Bait fish in Washington....

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Permalink Reply by Chad Simon on February 21, 2011 at 5:51pm

I don't know about a resource for a wide range of waters. I can tell you the species that live in Lake Washington including anadromous fish include chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon; kokanee, cutthroat, and rainbow trout; longfin smelt; largemouth and smallmouth bass; common carp; brown bullheads; yellow perch; pumpkinseed sunfish; crappie; sculpin; stickleback, suckers and northern pikeminnow. Oh, and when I worked at the Cedar River Hatchery we did have 1 lost Pink salmon get caught in our trap.

Permalink Reply by Dayv Carney on February 21, 2011 at 6:34pm

lol, poor pinky.... hey thanks for the info.....

Permalink Reply by John Mark Minica on February 21, 2011 at 9:39pm

Many of our lakes are stocked with massive numbers of trout fry as feeder fish. I know that my home lake, American, got almost 600,000 fry planted last year, so baits that mimic trout work very well. Perch are also in great numbers in alot of the lakes. I've seen massive schools of perch in lake Washington, and American lake. Rock bass seem to be prevalent in large numbers in many of the lakes as well. And of course, crawfish are everywhere. I dont think there is a body of water that doesn't have crawfish in it. I know that lake Washington has large schools of stickleback, not sure if they are in other waters. And then there's the damn sculpin that are everywhere. I think kokanee would be another good one to imitate, most lake have them, and they are delicious!

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on February 21, 2011 at 10:05pm

Chad, great job on naming all those species.  I'll only add Peamouth Chubs to that list, plus all the forage species of insects, amphibians, mullosks, reptiles, worms, and any other living organism bass can manage (including birds).

 

Of course bass aren't afraid to eat something that looks like nothing, too!

 

ciao,
Marc

Permalink Reply by Chad Simon on February 22, 2011 at 5:45am

Although I've never caught one in Lake Washington that I remember, I have heard of Rock Bass present as well.

Marc Marcantonio said:

Chad, great job on naming all those species.  I'll only add Peamouth Chubs to that list, plus all the forage species of insects, amphibians, mullosks, reptiles, worms, and any other living organism bass can manage (including birds).

 

Of course bass aren't afraid to eat something that looks like nothing, too!

 

ciao,
Marc

Permalink Reply by Mark Maderos on February 22, 2011 at 5:53am

Yeah, I caught my first rock bass in washington this past fall.  Up in the northend of the lake.  Had know idea there were in there.

 

Mark

Permalink Reply by Josh Potter on February 22, 2011 at 9:10am

My partner caught one of those things at Lake Washington during the NW Bass tournament. I had never seen one before.

Mark Maderos said:

Yeah, I caught my first rock bass in washington this past fall.  Up in the northend of the lake.  Had know idea there were in there.

 

Mark

Permalink Reply by Joseph Hayashi on February 22, 2011 at 7:54pm

I'd say that Star Lake in king county has the most abundant source of them in my area. They are aggressive little boogers.