Northwest Fishing Reports

BassinBomber wrote:I also love Bassin during the week when hardly anyone is on the water,..always nice 2 have the Lake 2 yourself,..and getting there before anyone else does always seems 2 work for me,..1st one in the water and first 2 park the rig!

TGL-BB

BassinBomber wrote:Call me different but I seem 2 do my best on "Bluebird-Days",..I love it when I can wear a Tank-Top and some Shorts, and Slippers..seems 2 put me in the best of moods and that helps towards my attitude while I'm Bassin,..this year so far I've caught all most ALL of my Bass on "Blue-Bird-Days"!

TGL-BB

noclothes1 wrote:A little wind is nice. It tends to concentrate baitfish plus it makes putting on a spinner bait an easy decision. I also try to fish the prime times on the lunar chart. It may be a bit on the side of voodoo for some but at the very least you have a reason for confidence and an excuse if you get skunked.

BassDood wrote:I've found on some lakes in my area, bright and sunny are the key. My favorite tho is crappy weather. Clouds, wind, bring it on. Almost all my big fish come from these conditions. Plus...it keeps people off the water....except for us hardcore guys :thumleft: I'll fish in all of it.

Anglinarcher wrote: There is no bad time to go Bass fishing. I agree with all the hard core fishermen so far, the early morning bite, the late evening bite, wind, rain, clouds, whatever, bring it on.

I believe that if you are going to do well all of the time you need to be versatile. For example, if it is going to be a blue bird day, I will plan on being the first on the water and working top water or at least shallow water early. There are a lot of hogs out there then, and they will lay up as the sun rises high. Later in the day I will be forced to fish deeper if I want to do well, so drop shot will become important. Of course fishing the late bite that day is also good, if it is a week day and the boating pressure has been low. During the dog days of summer, fishing at night provides all of the advantages of clouds, all the advantages of no boat traffic, and often the biggest pigs.

On the other hand, if it is going to be a windy and rainy day, I might stay in bed a little longer, because I know the bite will be on all day. Sure, it is harder to fish those days, but the Bass love those conditions. Wind does indeed concentrate bait, and it provides overhead cover to the fish.

My general rule is ignore tides. Face it, Bass live in lakes and rivers, not oceans. On no lake do you have a tide effect that raises the water more then a fraction of an inch. Tide charts should be left for the Ocean where you do get the effect. Of course, if you are talking fishing river mouths entering the ocean, consider this the same as ocean fishing.

My next rule is ignore Lunar Tables. This is nothing more then tide charts. Almost all Lunar Tables give you your best hours based on tidal minimums and maximums. Again, it means nothing. Additionally, the Lunar Tables also predict best and worst days relative to full or new moons. I have seen studies over my 50 years that try to tie these together and for fresh water it doesn't hold water (pun intended). The best study I saw showed only a statistically insignificant increase in fish size or quantity in fresh water relative to fishing around the new or full moons. I know the old rule is that the best fishing is 3 days before and after the full moon and 2 days before and after the new moon, but my experience, and the studies I saw, just don't support this.

Still, I have noticed trends. Early or late in the season, when the fish are adjusting to marginal conditions, stable weather is more important then bad or good weather. I prefer 3 days of the same conditions before I fish - 3 bad weather days or 3 blue bird days. During the summer days, I prefer to hit the change day from the bluebird to the bad weather day. Still, I don't like the change day from bad weather (cold front) to bluebird day - the fish seem very shy.

Given a choice, I would prefer to just fish, I really don't care all that much about the conditions. I have caught a lot of pigs in all conditions, but you can't learn to fish tough conditions if you don't start to fish outside of the proverbial box.