Duck Lake - grays harbor

[quickfish12]

I just wanted to know how the lake is doing bass wise this year. I grew up fishing this lake however last year I fished it andthere was a serious weedkill and the bass were VERY sparse. I used to do really well there and know the water really well. I just want to know if anyone other that trout fisherman have had any success recently. Thanks in advance.

[midnghtshdow]

Well we just had a tourney there about 3 weeks ago and it sucked. A total of 12 fish caught and the biggest was 2.47 lbs. One team caugh 4 using a 1-3 foot crawdad colored crank fishing the banks and the islands and doing multiple passes. We are never going back! The people were rude and the fishing has been killed by the weedlessness.

[quickfish12]

This used to be one of most productive lakes in the west. It's sad to see it in this state. I had talked to someone who still lives in the area and was told they are trying to make it a destination trout lake. It was awesome bass fishing before the weedkill. I really wish they would have thought this through more thoroughly before killing everything including native lily pads. Hmmm. I see a depressing weekend ahead. LOL

[gpc]

I haven't fished the actual lake but a buddy of mine has a house on the canal. I fished it in '07 and there was TONS of fish. We caught over 100 crappie and probably 20 14" perch. Amongst the pan fish was also a good number of bass. I am an amiture bass fishermen at best, but we actually specifically targeted bass and caught bass. Not just catch bass on accident lol.

I didn't get to fish it last year but I just fished about a month ago and it sucked. I started out targeting crappie/perch nothing. Switched to bass, nothing. Ended up soaking powerbait and drinking beer and caught a 5" perch. Tipped a jig with some perch meat and still got skunked. But in all fairness I did only fish for about 3 hours. Half the time was spent battling the wind in the boat and the other half the time was spent fishing off a dock drinking beer.

[BassDood]

Sad to hear it's gone to hell now. I loved this lake as I always did well there for bass. Either in the main lake or canals. Nothing huge, but a lot of 1-3 lb fish and a couple pushing 5. Bummer!

[midnghtshdow]

Ya, we had this place set as out jack and jill, cause it used to be really good anyone could catch one. But like i said it is no good now. One team did good tho with the crawdad crank i talked of. I think they caught like 9 fish. We had a nice one on that was gaurding it fry in the very back of the first channel coming off the main channel on the right all the way at the back and it broke off. And we seen it the next day still with its fry and it had a new lip ring :D

[quickfish12]

I know that it has been awhile since my original post. Our two day tournament was a serious bust. Two days worth of fishing with 9 boats with 2 anglers the first day and 5 boats with 2 anglers the second day only 8 total bass were caught. The lower lake and canals has a algae bloom the likes of which I have never seen. I managed one fish and it was 2.36lbs. Our club has been in touch with the WDFW and i feel that all anglers that care about this lake should do the same. It seems that the massive weedkill has basically made this lake a very harsh lake for any species of fish to live in. It not only killed invasive plants it also killed lily pads and non invasives. The grass carp released to help combat the weeds are eating the roots of shore plants and in more that one spot I saw chunks of floating shoreline reeds that they had loosened floating around in the lake. So any shorline cover will be devoured by the starving grass carp. This is distressing as seeing this is my home lake and I grew up catching bass out of it's waters. As it stands it could easily take years to reverse what has been done. We as anglers need to use our voice to keep the wheels turning to restore this once great bass lake.