Northwest Fishing Reports

A good day for me is a day that I can catch a few of anything. I seem to get bored if I can only get one or two species to bite. When I find the Bass I want the Walleye. If I pick up a Trout or two, I think the Whitefish might be on. If I am looking for pan fish and I get a Carp, its most often the best fight of the day. A 20 lb fish on a ultra lite will test ya LOL.

My question is, Do you target one species or multi species in a day?

If you target multi species, what do you use as a search bait?

I use a 1/16th to 1/4 oz jig heads.
1/2 to 3 inch tubes and curly tails.

I seem to catch just about every thing in the lake.

Trout.
White fish.
Bass LM and SM.
Walleyes.
Bluegill.
Perch.
Crappie.
Cats.
Carp.
Burbot.

I fish Potholes and Soda mostly.

In the midwest some of my best fishing days were on lakes where you would catch Pike, Walleye, Smallmouth, Bluegills, Crappie ane Perch all in the same area on leaches and slip bobbers. That is tough to beat.

At local lakes I seem to find Perch and Crappie in the same area. Trout seem to be everywhere, they are like Visa, everywhere I want to be.

But when we go to Banks we usually only target Walleye and that is just fine. Although when a smallmouth bends your rod that gets the juices flowing. But we generally have a boat rule that 3 smallies and you owe a saque to everyone else in the boat. Also, picking up a perch every now and then is kind of nice because I think they taste every bit as good as a walleye or crappie.

Whitefish and Carp I cant say that I want to catch ever. I did catch a 6lb carp at Banks last year and that was more annoying than anything.

Good fishing.

Joe

If I really want to make it a multi-species day (which i rarely go out these days with that intent) I reach for the tiny crappie tubes in orange/green. Trout, bass, crappie, gills, pumpkinseed, rock bass, squawfish, perch... - they all eat it up!
I haven't caught a catfish on one yet though...

I'm in the same boat as bpm2000. I rarely go out targeting more than one species per day. When I do, I usually bring at least two rods. One with some type of in-line spinner (Blue Fox, Rooster Tail) and the other with a crappie tube/trout magnet type lure. Those two lures will catch about anything that swims.

Glass Shad rap cranks....


Gets almost every species, even the perch hitting a lure 60% of their size!

E

Have never used the glass shad raps. They work better than a normal Shad rap or just cost more? Seriously interested to here you point of view on this. I see them but I have never bought one.

i always have a big selection of stuff to throw at what ever is swimm'n where i'm fish'n. i usually target panfish but where there's panfish there are other fish such as bass, carp, suckers, and the occasionally muskie to name a few. panther martin spinners for trout, jigs for panfish, and spinner baits for bass, i do get muskie to follow on evergreen but its seem they just stop a few feet from shore wondering were the boat is.

Fishing the glass lures with the holographic strip on the inside next to a painted lure, you probably see a 10%-15% increase in strikes on that particular day. Still have to get the pattern right for what the fish want. I looked closely at a smallie's head one day, and noticed all the reflective colors on it. Its like they are metalflake fish. After that Im sold on reflective, holographic type lures.

E

For me, I guess it depends on where I'm going. Some lakes, all I do is multi-species fish, but then again, I can't seem to avoid it in those lakes either.....not that I'd want to! On some days I'd hit six different species in a day, crappie, sunfish, perch, trout, bass and one lonely catfish. There are a few lakes, especially during the winter months where I might only target one or two species just due to the temperature and what not. But most of the time, they're all fair game, that is unless I'm hankerin for some fresh Crappie and then this time of year with no fish finder....well; it's just pure stubborness that brings me to them. Takin a buddy out tomorrow, but we're going for trout as he really enjoys them; hopefully we can get him something. He's not really the "fish in any weather" kinda guy; he thinks me to be nuts sitting out there in the rain, snow and cold, but whatever, I am content out there, fish or not.

I usually go out prepared for multi-species (bass, bullhead/catfish, perch, bluegill/pumpkinseed/sunfish.) Depending on how well I'm doing with the bass I will switch over to another species.

Old habits die hard, so fresh nightcrawlers are always on hand. As far as search bait goes... I'm still trying to successfully find the right patterns for different lures. That is one of the great parts about fishing, I am always learning something new!

I usually go out for 1 species...I stay confident when I'm out there and don't give up even if what I'm fishing for isn't producing...Most of my fishing is for salmon/trout and since I have atleast one tacklebox for each specie/type of fishing, I don't like to have to bring a bunch of extra boxes and have em clutter up the boat and be one more thing to worry about....

I usually target only one species and bring gear specifically for that species, but I do carry a few general purpose lures along just in case I strike out or get an urge to target something else. Generally 95% of the time I target one particular type of fish.

Very rarely when I go out do I only bring tackle fro only 1 species. I get really board catching fish after fish of the same species. When I leave for the weekend I bring all my tackle boxes about 15 poles and then 3 boxes full of freezer bags with random stuff in each one. Potholes is also my favorite place to swich it up, if you try hard enough/know enough about the lake you can probally catch 50 a day of those species listed above. Is there burbot in soda/potholes???

gpc, there sure are.

i target one species of fish 99% of the time there are specific ways to target each kind of fish and thats way to much gear to bring

YellowBear wrote: gpc, there sure are.

Thats crazy, I never knew that. I knew about the white fish in there but never actually caught one, but still saw a few pictures. From what I understand burbot are more of a winter species, correct? I havent fished too much around that area in the winter time, but I know I am missing out. What do you use to catch the burbot?

gpc, most have been hitting a white jig with a bit of crawler but we have also caught a few on a jigging spoon and crawler.

My favorite lure for multi-species is a 2" power grub with an 1/8th ounce jighead. Favorite colors are pumpkinseed/orange, pumpkinseed/green, and all pumpkinseed.
I've caught largemouth, smallmouth, crappie, perch, sunfish, walleye, and some nice rainbow trout on these lures. I love going to lakes with 5 or more species and being surprised with what I catch.