Northwest Fishing Reports

We hit the lakes hard this weekend and the fishing was top notch. We caught fish in all stages of the spawn. Spotted lots of fish on beds and caught good numbers of fish that had already spawned. Tons of fish are still staging as well. To say the fishing was great would be a huge understatement. Potholes was hot and some of the Seeps were even hotter!! I lost track of how many fish we boated but it must have been 40+ for the whole weekend with not one under 2lbs. Brush and grass next to basalt was key with the morning air temps starting out at 35 degrees. Water temps were from 54 to maybe 59. The hot bait again was a 6" Hudd in the largemouth pattern. Hooked 2 on 8" Hudds too. Running them right along the brush drew savage strikes with the bass trying to rip the rod from your hand. In the late afternoon the fish moved back into the brush and grass so we pitched Sweet Beavers, lizards, etc to them. We had several doubles doing that.

On Sunday one of my buddies says "let's try buzzbaits on them this morning". I said "man....the water needs to warm about 3 degrees for all that". He went ahead and tied one on and hooked a 3lber on his third cast working it just below the surface and letting it tick the tops of the weeds. He must have caught about 3 that way before I went ahead and tied one up as well lol. We nailed them hard that morning on buzzbaits worked over grass and basalt. They would not come to the surface for them but if worked just under the surface (causing a wake) they would come up and just nail it. We fished at night for cats as well and caught and released over 30 of them. Caught some really nice trout as well[biggrin]. Great trip. Get over there now!!!!

Well done! Nice complement to your report on the reports page.

Congrats!! Thats a GREAT weekend of fishing.

so jealous

Very awesome. Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

GOOD WORK SLABKING !!

Nice job!

Me and Y2Says will be there this coming weekend. The weather is looking great.

sommysom wrote:Nice job!

Me and Y2Says will be there this coming weekend. The weather is looking great.

SWEET...I'll be around too...for the wally gators!

Awesome job Slab King!! I'll be out there for a couple of days before the WSBF Jamboree on Banks Memorial Day Weekend. I have open seats both days. Looking forward to some awesome fishing!!!

What was the largest fish you caught on the hudd?

I will be out there all weekend nice job man

I might be out there this weekend also.

mav186 wrote:

sommysom wrote:Nice job!

Me and Y2Says will be there this coming weekend. The weather is looking great.

SWEET...I'll be around too...for the wally gators!

You guys are all going to have a heck of a time out there. The weather should be spot on. Goodluck.

From what I was seeing, the walleye are stacking up in the Coulee pretty good. Spoke to some guys that did good way up Crab Creek and had a solid 10lber on board. They are pulling a huge amount of water through there right now. The fish we seen caught in the Coulee seemed to average 16-18".

Nick_Barr wrote:
What was the largest fish you caught on the hudd?

The largest on the hudd went about 4lbs. I have yet to stick a huge pig on one but have been using them more and more so my confindence in them is getting pretty high. I hope to keep working with them and see what happens. So far the 6" ROF 5's have been good to me. I need to get a stronger rod to toss the 8's with more confindence. Next weekend we're going to hit Lake Sammamish with 6" ROF 12's for smallies and see what happens. Goodluck out there this weekend. It should be lights out on the big mamas. With all those hard core guys out there I'm sure the tourney weights will be huge!

nice fish Slab!!!!!!:cheers:

thanks for the pics man, I gotta get over there.

Nice fish.

We tried back in the dunes and up the crab creek area all day Sunday and seen one that went 3-4lbs. No bites at all! Tried flipping jigs, plastics, spinnerbaits, and cranks. Tried fishing shallow up to about 12ft of water. Didn't see a single bed. Never fished the lake before so I doubt we were in the right spots. Will be trying down by the dam and such next time and maybe in the seep lakes. Thanks for the report.

Im there Memorial Day Weekend for sure! Been going to Potholes for Memorial day like 15 yrs straight. Hope weather is good.

This time of year you want to start at the front of the dunes, then work your way back. Depending on just what the water temps are, say still in the 50s. Start on points of the dunes, look for walls of darker brush that look like a flat wall, also flats behind some of the outer dunes that are covered in short bushes. Later this month and thru July the trees and willows in the back will also be good. They can be just about anywhere if the temps are in the mid to high 60s.

Any of you guys do any good from the bank? I have been planning a one night camping trip over there for this coming weekend for some time. I am more familiar with Moses from the bank as opposed to Potholes and the seeps.

Fishing from the bank at Mardon can be real good. Same from their docks. Or walk along the dam a bit. Or on the other end of the dam where that boat launch is. Or on the point where the public launch is. Or the state park.