Northwest Fishing Reports

My buddy Dave and I are headed to eastern wa the weekend after memorial weekend for obvious reasons. We did it last year and had some success with lg mouths and sm mouths. We will be hitting stan coffin, evergreen, and billy clapp. I have a couple of questions. Will most large mouths be in spawn mode or post spawn mode? We also have a day or two to try different lakes, any suggestions? I know banks and potholes can be good but we have never fished either, and as big as they are, I wouldn't know where to start. Any other smaller lakes that have good populations of bass? Anyone tried shinner-hutchinson? Any info would be great. Pms welcomed. Thanks

Ryan

Team C&R

i cant belive somebody said they wanted too fish billy clapp lake i thought that lake was all mine and the people who lived on it , i belive i seen u out there on may 28 last year, what a lake i was there late april this year the water temp was in the high 40s still got in to the smallies not many but there about due right about now , still havent seen lrg out there yet .

Yeah, I really love that res. Underrated, I suppose it cause banks and potholes are so close. Might have seen you out there, we were in a white chevy with a bass tracker.

Ryan

Team C&R

yup defintly you, i was in the white expedition with the old blue and white fiberform, u said it best under rated by far but let em go to the pot holes ill stick to this dimond in the rough, yea i belive i shot a couple of hot spots your way that day.:P great fishin

Small world, thanks for the tips last year, Try the spot I pm'd ya , Single tail grubs and jerk baits.

Ryan

Team C&R

great times see you out there some time soon.

You may want to try Soda,Long or upper goose lakes.
They are in the seeps south of Potholes.

kartman253 wrote: i cant belive somebody said they wanted too fish billy clapp lake i thought that lake was all mine and the people who lived on it , i belive i seen u out there on may 28 last year, what a lake i was there late april this year the water temp was in the high 40s still got in to the smallies not many but there about due right about now , still havent seen lrg out there yet .

I heard that billy clap res. is also called lake unpredictable. Iv never fished it, but I heard you can knock em dead then the next day you do the exact same thing for no fish. Is this true? But you guys are right the reason why its underfished is simply because of the location. I hate it when this happens it gets all the biologist thinking its the lakes fault and dont take into consideration the surronding lakes. Then in most cases they end up killing the lake off to "improve" the fishery, kind of like whats going on at Sprague right now. I dont think this has happened to billy clap has it? Ive always wanted to fish it I love walleye and I heard this lake has some nice ones. Any info would be very appreciated

well that is true the lake is hott one day and then it will be dead the next but thats fishing, i just love the lake i never talked about it because i really thought nobody fished the lake or cared about it i started fishing it 4 years ago and since i started i just cant stop evrey year me and some buddys stay in town and fish the lake around the clock the more time on the water the happier i am.

I understand what your saying. Hows the camping on or around the lake and what about the panfish any nice crappie?

well theres no camping at the lake but in town there hotels and rv campsites like oassis campground or stars and stripes camp ground not sure about the slabs but theres alot of pearch

I've fished Billy Clapp a few times.. beautiful lake.....watch the weather though... it can kick up.. not a wild, dangerous kind of wind like at potholes or sprague or rock, but it will be uncomfortable and make boat positioning difficult....



Shiner and Hutchinson should be just starting to join the 'active fish in the lake" crowd the first week in June.... There are some nice fish in these two lakes.... If you don't have a boat, you might want to walk into the Coyote and Bobcat creek ponds upstream of Shiner.... I've seen some huge bass finning around in these ponds but have never been able to get them to hit anything.... it's about a mile walk from the parking area to be best of these ponds....probably want to avoid Sprague.. seems it's filled with those awful walleye and they gonna rotenone it this fall......

another good bass lake that I've never fished (went there once.. was ready to rock and roll but the wind was blowing about 40 mph from the sw and the water was not looking inviting) is Coffee Pot... it's kind of north and west of sprague......


Roosevelt is supposed to have some nice bass but that's another one I haven't had a chance to work yet either...

stay away from wanapum reservoir.. you will read reports here and there of smallmouth in this reservoir, but it's loaded with squawfish (oh.. I'm sorry.. I guess they're supposed to be called Northern Pike Minnows now)...


and if you want to 'go for the gusto' and not only catch bass but pop them in the cooler and cook them up for dinner when you get back to camp you may want to look at chopaka up in okanogan county.. it's a fly fishing only trout lake that some brain dead bucket biologist has turned into a mess that will have to be rotenoned soon...... according to reports I've read (I haven't fished this one for a couple of decades) there's a bunch of largemouth in there now and you are encouraged to catch and kill as many as you wish.. caveat here is you will need to use fly fishing gear....


personally though, I think you've already picked the best bass lake in the state.. If I were going to head east for a weekend of bass fishing I would spend most of my time at stan coffin...... only catch and release largemouth lake in the state (as far as I can tell) and I have many fond memories of my time there.... further, if I were to pick a weekend, any weekend in the year, to fish it, that weekend would be the first one in June....... I know it's a small lake, but don't be afraid to use the largest plastics in your worm box here..... there are some really big bass in stan coffin....

Hey kartman is that smallie in your avatar from the clapp.

ryan

yea it is, she put up a fight to, how about your lrg mouth where did u plunk him from?

Big Lake last august

heading to chelan for the weekend , big family thing ,how about u?

Staying in town, should hit stevens or goodwin.