with a huge boat slip. On each end of the boat slip were metal swim ladders, so I skipped my worm under the right swim ladder and let it drift down. Almost immediately after I picked up the slack, I felt something hammer my bait, so I gave a big hookset and knew that I had another solid bass on. However, as I began reeling the fish in, I felt the line get heavier and heavier and I quickly realized that the bass had wrapped the line around the swim ladder. As the bass thrashed around near the surface, I was afraid that the bass would get away, so I used my trolling motor to bring myself closer. Fortunately, I got the bass to swim the right way and was able to yank the bass through one of the rungs in the swim ladder. Once I saw that the bass was free, I frantically reeled my line in and managed to get the bass into the boat. This one was also a largemouth and hit the scales at an even 2.00 pounds. This was definitely the most exciting battle I’ve had all summer, so with that bass I decided to call it a day.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 77-79 degrees, which means that the water is starting to cool off again after a hot summer. The bass that I caught were pretty shallow and I caught all of mine in less than 15 feet of water. These bass all came from docks, which tells me that the bass are holding tight to vertical cover that also provides shade for them. They were actively feeding and most of the bass swallowed my worm. However, the bass were pretty picky today, as it took precise casts in order to entice them to actually commit to biting. All in all, it was a great summer of fishing and I hope that I will have the chance to get a few outings in this fall.