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American Lake Info

I'm heading out to American Lake this weekend, and was wondering how shallow anyone has been able to find both the smallmouths and largemouths so far?

I'm hoping some of the bass have started moving into jerkbait and crankbait range. Anyone been out or heard anything yet?

ciao,
Marc

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lloyd on April 2, 2009 at 5:56pm

Marc,

I was fishing from the ramp on american just this morning. I figure i can cast out into 15-20 ft deep water. With that being said....i didnt catch a thing. Usually i will pick up a couple smallies no problem so that tells me that they are still out pretty deep. Hope this helps. Good luck and maybe i will see you out there.

Lloyd

Permalink Reply by Willie Parsons on April 2, 2009 at 6:32pm

Marc, the water temp at the transducer was between 42 and 47 throughout the day last Sunday. Obviously there has been crap weather all week and it probably hasn't got any better. The coldest it got this year was around 40. So far this year the only success I have had is being at the right place at the right time to intercept the cruising fish along the shoreline. I know of a couple guys that were dragging and did ok a couple weeks ago in about 20-25 feet. I have not landed anything under 3 pounds but it has been slow.
I heard that there was some success deep cranking largemouth over grass two weeks ago.
It seemed we were on a warming trend then and it has slipped back a few degrees since. I have not been able to locate any sizable groups of fish anywhere on the lake since last fall and haven't had the same success that I had last year at this time.
Most of the fish caught last weekend at our club tournament came on crankbaits and were under 2.5 lbs for the most part.
Hope this helps and I would love to hear how it went for you.

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on April 2, 2009 at 7:14pm

Thanks for the info...it is nice to hear there are some bass within crankbait range. That gives me some hope. My mission is to try out some new swimbaits, jerkbaits, and crankbaits; so that is what I plan to throw no matter what. If I catch any bass it will be because they were willing to hit these lures...if it happens to be the wrong technique at the wrong time, then I will not do well.

Did your club find the bass in any particular region of the Lake better than others?

ciao,
Marc

smalljaws said:

Marc, the water temp at the transducer was between 42 and 47 throughout the day last Sunday. Obviously there has been crap weather all week and it probably hasn't got any better. The coldest it got this year was around 40. So far this year the only success I have had is being at the right place at the right time to intercept the cruising fish along the shoreline. I know of a couple guys that were dragging and did ok a couple weeks ago in about 20-25 feet. I have not landed anything under 3 pounds but it has been slow.
I heard that there was some success deep cranking largemouth over grass two weeks ago.
It seemed we were on a warming trend then and it has slipped back a few degrees since. I have not been able to locate any sizable groups of fish anywhere on the lake since last fall and haven't had the same success that I had last year at this time.
Most of the fish caught last weekend at our club tournament came on crankbaits and were under 2.5 lbs for the most part.
Hope this helps and I would love to hear how it went for you.

Permalink Reply by Rodney Heupel on April 2, 2009 at 9:07pm

We of the Western Bass Club are having a fish-in at American Lake this saturday starting at the Shari’s Restaurant at 5 AM at I-5 and 72nd street in Lakewood-Tacoma (Exit 129) then off to the launch at 6:30 AM. I extend an invitation to you Marc to join us for Larry's world famous chili dog shore lunch. I'm quite sure somebody will figure something out.

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on April 2, 2009 at 10:16pm

Hey, what good timing, Rodney! What time is the shore lunch, and where will it be? I won't see you first thing as I plan to catch up on some sleep on Sat. morning. I will arrive at the Ft. Lewis ramp at 8:30 a.m.

Looking forward to seeing you on the lake. Wave when you seem my Ranger.

ciao,
Marc

Rodney Heupel said:

We of the Western Bass Club are having a fish-in at American Lake this saturday starting at the Shari’s Restaurant at 5 AM at I-5 and 72nd street in Lakewood-Tacoma (Exit 129) then off to the launch at 6:30 AM. I extend an invitation to you Marc to join us for Larry's world famous chili dog shore lunch. I'm quite sure somebody will figure something out.

Permalink Reply by Rodney Heupel on April 3, 2009 at 9:12pm

The location will be the State launch/Tillicum. Time as now posted, "Maybe 2 pm for lunch this time...days are getting longer ya know!!!"

Marc Marcantonio said:

Hey, what good timing, Rodney! What time is the shore lunch, and where will it be? I won't see you first thing as I plan to catch up on some sleep on Sat. morning. I will arrive at the Ft. Lewis ramp at 8:30 a.m.

Looking forward to seeing you on the lake. Wave when you seem my Ranger.

ciao,
Marc

Rodney Heupel said:
We of the Western Bass Club are having a fish-in at American Lake this saturday starting at the Shari’s Restaurant at 5 AM at I-5 and 72nd street in Lakewood-Tacoma (Exit 129) then off to the launch at 6:30 AM. I extend an invitation to you Marc to join us for Larry's world famous chili dog shore lunch. I'm quite sure somebody will figure something out.

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on April 4, 2009 at 7:22pm

Well, I ran into a couple of Evergreen guys, and Aaron from Capital City, but didn't see the Western Bass crowd. I didn't find the jerkbait or swimbait fish other than 3 cutthroat trout that mauled my Staysee; and my partner drug up a hula grub smallie from 17 feet deep while I was throwing the jerkbait, but that was it for us.

How did others do out there, and how deep? I'm going to head out there again tomorrow.

ciao,
Marc

Rodney Heupel said:

The location will be the State launch/Tillicum. Time as now posted, "Maybe 2 pm for lunch this time...days are getting longer ya know!!!"

Marc Marcantonio said:
Hey, what good timing, Rodney! What time is the shore lunch, and where will it be? I won't see you first thing as I plan to catch up on some sleep on Sat. morning. I will arrive at the Ft. Lewis ramp at 8:30 a.m.

Looking forward to seeing you on the lake. Wave when you seem my Ranger.

ciao,
Marc

Rodney Heupel said:
We of the Western Bass Club are having a fish-in at American Lake this saturday starting at the Shari’s Restaurant at 5 AM at I-5 and 72nd street in Lakewood-Tacoma (Exit 129) then off to the launch at 6:30 AM. I extend an invitation to you Marc to join us for Larry's world famous chili dog shore lunch. I'm quite sure somebody will figure something out.

Permalink Reply by Rodney Heupel on April 5, 2009 at 9:03am

I didn't see you on the water, but it was mentioned you where spotted. None of us caught any before shore lunch. After lunch I hooked a 2 pounder on a crank bait with the boat in 11 ft of water and the bass was hooked in about 7 feet, Larry also hooked a 3 pounder on a crankbait of very similiar color.

Marc Marcantonio said:

Well, I ran into a couple of Evergreen guys, and Aaron from Capital City, but didn't see the Western Bass crowd. I didn't find the jerkbait or swimbait fish other than 3 cutthroat trout that mauled my Staysee; and my partner drug up a hula grub smallie from 17 feet deep while I was throwing the jerkbait, but that was it for us.

How did others do out there, and how deep? I'm going to head out there again tomorrow.

ciao,
Marc

Rodney Heupel said:
The location will be the State launch/Tillicum. Time as now posted, "Maybe 2 pm for lunch this time...days are getting longer ya know!!!"

Marc Marcantonio said:
Hey, what good timing, Rodney! What time is the shore lunch, and where will it be? I won't see you first thing as I plan to catch up on some sleep on Sat. morning. I will arrive at the Ft. Lewis ramp at 8:30 a.m.

Looking forward to seeing you on the lake. Wave when you seem my Ranger.

ciao,
Marc

Rodney Heupel said:
We of the Western Bass Club are having a fish-in at American Lake this saturday starting at the Shari’s Restaurant at 5 AM at I-5 and 72nd street in Lakewood-Tacoma (Exit 129) then off to the launch at 6:30 AM. I extend an invitation to you Marc to join us for Larry's world famous chili dog shore lunch. I'm quite sure somebody will figure something out.

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on April 5, 2009 at 9:57pm

Well, I learned a lot this weekend on American Lake. What a beautiful weekend, finally!!

On Saturday I stuck with the plan and threw all reaction baits and only scraped up 3 cutthroat trout, but my partner for the day, Glen Baker, caught the nice smallie in the first picture on a football head Hula Grub in 17 feet of water. Our only smallmouth for the day.

On Sunday I ran into Jim and Willie on the water, as well as Rodney. Willie showed me something I hadn't seen before by using a deep technique real shallow. Thanks, Willie! So then I got an idea about the shallow bite coming on, and headed back to where I initially saw Rodney. The bite really turned on for me, and I had an awesome hour and half of fishing in which I landed a limit that would have gone 20 pounds! The next two photo's show two of the fish. I caught 5 on a deep diving crankbait (crawdad color) using my old 1970 Skyline Graphite pistol grip rod and my old Ambassador 4600CA reel that I just rebuilt with 10 bearings and CarbonTex drag system. It was nostalgic and fun, and a sweet way to end an awesome day. The really sweet part was after catching five on the crankbait, I switched back to the Staysee (new Ghost Chartreuse Shad color) and nailed the 5 pound smallie in the last photo!

You have to love prespawn smallies!

ciao,
Marc

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Permalink Reply by Jerry on April 5, 2009 at 10:06pm

Nice fish!

Permalink Reply by Willie Parsons on April 5, 2009 at 10:51pm

Marc, nice job putting the puzzle together.
I ended up with 17.5 for the best 5 I got today, biggest at 4.2. I have to learn to keep the kids from playing with the camera, or check the battery before going out!
Well done sir.

Permalink Reply by S Hwang on April 6, 2009 at 11:58am