Northwest Fishing Reports

From an adults perspective, what would you say has changed through out the last 20 years of bass fishing. What has made the bass species lower or increase and why isnt it Super easy to catch them. I understand that we as fisherman didnt have as advanced lures and baits as we might have now, but 20 - 40 years ago that didnt stop you guys from catching as many bass as you do now. Why dont we slaughter bass left and right?
Please dont say something like (ITS BECAUSE WE HAVE PPL LIKE YOU THAT MAKE IT WORSE FOR OTHERS) or something, because thats not true. Even if you dont like me. If you dont even care, just dont answer any of my questions. Just because I dont need your help, it doesnt mean I dont want it.

Like saying you want a Swimbait thats $49.99 and then saying Ohh I dont need it.

Once again, sorry about before. I still want to make some new friends if you are willing to give me 1 more shot at it.

The1fishingpro

I didn't bass fish 20 years ago but it has alot to do with the fact that catch and release weren't practiced as much then as now.

Because catch and release wasn't known back then. Hence the smarter and better genes have been passed through so the bass now are more wary and wont fall as easily for a bait.

I'm not old enough to talk about how fishing was even 20 years ago from personal experience, but I can only imagine how underdiscovered bass were in the NW back then. I bet there was such great fishing for bass, but then the NW bassing scene caught on and people started angling for bass, hence keeping some and killing some. I bet Lake Washington was just amazing for smallies back then.

Sam Kafelafish wrote:Because catch and release wasn't known back then. Hence the smarter and better genes have been passed through so the bass now are more wary and wont fall as easily for a bait.

I'm not old enough to talk about how fishing was even 20 years ago from personal experience, but I can only imagine how underdiscovered bass were in the NW back then. I bet there was such great fishing for bass, but then the NW bassing scene caught on and people started angling for bass, hence keeping some and killing some. I bet Lake Washington was just amazing for smallies back then.

Lake Washington was all Largemouth back then or atleast had 50/50. smallies have taken over most lakes now

The biggest changes in Northwest bass fishing in the last 20 years?
1. More people fishing for them now.
2. Alot more smallmouth now.
3. Very few lakes had slot limits.
4. No finesse fishing, except the Gitzit appeared around '87 or'88
5. Bass gear was harder to find locally
6. Some lakes are gone or are now unfishable as they have evolved into bogs, got drained, or filled in for development.

What hasn't changed?
1. A bass is a bass, they were no easier 20-25 years ago than today
2. Most bass fishermen were catch and release, just most people weren't
3. The game department's disdain for warmwater fish.
4. Where and how to catch them, most of what I do today is the same as back then, but I'm still learning some of the newer things. It's hard to get away from what your comfortable with.

If bass fishing was meant to be easy it would have gone the way of the heath hen.


THIS IS YOUR ONE MORE SHOT!

I think the biggest differance in bass fishing over the last 20 years is the focus. 20 years ago the focus was still on trout and salmon, because our population was mainly native Washingtonians. Eventhough we had bass they where an afterthought.

When I was a kid in the early 80's I distinctly remember a converstaion between my Dad and Grandpa after a trip to Curlew. My dad was telling grandpa that we had caught 25 fish over the 3 days and I caught a LMB too. My grandpa responsed to the report of a bass with "thats werid...anyway how big were the trout"

I never remember see any warmwater gear in local sporting stores, just a bunch a werid lures in Cabela's Catolog that the rest of country must catch fish on.

You saw very few bass boats in Eastern Washington, and when you did the first thought that crossed my mind was "that poor $&(#^* was transfered from Oklahoma by Boeing" I wonder how he's going to catch trout with a 250 Merc on back"

As trout regulations became more and more tight, and more people from other parts of the country came focus shifted to other species you could just fish for without the regulations in hand and a lawyer in the boat.

I love fishing for warmwater species now and jokingly referr to myslef as a "reformed trout snob." I think there a quite a few people like me who never realized we had such a resource in their back yard.

the problem, at least in this state, has always been the population increases, thus, more fisherman. also, we had no warmwater species projects statewide like they do now. the warmwater habitat project at potholes (which was a pilot project), has helped the fishing 10 fold in just the couple of years it has been going on there. i personally do not practice catch-n-release. i am a single dad, and save between $3000 and $5000 per year in groceries, by filling my freezer with fish & game. but, i volunteer for numerous enhancement projects, that are proven to help warmwater species in our state. danilet hit the nail on the head about the smallmouth. the state has lifted limits and restrictions at potholes to encourage catching and keeping the smallies. it has proven to help the largemouth fishery already in the short time it has been in effect. but by and by, the population increases has been the biggest profound effect. 20 years ago i would see 10-15 pick-up trucks at the boat launches at potholes & mardon resort, now you see the same 10-15 washington plaeted trucks, but also another 30-40 california/arizonia plated trucks, from people who have relocated here for our fine country. the only thing i can do about it though is volunteer for projects that help fisheries, because we cant make them go back!!!!!!

I will agree with most of whats been said but there are a few more reasons why we don't see the fish we used two.
1. We didn't have the information available to us that we have now.
2. We didn't have 80 mph boats that would cover 100 miles in a day.
3. We didn't have sonar.
4. We didn't have GPS.
5. We didn't have underwater cameras.
6. We didn't have topo maps.
7. We didn't have BPS or Cabela's.
8. We didn't have tournaments.
These are just a few things that come to mind.

Yellowbear, back in the 80's the only place I could find half my lures was BassProShops. I saw an ad for it on the Bassmasters TV show and ordered it. It was then a one store, 90% catalog outfit, everything was COD back then so you had to coordinate with UPS. But most guys didn't know about it back then.

While at Whidbey Island in the Navy we started a small bass club and held tournaments every month. But you are right, there were no fancy bass boats. A few bomber-style bass boats, a couple early Tracker boats, and the rest of us modified what we had. My livewell was a big cooler with a battery operated aerator that ran bubbles into the water. Filled it and dumped it by hand.

I had a Humminbird LCR 4000, state of the art for the time. And topos we made our own with a lake outline map and a bunch of marker bouys.

We did have the Color-C-Lector by Dr. Lauren Hill. Remember that one? I sold it on ebay for about $150, a $50 profit over what I paid for it in 1986.

It's cool looking back, ain't it?

Reading the posts was a blast from the past on Bass fishing in WA state 20+ years ago.

My brother and I started focusing on LM bass in the early 80's in North King and Snohomish Counties - as previously stated the only place you could get real bass gear was through a catalog. We stuck to live night crawlers, in line spinners, and rapala lures. We never kept any of the bass we caught - because we never heard of anyone eating them.

Lake Washington was our favorite lake (12 foot smoker craft with a 9 hp outboard) Kenmore Log Boom area, Moss Bay, and the Arboretum were our top spots. The only time we caught SM bass was when trout fishing in the streams /rivers of eastern WA.

We fished Lake Sammamish every once in a while for LM bass - even then you got the stink eye from the so called "locals" who did not want outsiders on their lake.

I left WA in 1988 and will be moving back in 18 months it will interesting how things have changed/progressed.

Dang, I forgot all about the Color-C-Lector, LOL.
I got started fishing for Bass a few years before you it seems.
when I got started I used Salmon hooks and Waterdogs or nightcrawlers.
My first 3 store bought baits were a Jitter bug, Hula popper and a Zara Spook.
Those were all the Bass baits the White elephant had, LOL.
Now days I look at my box and go numb from all the choices.

How long would you guys say Live bait such as used in Florida has been illegal in Washington?

the1fishingpro wrote:How long would you guys say Live bait such as used in Florida has been illegal in Washington?

You mean like gold shiners and bait fish? Try to look on google

Using live fish was illegal in Oregon and Washington way back to when I was a kid. Worms, crawdads, and salamanders were as close to livebait as you get. Live shiners? Go to Florida, it's a blast and those shiners are addictive.

Yellowbear, I still use Jitterbugs for nightfishing and sometimes around sunset. Never did much good with the Hula Popper even to this day. Thank God the Pop-R and its descendants came along. Do you remember the "Gorilla Killa"?

yellowbear, you are the first person in a long time, besides the wl.com'ers i took on the lower yak, to mention waterdogs. times do change, and my tackle box was actually 3 boxes, but ive narrowed it down to 2, and i take 1 with the gear i need for the lake im fishing. back in the 80's, living in othello, we would stop at aikens for our waterdogs, and hit the coast to coast hardware for salmon hooks, and whatever rapala's he had special ordered. my richland buddy is supposed to bring some waterdogs for the dock tourney. shooosh! do not tell ck14!HA!

Interesting thread, I think most people back in the 80s were trout fishing the lakes for stocked fish. Was the limit 10 or 12 back then? Even in the 90s people looked at you funny when you said you fish for bass. My best friend and his dad moved here from CA. in the 80s and all they did in Cali. was bass fish. They have been trout fishing since then and not once have they fished for bass. Now at most lakes people maybe 20 % or more are bass fishing. Back in the 80s bass were also a bad species according to the fish and wildlife.

Jo wrote:Interesting thread, I think most people back in the 80s were trout fishing the lakes for stocked fish. Was the limit 10 or 12 back then? Even in the 90s people looked at you funny when you said you fish for bass. My best friend and his dad moved here from CA. in the 80s and all they did in Cali. was bass fish. They have been trout fishing since then and not once have they fished for bass. Now at most lakes people maybe 20 % or more are bass fishing. Back in the 80s bass were also a bad species according to the fish and wildlife.

Believe it or not, we only had a 5 bass limit in the 80's. We thought it was too restrictive because the big bass tournaments in the South were still doing 7-fish limits. But then again that was before the slot rules.

Cavdad, are you hitting Lacamas Early tomorrow with boat? Im gonna hit the shore around 7. Maybe we will have the pleasure of meeting again haha.

the1fishingpro wrote:Cavdad, are you hitting Lacamas Early tomorrow with boat? Im gonna hit the shore around 7. Maybe we will have the pleasure of meeting again haha.

Too much to do.

Hit Lacamas Lake this morning about 8 and Got soaked to the bone. I havent seen it rain so hard in years. It was wave after wave of showers, but it takes a lot to make me leave the lake. Went with my 2 buddies, Lyndon and Fisherman_max. Had some great times and even had the experience of watching all 3 of us slip and fall right on our tushes haha. Even got to meet Fishing the Northwest at Lacamas. He was very nice and showed us all his pictures of many lakes that he holds fishing trips expeditions on. Someday I'll look back at days like today and think, those were the good old days.