Northwest Fishing Reports

HELP! Can anyone help me get a bite inthese cold winter months. I fish lake wash. lake samm. on a regular basis . This is the first winter ive hit them pretty hard and have had no luck im findin the fish just cant get a bite please help.

NITROMAN wrote: HELP! Can anyone help me get a bite inthese cold winter months. I fish lake wash. lake samm. on a regular basis . This is the first winter ive hit them pretty hard and have had no luck im findin the fish just cant get a bite please help.

A fish finder is a necessity in the winter. Water temperature is not the only factor -- oxygen content is also very important and there's no way to easily measure it. Once you locate the fish, they will be lethargic and finicky. Drop shots and tubes are probably your best bets, and you've got to fish them slooow.

what depth are you fishing? it takes time on a lake to locate them during the winter. Go out and just drive around for a few weeks without even fishing..see what you can find.

I do have good fish finder and have found fish its the baits and presentation im having aproblem with

In the winter months it is still very possible to taget warm water species. They eat about the same they would durring the warmer months but in diffrent ways. Instaed of eating 100 minnows durrring a weeks feeding they might only eat 1 or 2 bigger meals. Just because they dont have the energy to chase the bait they normally would durring the summer. Up grade your bait size and fish it WAY slower. Sorry I couldnt be of more help.

I am not sure I completely agree with gpc in this case, but let me explain.

I have caught a lot of bass through the ice while fishing for perch, walleye, and trout. Most of the time, they hit a vertical jig that bounces off their nose. My favorite is a horse head jig with lots of flash, tipped with a touch of bait.

I have caught bass during the winter by jigging in open water with jigging spoons and blade baits, but you again must bounce it off their noses.

And to be honest with you, I find that smaller baits are better. Yes, they can be caught with other ways, I even found a place where I could catch them with a black streamer fly and a sinking fly line, but I think that this was pretty much a fluke. I have only found two places were I could do this.

Look for cover, large rock piles or sunken trees. Weed beds that are still in pretty good shape can produce at times, but let me tell you one thing for sure, it will be tough, very tough.

One more thing, I have never caught a small mouth bass during the winter.

SLOW is the word. Anglinarcher is correct. I've found that with cold water bass you literally have to stick your presentation within a foot or so of the fishes mouth....Hitting their head doesn't hurt either....

Good luck, hopefully you'll get into some bass....

My suggestion for those ol' letharic lunkers during the winter is to leave them be and relax by the fireplace. Wait until those first warm days in March as the water temperature starts to rise --usually after about 3 days of warmer weather. Of course, this is old age talking. I used to try for them all winter too -- but usually had little success. Good luck, BJ

You all made this thread so interesting that as soon as I can catch 1 more steelie im gonna hit Lk Wa for bass.I live in the Seward Park area.They store all the swimming rafts for the entire lake in Andrews Bay.There have got to be bass in there.I hope someone tries in there and reports back if there are some there.It is shallow there .Only about 20 feet at most.Is that too shallow for winter bass?

The float n fly works pretty good for Smallmouth this time of year or a Marabou jig and Pork.
For the Largemouth, I like to use the big flippin Jigs and a split tail eel.
I find that real Pork works better in cold water. Plastics tend to get stiff.
Fish them so slow that it hurts.
The strike zone will be what ever they can suck in with out moving there body.
Good luck and stay warm.

I have heard/read that slowly trolling a plug off the bottom wth something like a spreader can be very effective down 40 ft or so. Has anyone tried this method in the winter?

If you want to catch bass in Lake WA at this time, hang out with DT. Although I didn't catch anything, I learned a ton. Never fished that deep in my short fishing life. Had we had maybe another 30-40 minutes, I think we would have gotten in more fish.

Winter bassin' is tough, but the big mamas can be had. Good luck.

Mike Carey wrote:I have heard/read that slowly trolling a plug off the bottom wth something like a spreader can be very effective down 40 ft or so. Has anyone tried this method in the winter?

I would have done something very similar if I had more time earlier this week. I would have tried dragging a Carolina rigged shallow diving crankbait. I bet your recommendation is a good one.

3 way swivel with crankbait and weight for trolling!

bpm2000 wrote:3 way swivel with crankbait and weight for trolling!

The rapala husky jerk is perfect for a 3-way rig (1 oz sinker). It has nuetral boyancy and won't float up during long pauses. I've never tried it in the winter, but it works well on smallmouth during the summer when they are deep and inactive. When they are deep and active, a wally diver kicks butt.

yea i do like suspenders, but the husky jerk actually is the only one ive bought that was defective.. floats up every time. maybe i got a bad one?

when leachim dahc and i were out on LW he caught a smallmouth on a swedish pimple, drifting. and it was cold out, in 50-60' of water. SLOW is th ekey this time of year. also, did you see the pig danielt caught on that thread. it is possible!!

bpm2000 wrote:yea i do like suspenders, but the husky jerk actually is the only one ive bought that was defective.. floats up every time. maybe i got a bad one?

It may have something to do with water pressure. The husky jerks I've used float up very slowly in shallow water. I think that's normal. I've never seen a nuetrally boyant lure suspend perfectly for an indefinite amount of time.

michaelunbewust wrote:when leachim dahc and i were out on LW he caught a smallmouth on a swedish pimple, drifting. and it was cold out, in 50-60' of water. SLOW is th ekey this time of year. also, did you see the pig danielt caught on that thread. it is possible!!

its definately possible. alot of lake washington regulars fish all winter for smallies

HillbillyGeek wrote:

bpm2000 wrote:yea i do like suspenders, but the husky jerk actually is the only one ive bought that was defective.. floats up every time. maybe i got a bad one?

It may have something to do with water pressure. The husky jerks I've used float up very slowly in shallow water. I think that's normal. I've never seen a nuetrally boyant lure suspend perfectly for an indefinite amount of time.

agreed, but it wouldnt even sit horizontal - nose up rather. and came up pretty fast. I normally fish pointers and slender pointers if I jerkbait and theyve never let me down yet.