Back in the day, Grant County's Ancient lakes was the place to go to for big bull bluegill. Not any more or at least it seems. Pacbassman, Mighty Myster and I made the mile plus trek in there Saturday morning to find the lakes at nearly full pool, but from the get go we had problems. Pacbass's floatube needed a new inner tube, so we missed the early morning luner tables bite time prediction. On the way in there had to of been at least a dozen small bluegill littering the trail, lost by fishermen intent on keeping undersize "dinks". And it was a "Dinkfest" on the water as well. My first bass was around a pound but every other fish we caught was way under the size from the fish I'm used to catching there. My digital camera memory card was full so I didn't get any pictures of the panoramic scenery for this report. I have never seen as many people out there as I did saturday morning. Every angler we passed coming out had plastic bags filled with 4 to 5 inch bluegill... Thus is the pitfall of having our remote treasures like Ancient lakes being featured in a prominant national hiking Magazine. The more exposure, the more fishing pressure, trash and the like. Hopefully this lake recovers to it's former glory. Till then, I will continue to pursue jumbo panfish closer to home. Jiggy

FlyBassFisherman253

5/13/2012 4:36:00 PM

Dude , well written report . I completely forgot about bluegill fishing . I guess it's because I haven't caught one in about a year lol . Any good bluegill places closer to peirce county ?

The Jigmiester

5/13/2012 4:54:00 PM

Flybass. Most of the good bluegill ponds in your area are on private lands, so truely good bluegill fishing over there is a hard find. In my area, the I 82 ponds have good numbers, but big fish are rare. The Basin has the best bluegill fishing for truely large bulls, but the WDFW has a habit of rehabing the best bluegill lakes for trout fishing. The best big bluegill fishing for me occurs in the summer in the Winchester Wasteway ponds outside of Moses Lake. Man, there are some big gills to be had in there! Jiggy

pacbassman

5/13/2012 7:41:00 PM

Brother we did struggle to find the "trophy" size gills but it was still a good trip. Great to finally meet the infamous Myster! Until next my friends, tight lines and take a kid when you can!
pac

Rocky

5/13/2012 7:50:00 PM

Jiggy did you ever fish kahlotus lake it use to have monster bluegills in it but now it's dry so sad.

The Jigmiester

5/14/2012 2:03:00 AM

Kahlotus was an awesome Bluegill fishery bro! Some of my biggest gillz ever came from there back in the day. I can't figure out why the Army Corps of Engineers let that awesome lake go dry...like so many great panfish lakes like Katy lake in the Basin; killed off for no explainable reason, rehabbed like Magpie lake, (which is shallow and totally unsuited for trout.) Someday bro...who knows?

SportRadical

5/14/2012 8:54:00 AM

I'm sorry to hear that, I was looking forward to getting back there later this month. Now I wont waste my time on ancient, thanks for the report. The problem with westside blue gill fishing is I rarely see an actual bluegill, they are almost always red ears which dont get so big. Do you think maybe acient hasn't had enough fishing pressure in the past which might have led to over population and stunted fish size?

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