July 28, 2019
Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Rating: 7
Weather Conditions: Sunny with clear skies
Bait: Gary Yamamoto 5″ Green Pumpkin/Watermelon Senko with 1/0 Gamakatsu Wacky Worm Hook; Lucky Craft Pointer XD Chartreuse Shad Jerkbait
Rod: G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm Rod; Abu Garcia Veritas Winch Crankbait Rod
Reel: Quantum Catalyst PT; Shimano Curado Casting Reel
Line: 8-pound Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon; 12-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid Fishing Line
Total Bass Caught: 2
Final Weigh in Weight: 3.34 pounds
I arrived at the boat launch around 8:00 a.m. and was met with blue-bird skies, light chop on the lake, and winds around 5 mph. Seeing as these are textbook jerkbait conditions, I decided to start my day off at the Newport Shores Point. This point is an ideal spot for suspending smallmouth because it has a grassy flat that transitions into a rocky drop off. I knew that the bass would be a little deeper today, so I started off by working a deep diving jerkbait along this transition point. My first two casts didn’t produce any bites, so on my third cast I decided to slow things down and really accentuate the pauses in my retrieve. Three-fourths of the way back to the boat, I was able to see my jerkbait suspending in the water. I gave a quick twitch and seconds later, saw a shadow come charging out of the depths to grab my lure. Seeing the bite, before I felt it, I gave a huge hook set and knew that I had a solid bass on the line. The bass fought to get back to the depths it had come from, but eventually I was able to tire it out and swing it into the boat. When I put it on the scale, it came out to be a 2 pound smallmouth. I was hoping that this bass had come from a school, but, unfortunately, this was not the case and after twenty minutes without another bite, I decided to motor down to fish the Gene Coulon Point.
The Gene Coulon Point has a lot of underwater vegetation, so I decided to switch over to a bluegill colored swim jig. On my fifth cast, I felt my jig get caught up in some weeds. I pulled up on my swim jig to free it and immediately saw a giant bass erupt on my lure. I could tell right away that the bass had missed, so instead of setting the hook I slowed down my retrieve to give the bass time to catch up. The monster followed my bait all the way back to the boat, but as soon it saw me it took off. I tried all sorts of lures to try to get the bass to bite again, but after a while it became clear that I wasn’t going to get another chance at the hawg. Judging from the glimpse that I got, I would estimate the bass to be a 3-4 pound largemouth. Disappointed, I continued my way along the Gene Coulon Point, working the docks with my wacky rig and the sections in-between with my swim jig. It took a few docks, but eventually a cast to the swim ladder of a shallow, wooden dock produced my second bass of the day. This one was smaller and weighed in at 1.34 pounds. After that, the bite went silent, so I decided to head in and call it a day.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 70-72 degrees, which is a little warmer than what it was last weekend. As the weather continues to heat up, the smallmouth have begun to suspend, but the good news is that they are still really aggressive and willing to move up in the water column to chase a moving bait. I caught one of my bass in five feet of water and the other in twenty feet of water with the commonality being that both bass were hanging out on the edge of weed lines. The water level in Lake Washington seems to be down a lot from last year, which has resulted in more underwater vegetation and greater visibility. This has rendered a few spots on the lake useless and will be something to monitor moving forward.