Per my last report, I got up early on Saturday, and headed to I82 Pond #6. This time with my wet suit, mask, flippers, goggles, and the intent to recover my St. Croix rod + Shimano Stradic reel that went overboard in 14' of water in Pond #6. I spent about an hour screwing around, free diving in the area I lost the outfit (much to the amusement of the bank fisherman, no doubt). But it was tough - visibility in that lake is almost nil below 8-10', and the dense milfoil beds made it impossible to see anything.

I finally went back to my truck, got out my 30 year old rod and reel (worth about the the value of the outfit I was trying to recover, less the value of the outfit I was trying to recover), and headed back out to the island. I tied on a Point Wilson Dart (a killer lure for saltwater off the NW coast, BTW), and started casting far out, letting it sink to the bottom, then dragging it back in hopes of snagging the lost fishing pole. And I'm still completely stunned, that if during the first retrieve, I felt a big drag, and pulled in my fishing pole. Man, what a great day. I've added one star to my report, just because I got my ~$250 fishing rig back!! :)

**Then**, I pushed my luck. I went to apologize to a bank fisherman near to where I'd been going in and out, for disrupting his fishing. He was fishing for channel cats, and had only had a couple of bites, but then showed me a nice stringer of bluegill that his family had caught. Nothing large, but enough that he had a nice meal coming that evening.

I left and went to Toppenish to rehydrate (it was viciously hot Saturday), and even an hour of diving had severely dehydrated me. I got to thinking "wow, I sure wouldn't mind a nice dinner of bluegill, and I've got my newly recovered rod, my license, my pontoon boat, and nothing but a 50+mile drive back to Tri-Cities awaiting me - might as well!! So I went back.

Bad mistake. There were definitely bluegill in the shallows, probably near spawning time. But they were much easier to attack from the bank - cast bobber and bait out deep, then pull it in to the 4-6' of water they were hovering in. In a boat, it was cast it into the 2-3'' of water, spooking the piss out of the fish in 4-6', and wrecking the whole show. I should have stowed the pontoon boat in the truck, and just fished from shore.

Worse, I really did work hard on the lake. I systematically worked over the various areas. The island, unlike the day before, was just **swarming** with 3-4" perch (spawning??). You simply could not fish it, because they were pecking at jigs, bait, bare hooks, anything. With polarized sunglasses, you could see huge schools attacking any lure or bait. I tried going deeper, further out, etc, but could not find anything. With my admittedly crappy fish finder, I saw suspended signals in the 30-35' of water (12' down, that I suspected were crappie), but couldn't buy a bite. Tons of bass cruising ~5' down, more than a few with meal-sized bluegills within easy striking distance - they didn't seem interested.

Most alarming was my chatting with the fisherman there. Almost every one was targeting bass or catfish, with almost nobody going after bluegill/perch/crappie. This is disturbing, given the incredible numbers of perch I saw in the lake - are we heading towards a lake with over-abundant, prolific underfished prey species, and underfished, under-abundant prey species?? This is a bad sign, in my opinion. The WDFW ought to think about stocking more channel catfish, walleyes, or other high level predator species.

Finally, I'm just stunned at how guys like fishingChristian or Jiggy can work that water and find decent sized perch or (any) crappie. And those guys are amazing - they really know how to attack a structure-less 35' bowl and nail fish. I've tried just about everything I can think of, and I simply am out of ideas. I've tried fishing suspended signals on my electronics, edges and holes in weedbeds, jigs/lures/bait/baited jigs, trolled worm harnesses, plus every combination thereof. And I'm more than seriously considering abandoning my attempts on the I-82 ponds until late summer, when the bluegill fishery has really gotten rolling.

OK, enuff blathering on my part....

fishinChristian

5/13/2013 8:28:00 AM

Congrats on the rod retrieval, and we have days like that, too!

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