PNW Fishing Intel Center Discussions - Washington Fishing2024-03-29T00:40:57Zhttps://www.wafish.com/groups/group/forum?groupUrl=fishing-intel-center-coming-soon&feed=yes&xn_auth=noBack to Back Lake Terrell Champs – Kyle Linderman and Robert Graytag:www.wafish.com,2019-05-07:2523793:Topic:3012842019-05-07T02:53:38.485ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>In Western Washington, there’s one lake that gets everyone in the northern counties more riled up than any. Lake Terrell is home to a large and healthy population of largemouth. No deeper than 10ft, the lake warms up faster than most in the state the and the bass get their chew on early. In late March and early April both the PondJumperz and Borderline Bassin’ clubs hold a very popular and competitive team open! On a small lake, with a lot of boats, the fishing gets really cramped and guys…</p>
<p>In Western Washington, there’s one lake that gets everyone in the northern counties more riled up than any. Lake Terrell is home to a large and healthy population of largemouth. No deeper than 10ft, the lake warms up faster than most in the state the and the bass get their chew on early. In late March and early April both the PondJumperz and Borderline Bassin’ clubs hold a very popular and competitive team open! On a small lake, with a lot of boats, the fishing gets really cramped and guys are forced to make big adjustments to boat fish. This year</p>
<p>was no different in the competition, with a field full of stout lake Terrell sticks. In both tournaments, the anglers faced a high-pressure system, unfavorable winds, and massive boat pressure, making the fishing tough… with very few limits coming to the scales. But in</p>
<p>back to back tournaments, two young anglers rose above the rest to win both of the events! Locals, Kyle Linderman and Robbie Gray, pulled together multiple 19+ pound bags of largemouth in the challenging fishing conditions to take home two early season wins.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Win #1: PondJumperz</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Tell me about your experience on Lake Terrell in the past and how it </u></em><em><u>helped you for the tournaments?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We have been fishing Lake Terrell since we were kids. Over the years, we have seen this lake go through its ups and downs, but this time of year in particular can be really hit or miss. With this knowledge, mentally we were prepared for some really tough fishing and that was a big part of our success on tournament day. Being patient and willing to fish slow, despite the heavy boat pressure and poor conditions can be mentally taxing.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>What was your practice like for the first event? And what is your process f</u></em><em><u>or practicing on Lake Terrell?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“For the first event, our practice was pretty tough. In the few weeks leading up to the event, the bite had been really slow. The fish just seem to be a little bit behind. Most of the times that we went go out, we would only manage to get a few bites, but they were the right size of fish. Our practice really helped us hone in on one area in particular, where a lot better population of fish were pulling up.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Typically on like Terrell we don’t to worry too much about stinging fish because in such a small and shallow lake, there are different waves of fish pulling up and down pretty constantly. But we have noticed over the years that some areas tend to hold better fish than others. Because of this, it is really important for us to figure out where those bigger fish are located in each given year. We won’t lean on the fish by any means, but if we catch one we take note of how big it was and keep searching for more.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Walk me through the first tournament, how did you target your fish?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>With such a large turnout, Kyle and Robby knew that they weren’t going to have the ability to move around a lot. So, the team decided that they wanted to commit to their best area, where they had the majority of their bites in practice. “We ended up staying in one spot for almost the entire tournament and caught all of our fish out of it. With the conditions, we couldn’t get the fish to chase any moving baits in the first hour, so we decided to really slow down and pick apart the area that we were in. All of our fish ended up coming on a black and blue jig and a black and blue Texas-rigged worm. The key was to fish them painfully slow and just make repeated casts to the same areas, waiting for the right fish to show up. It was the one nice part about all the pressure on the lake… we knew that there would be boats everywhere, so our best chance was to be the only one making casts on our best spot.“</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over the course of the day, Kyle and Robby only put 5 fish in the boat, but all of those fish were the right quality… their patience paid off.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Win #2: Borderline Bassin’ Contenders Open</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>How was your practice for the event the second time around?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The practice the weekend before the second event was off the charts. The wind was blowing pretty good but the water had warmed up a bunch. The conditions were perfect and the fish were biting like crazy! We had one of our biggest bags ever in practice, pulling together almost 27 pounds for our best five fish. And we didn’t even have a fish over 7 pounds! This helped build up a lot of confidence going into the tournament, but we knew that the event was going to be different.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>How did the conditions on tournament day affect the bite in the second tournament?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Looking at the forecast leading up to the event, we knew that it was going to be tough.” A high-pressure system, cold front, and unfavorable winds relayed a tough outlook on how the tournament day was going to shape up. “We knew that on those cold front days, it’s extremely important to maximize the first three hours of the day, especially when you are fishing shallow. Because of that, we focused our efforts on targeting our best area first... again. And it turned out to be a great decision as we put together most of our bag including a 6 1/2 pound kicker right off the bat. Just like we expected, the bite got tougher after the morning flurry, and we had to bounce around to multiple different stretches to get the limit filled out. With having an aluminum boat, strong winds can make it very difficult to fish effectively. To adjust we decided to make a move across the lake to target some areas that we had caught some fish in practice, but were protected from the wind. We then had one of us flipping a black and blue jig and the other throwing a swim jig or a spinner bait. The areas we targeted were those with a harder bottom where emergent pads could be seen coming up.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>What are some key learning lessons from your wins?</u></em></p>
<p>“Lake Terrell is a rather featureless lake with regards to contours. With depths not extending beyond 9 feet anywhere in the lake, subtle changes can have a massive effect. In essence, Lake Terrell is a place where a minor change canmean a major change underwater, because everything is magnified on asmaller, shallower body of water. In practice and the event, we realized that the better quality of fish were heavily related to these subtle depth changes.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>On a similar note, with the lack of dramatic contours, the bass in Terrell tend to relate to and use varying types of cover and bottom density to move back into the spawning pockets. Typically, a change in vegetation can be a good sign that there’s a change in bottom composition as well. Kyle and Robby realized that the best areas needed to have a hard-to-soft bottom transition, adjacent to a subtle depth change.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>With years of experience, a good mental approach and a very specific plan, the team was able to put together two back-to-back strong performances... which is no small feat on any body of water!</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you are a bass angler in Western Washington residing in Snohomish county or north... both Borderline Bassin' and Pondjumperz are fantastic and inclusive clubs that offer a lot to their members. Check them out!</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2322850539?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2322850539?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p> Potholes Open Champions – Jordan Doucet and Chad Eidsontag:www.wafish.com,2019-05-01:2523793:Topic:3015722019-05-01T02:23:50.042ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>Every year, anglers from across Washington state congregate at the iconic Potholes Reservoir in mid-April to compete in the state’s longest running bass fishing tournament. Hosted by the Potholes Bass Club and Mardon’s Resort, the Potholes Open has a legacy second to none in Washington. This year, a record-breaking number of teams did battle on the Eastern Washington fishery, with 146 boats vying for the top prize and ultimate bragging rights. After two days of intense fishing in varying…</p>
<p>Every year, anglers from across Washington state congregate at the iconic Potholes Reservoir in mid-April to compete in the state’s longest running bass fishing tournament. Hosted by the Potholes Bass Club and Mardon’s Resort, the Potholes Open has a legacy second to none in Washington. This year, a record-breaking number of teams did battle on the Eastern Washington fishery, with 146 boats vying for the top prize and ultimate bragging rights. After two days of intense fishing in varying weather conditions, Jordan Doucet and Chad Eidson bested the massive field with a two-day weight of 38.97 pounds! See below for how they did it!</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>It is well-known that you two have an immense amount of experience on Potholes… so how did your prior experience affect your assumptions as to what the fish would be doing?</u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p>“We have fished 7 Potholes opens together now and have seen a shift in recent years as to which areas hold the higher quantity and quality of fish. Back then, there were days when it was tough to even get 5-6 bites. But in more recent years, we’ve seen the fishing improve drastically and our time on the water has allowed us to expand our comfort level with different techniques and areas that we feel are productive.” Ultimately the more comfortable and confident we are, the more water we can effectively run on tournament day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In this Potholes Open in particular, there was a full moon the Friday before and a consistent warming trend leading up to the tournament. From their past experience, they knew it wouldn’t be long until the fish moved up into the shallows. “Typically when the fish first start pulling up on the flats and cruising they are extremely hard to catch (ie.Poopy Cruise). Because of this, our hope was that they would be holding out in the staging areas adjacent to spawning flats for the tournament, as they had been the weekend before.”</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>Did you practice for the event? If so, how was it? What’s your process for practicing on Potholes (shaking off fish, sticking one for size reference, etc)?</u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p>Jordan and Chad fished the Northwest bass event the weekend before, placing second out of the 96 boats with an amazing comeback on the second day, jumping 26 positions with a 22.5+ pound bag. “The two long days on the water the weekend before was a strong indication as to what was going on and we felt like we had a good pattern to run for the Open based on that. However, we did not practice the day before the event.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Our process for prefish, is to focus on locating the most quality-sized fish as possible, while identifying the types of specific cover that the fish are holding on. With Potholes being a highly pattern-able lake, identifying this allows us to replicate and can expand to other areas that are similar. During practice, shaking fish off is a common practice, but if we are prefishing the weekend before we will occasionally hook one to confirm size. However, the day before we will never hook any of the bites we get – in fact we cut the hooks off of all our lures or at least cover them with rubber tubing during these prefish sessions.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Every year, we hear of a few big fish being caught the day before the event. We believe that sticking these fish the day before really hurts your chances of hooking them again the very next day. I’m not going to say that that fish 100% will not bite again, but I am certain that it doesn’t help the cause. Another key component to shaking fish off is that you can generally get an indication of size based on the bite and how they swim with it… even without ever seeing it. If you apply the little bit of pressure while they are swimming with the hook-less bait, you can gauge the weight of the fish. You can also learn a lot from how long a fish will hang on to your bait as to what sort of mood they are in. For example, if they hang on to it for a long time, they are probably chomping pretty good; if they bite and spit it out quickly, they are probably in a more negative mood and not actually feeding.“</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>What was your plan before blastoff? Did it change over the day?</u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p>“We had planned on throwing a combination of reaction baits and flipping around the outside of spawning areas. We actually stuck with both throughout the day and just “junk-fished” our way to 20+ pounds on day one. We didn’t keep count exactly, but I’m guessing that we caught somewhere around 20-25 fish on day one.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“On day two, we found that the fish had settled into the “Poopy Cruise” pattern and we even saw a handful of fish on beds. Although we were able to coax a couple of them into biting on finesse techniques, that is neither our strength at Potholes, nor is it a good way to get the quality of fish you need for a good bag in this event. We decided to make a move out towards the main lake to find fish that weren’t as far along in the spawning process. We ran across a couple good stretches of deeper willows out towards the main channels and main lake and ended up culling out nearly all of our fish from the morning, resulting in our 18.7lb bag.</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>How did you catch/target your fish in the tournament?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We caught all of our fish on either a spinnerbait, chatterbait or flipping a jig/texas rig. Normally this time of year we’d mix in a swimjig or swimbait, but we felt that the water clarity hindered that bite for us, certainly in some areas that had the Pea Soup green color to it… it just never produced.” A large majority of the team’s fish on the first day came on deeper structure that was very near a shallow spawning flat. The key was to find cover in those areas and the fish would hold tight against it. However, on the second day the bite changed a lot for Jordan and Chad and they moved farther out to the main channels to find their prespawners.</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>What sort of cover or combination of cover and structure were you targeting?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We targeted a variety of cover that was near the deep breaks adjacent to a shallow flat. We believed that the best quality of fish were holding a little deeper, waiting to move up. As such most of our quality bites came out of deep willows and floating wood near these transition areas from shallow flats to deep.”</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>Did the weather affect the patterns you had in the tournament? How did you adjust?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“A steady wind on day one led to us throw reaction baits all day as that bite never seemed to waiver. Also, since the fish were feeding well, we increased the weight on our jigs/texas rigs to get a better presentation in the more favorable conditions. On day two however, we only caught a couple fish on reaction baits. The lack of bites on moving baits led us to make the adjustment to flipping, once we made this change, most of the fish we caught for the rest of the day were flipping.</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>Outside of the weather, what adjustments did you guys have to make on the water?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>One of the major adjustments that Jordan and Chad made was in the location that they were targeting their fish. They wanted to target fish that were more on a prespawn pattern than those that were up on the flats spawning or fanning. “Although it was difficult to move away from the areas that were so productive the prior tournament weekend and even day before, we knew it was necessary to make a big change to find fish that were going to give us a chance to win.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Differences between day 1 and day 2 of the tournament?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The fish went from their pre-spawn staging areas on day 1 to the “poopy cruise” and spawning on day two in the backs of the dunes. When the fish are in that “poopy cruise” stage, they are very hard to catch, despite being able to visually target them. To adjust we moved further out, trying to find the fish that were in the next wave of prespawners.”</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>High level learning lessons from the win?</u></em></p>
<p>Two primary learning lessons:</p>
<ol>
<li>Be prepared to abandon areas that you have done well in recent weeks or even the day before if the conditions aren’t lining up right, or a major change occurs (ie.fish move up to flats/beds)</li>
<li>Low Risk = Low Reward, High Risk = High Reward – We fell into the second bucket on day two specifically, otherwise we likely would have ended up with a 10lb bag.</li>
</ol>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>What would you recommend to someone who struggled in the event or struggles on Potholes in the prespawn to help them put fish in the boat?</u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<ol>
<li>Spend time on the water to find areas to replicate a pattern in</li>
<li>Cover lots of water to find the find the active fish</li>
<li>Avoid wandering – many times there are fish concentrated on a specific piece of cover. Rather than wander around the rest of the area that consists of “not the right stuff”, fish the high percentage cover and replicate it in other areas.</li>
</ol>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>Is there anyone that you would like to thank?</u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p>“First and foremost, I would like to thank my partner Chad for his dedication to this event and time on the water in general. We both spent the two weekends prior to this event on the water including the Friday prefish for NWB. But overall, Chad puts as much time in on Potholes preparing for a tournament as anyone so he just has a knack for lining up what’s going on and has an incredible bank of knowledge on areas in the lake to replicate a pattern. Thank you also to Chad’s wife, Emily, for putting up with me 3 weekends straight at their house!” (Jordan)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“A big thanks to Three Rivers Marine and Tackle for getting my motor rebuilt this last winter. I have had zero issues with anything after the rebuild! Also thank you to Nixon’s Marine for installing new power poles and dialing in the small details on my boat very quickly.” (Jordan)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Most importantly, thank you to my wife and kids for putting up with 3 straight weekends of fishing away from home. Win or lose, I know I can come home to a smiling family when I get back and that’s a big WIN!” (Jordan)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I’d like to thank the Potholes Bass club for putting on the Potholes Open. This is one of the tournaments that I look forward to every single year. I’d also like to thank Jake Boomer at Alpha Angler rods. Jake is a great guy and is building great rods that really perform on the water. We use a ton of Alpha gear and really put it to the test.” (Chad)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Most importantly, I’d especially like to thank my wife for always supporting my fishing. She gives me the green light to spend the long days prefishing and fishing tournaments while holding down the house when I am gone. I feel very lucky to come home to my wife and daughter at the end of a long day.” (Chad)</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2227980428?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2227980428?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p> Washington Bass Association – Lake Washington Champion – David Griffistag:www.wafish.com,2019-04-25:2523793:Topic:3010232019-04-25T02:57:58.191ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>The spring on Lake Washington is a time of year where you can go from zero to hero in a heartbeat. Extremely temperamental at times and downright bonkers at others, Lake Washington is extremely susceptible to the ever-changing spring weather patterns of Western Washington. On one of those tough western Washington days, Edmonds-based bass club, Washington Bass Association, hosted its first club event of the year on Lake Washington. The tough conditions only brought a few limits to the scales,…</p>
<p>The spring on Lake Washington is a time of year where you can go from zero to hero in a heartbeat. Extremely temperamental at times and downright bonkers at others, Lake Washington is extremely susceptible to the ever-changing spring weather patterns of Western Washington. On one of those tough western Washington days, Edmonds-based bass club, Washington Bass Association, hosted its first club event of the year on Lake Washington. The tough conditions only brought a few limits to the scales, but Lake Washington expert, Dave Griffis, managed to pull together a pattern to carve out a strong bag of Smallmouth.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>With your vast amount of history on Lake Washington, how did that help you prepare for the conditions on the lake?</u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p>“For the last several years, I have fished this lake from the end of February through October. In the last few springs I have realized that the fish on Lake Washington pull up in multiple different stages... and there are big fish in all of them.” Dave’s large amount of experience on the lake helped frame his mental approach for the tournament. Being well known for his deep-water angling prowess, Dave knew that when the water temps are in the 48-51 degree range there are smallmouth in all levels of the water column. “I knew that there would be a decent population up shallow, inside and on top of the weed line, but I also knew that there would be a lot of boats targeting those fish.” After a quick stint looking for an early morning largemouth, Dave avoided the masses as his experience and instincts told him that he should be out deep, targeting the smallmouth still waiting to pull up onto the flats. With much more confidence after his quick move to target deep largemouth, Dave’s instincts were quickly rewarded. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Did you practice for this event?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This year I chose not to pre-fish the weekend before the event. In past years I have found very strong populations of fish, and usually some giants in practice… only to be led astray by my practice on tournament day. As the main lake temps move from about 47-52 degrees, the smallmouth on Lake Washington move rapidly, never staying in any one area for too long. Because of this I felt very confident in being able to find the fish if I approached the event with an open-mind, having not burned up any fish.”</p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p><em><u>How did you target your fish in the event?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dave targeted his fish using a combination of bottom-oriented baits. He built up part of his bag slow-rolling a paddle tail swimbait slowly above the bottom. “The key was to keep the bait right above the bottom and retrieve it steadily with a couple pops or rod snaps to vary the action.” In the morning, the fish were very active, typical of post-frontal conditions. After the morning, the bite became much tougher and Dave mixed in a football head paired with a hula grub and a drop shot to fill out his limit. “I was targeting staging areas and main-lake points in 18-30ft outside of the bigger spawning bays. With the water temp in the high 40s to low 50s, I knew that there would be fish up shallow, but the ones that I wanted to target were ones that were still sitting off a bit deeper. Typically when a front blows through the day before, the deeper fish are less affected by the front and therefore, more reliable.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Walk us through your day out on the water:</u></em></p>
<p><em><u> </u></em></p>
<p>Knowing that many of the early tournaments in 2019 on Lake Washington had taken a mixed bag, with a couple big largemouth to win, Dave started the morning out targeting largemouth. However, it only took a few minutes for him to realize that he wasn’t fishing in a manner that he was confident in, and quickly made the adjustment to target smallmouth. “It just had one of those gut feelings that I didn’t like what I was doing. The conditions pointed toward a tough day of fishing and I wanted to take a stab at putting multiple decent fish in the boat and return later to try to catch a largemouth.” Dave’s instincts turned out to be a spot-on decision…! Making a quick run to a rocky point outside of a spawning flat, Dave put five fish in the boat in as many casts, targeting the deep edge of the point, including the final one being his kicker for the day (see video below)!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After filling out his limit by 8:30, Dave realized that there was a strong population of deep prespawn smallmouth that were staging in 20-30ft, pinned closely to the bottom. He then rotated a few very similar areas that he had from his years in the past, and put a fish or two in the boat on every stop. However, Dave did have to pass up on some of his favorite spots as a strong South wind made fishing a couple of main lake staging areas quite tough. “After the morning, the wind really picked up and made it difficult to fish some of my areas, which was a bit of a bummer. It really seemed to ignite the moving-bait bite, but the bites were very subtle so detecting the fish while bouncing up and down was very difficult. I think I missed at least 4 fish simply because I couldn’t feel them bite the bait. After targeting a few other windier areas with same issues, I decided I would only target the areas protected from the south to maximize my efficiency.” Once Dave made the adjustment to targeting the areas that he could feel the bites, he made a couple of culls on his next 3 spots elevating his bag over the 15 pound mark.“ The decision to stick with the pattern that was working, while targeting areas that I could fish clean and efficiently was the biggest part of pulling the bag together.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Are there any key learning lessons that you can point to from your win?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“There were a couple of moments in the day that really dictated how the day unfolded. The first was just trusting my instincts on the water.” While Dave knew that many of the tournaments in the prior weeks had been won with a mixed bag, he realized that he didn’t have confidence targeting them in those conditions and quickly made the adjustment to target smallmouth on his first productive spot. Another key factor for him was paying attention to how water temperature affects the fish. “Understanding the relevance of the water temperature was huge for my approach. With the main lake still in the high 40s, I knew that the bite would be tough especially with the front going through the day before. So mentally I was prepared to slow down and target some of the deeper fish. Typically the deeper fish are less affected by fronts and pressure/temperature changes.” </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The final big learning lesson that Dave attributed to the win was selecting areas where he felt like he could fish efficiently and effectively. On a day that was very windy, He felt like he was missing fish when he was fighting the wind because the bite was so heavy. So to adjust, Dave targeted the staging areas outside of spawning flats that were protected from the wind. This allowed him to convert on more of the bites that he was getting because he could detect when the fish actually picked up the bait. “I felt like I missed a good number of fish when I was battling the wind but once I moved into a calmer pocket, I started converting on all of my bites and putting more fish in the boat.“</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>What would you recommend to someone who struggles on Lake Washington in the spring to help them put more fish in the boat?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I would recommend spending as much time on Lake Washington as possible in May. This is the time of the year that the smallmouth pull up and spawn on the shallow flats. If someone can go around and figure out where the fish are spawning then they can use that information to aid them in the prespawn next year. Every year, the smallmouth will winter on deep offshore structure in 40-70ft, so if you know where they winter and now where they spawn, all you have to figure out is where the bass will stop between the two points. Look for main lake points, humps, rockpiles, etc. that are in between the deep winter spots and the spawning flats; that is the highway that those big prespawn smallmouth will use. Identifying the spawning areas and their nearby staging areas, you will put more of these Lake Washington bass in the boat.”</p>
<p></p>
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</p> Northwest Bass: Potholes Champions – Justin Campbell and Travis Whitneytag:www.wafish.com,2019-04-23:2523793:Topic:3010142019-04-23T03:31:58.808ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
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<p>On the first stop of the 2019 Northwest Bass tour, 96 boats showed up to take a crack at the podium. Straying from its traditional tournament schedule, Northwest Bass started the year off on the Potholes Reservoir, one of the most unique bodies of water in Washington State. With vast amounts of dunes, vegetation, submerged timber, and rock; the anglers were greeted by hundreds of miles of shoreline to fish. Fighting varying weather conditions, one team stood above the rest…</p>
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<p>On the first stop of the 2019 Northwest Bass tour, 96 boats showed up to take a crack at the podium. Straying from its traditional tournament schedule, Northwest Bass started the year off on the Potholes Reservoir, one of the most unique bodies of water in Washington State. With vast amounts of dunes, vegetation, submerged timber, and rock; the anglers were greeted by hundreds of miles of shoreline to fish. Fighting varying weather conditions, one team stood above the rest when the final bass came across the scales. Pulling together a 22.4 pound bag on the first day of the event and following it up with a 19.5 pound bag on day two, Justin Campbell and Travis Whitney took the top spot on the weekend! See below as they detail their first Northwest Bass win.</p>
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<p><em><u>Do you have experience in the early season on Potholes and if so how did that affect your assumptions going into the event?</u></em></p>
<p>“While we have been coming to Potholes for years, most of our experience is in the late April and May timeframe. We had heard how great Potholes can be early in the season, but we had never seen it for ourselves, so we were very excited to get over there and break it down. Looking at the weights in the past, we knew that we were going to have to catch something in the 19 to 21 pound range each day to be competitive. This really helped guide our practice and help us not settle on areas until we knew that we were on the 4-pound class of fish.“ Many years of experience and research prepared the team for what they need to see in practice to feel comfortable for the event.</p>
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<p><em><u>How was your practice for the event?</u></em></p>
<p>Justin and Travis went over to Potholes the weekend before the event, and had a lot of success. “We targeted some the flats and adjacent areas that we would normally target in May and it seemed like the bigger fish were just pulling up into those areas… but only a few at a time. After finding the right size, we looked for more numbers and in doing so, worked our way out to the points of the dunes, and found a much better populations of fish there. Our practice weekend consisted mostly of the Crab Creek side because the water was less affected by the turnover and we had much more confidence in the normal Potholes water clarity.” From their practice the weekend before, Justin and Travis felt confident that they were around the right quality of fish and knew that they would have to grind out their limit in these areas because the bigger fish seemed to be concentrated in a couple key stretches.</p>
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<p>The team was also able to get out the Friday before the event and spent a lot of time over on the Winchester side. “We finally found the green water that everyone was talking about, and we had a hard time putting fish in the boat in those areas.” After running around in the Winchester and Job Corps areas, the two hadn’t found the same quality of fish as they had the weekend before on the Crab Creek side. So the team went back over and checked on their fish from the weekend before, and the fish were still in the area, but had moved a bit from the points of the dunes and had started pushing back into the pockets a bit. “Once we found where the fish were sitting this weekend, we felt pretty confident as to where we were going to start and spend the entirety of our day on Day One.” </p>
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<p><em><u>How did you target and catch your fish?</u></em></p>
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<p>“It should come as no surprise to those that know us that there are very few times where we are not chucking and winding, it’s just our confidence!“ On tournament day, Justin kept a black and blue chatterbait glued to his hand for the entirety of the event making precise casts to key pieces of structure including willows, lay downs, and other abnormalities along the bank. “The key was to get as close to the cover as you could with the cast and make contact with it to generate a reaction bite.” Travis spent both days switching between a swim jig, a swimbait, and a spinnerbait… based on the conditions. When it was blowing hard he would opt for the spinnerbait, if it was a light breeze he would go to the swim jig and if it was flat calm he would throw the belly weighted swimbait. “With moving baits, and our focus on precise casting, we felt like we would be able to grind out our limit by simply making more effective casts and more presentations than the competition. </p>
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<p>As for the structure that the team was targeting, they focused on both staging and spawning flats in crab creek. “The fish seemed to have moved back further towards their spawning areas, but we were still able to pick some off on the staging areas adjacent to them. One of the important keys to our success, was to start on our very best area first thing in the morning.“ At Potholes, especially this time of year, the fish just seem to eat anything that goes by their face! So being the first bait down a fish-holding stretch improves your chances of hooking up dramatically. After the success in the morning, this philosophy of targeting fresh water played into our strategy over the whole course of the day. If we saw stretch they didn’t look like anyone had hit for a while, we would pick up the trolling motor and shoot over there to target the less pressured fish.” Being able to cover a lot of water like this was aided by both of the anglers throwing moving baits; they were able to cover water quickly, allowing them to make many presentations on different stretches to enhance their chances of getting bit.</p>
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<p><em><u>Walk me through your day on the water, how did the win unfold?</u></em></p>
<p>“On Day One, our strategy worked out very well, and we had a limit by about 7:15 of about 9 to 10 pounds, targeting our best stretch with a black and blue chatterbait and swimjig. With a lot of confidence after the morning flurry, the bite definitely slowed down, but we were able to pick off one or two every hour or so and the quality just seem to get better and better. The consistent bites kept us in it mentally all day.” This confidence and consistentcy helped the team stick with it all day and were able to make their final cull of the day with a 4 1/2 pounder with 10 minutes left in fishing to kick them over the 22 pound mark! </p>
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<p>On Day Two, all of the teams were greeted by a delay from the high winds whipping across the reservoir. “The fishing was definitely a little tougher with less low-light time, but we still managed to get a decent number of bites early on. Our limit took a little longer to build and we didn’t pull it together until about 8:30 in the morning, but this time our limit started at 15 pounds.” From what the team saw the day before and with how the morning went, they realized pretty quickly that the fish had changed. The fish were not staging on the points as heavily as they had been. This ended up being a tournament-winning realization for Justin and Travis as the rest of their tournament hinged on making a final key adjustment.</p>
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<p>Potholes is known for being incredibly fickle, with some patterns working one day and then disappearing completely the next day. What Justin and Travis realized is that despite the atypical contours and structure of the lake, the fish still hold true to a couple fundamental biological patterns:</p>
<ol>
<li>The fish are going to winter deep</li>
<li>The fish are going to move up to spawn as the water temps approach the high 50s-60s</li>
<li>The fish are going to use “deeper” channels or cover to move back to spawning pockets</li>
</ol>
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<p>So the goal in the early spring is to figure out how those fish are getting from the deep water to the spawning pockets. In Crab Creek, there is a main river channel that snakes throughout the entire side and serves as the deep-water highway for these fish. It was knowledge of this trend paired with a history of knowing where the bigger largemouth pull up and spawn that unlocked the final piece of the puzzle for Justin and Travis.</p>
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<p>“We knew that the bigger fish weren’t out on or along the points anymore... we just stopped getting the quality bites from before.” So instead of spinning out or changing lures, they realized that the key wasn’t what they were fishing, but rather where. “We decided that we had to keep fishing what we were confident in, but we had to change the layer that we were fishing. We decided to move from the outer pockets of the dunes, all the way back into the actual spawning pockets.” And boy was this the right decision… “In three consecutive pockets that we had finished earlier we pulled one pocket further back into the spawning bays and stuck a fish over 4 1/2 pounds! And those three extra fish carved out our 19.5 pound bag that led us to the win!” </p>
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<p><em><u>What are some high-level lessons learned?</u></em></p>
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<p>One of the big learning lessons that the winners expressed was the importance of reflecting on previous times out on the water and applying the past to the present. “Over our years of fishing, we have come to realize that certain areas just hold bigger fish a good majority of the time. There must be a perfect combination of features under the water that draws these bigger fish, time and time again. Whether it’s the structure, cover, or forage, the bigger fish just tend to be in these areas every single year.” Justin and Travis embodied this idea extremely well as they won the event fishing an area where they had produced big fish in practice and in the past. But instead of making it a part of a milk run, they dedicated an extensive period of time to just a few areas that they knew held the right class of fish.” </p>
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<p><u>What would you recommend to a person who either struggles in the early season or is new to fishing Potholes, to help them put fish in the boat?</u></p>
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<p>“What it really boils down to, is you just have to fish your confidence, especially on Potholes. The fish here are so willing to eat that if you’re throwing something that you have confidence in and that you know how to make small adjustments with to fit the conditions, you will get bit. There are so many fish in this lake and so many stretches that are untouched in a given day, that you can throw just about anything consistently and find a bass that wants to hammer it. If you just stick with it and maybe alter colors between green pumpkin and black and blue, you will put fish in the boat. This is exactly what we did in the tournament, we just kept casting the lures that we had an immense amount of confidence in.“</p>
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<p><u>Is there anyone that you would like to thank, coming off of this event?</u></p>
<p>“We would both like to Nixon’s Marine and Northwest Bass. We are fortunate enough to have two great organizations that came together to produce an exciting and well-run event. But most importantly, we’d like to thank our families… the wife and kids for all their support in letting us continue to fish and compete. While we can’t be with them when we fish, we sure as heck wouldn’t even be here to fish without their love and support.”</p>
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<p></p> Mike Albertson Open Winners – Lake Washington – Kai Wikstrom and Madden Tobecktag:www.wafish.com,2019-04-10:2523793:Topic:3008952019-04-10T01:07:32.454ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>The second year of the Mike Albertson Memorial tournament was a huge success! The event drew anglers from all over Washington, with 39 teams vying for a handsome payback. Looking around the launch in the morning, one could see the faces of numerous previous tournament winners on Lake Washington. But at the scales this year, it was a different story. It wasn’t a team of seasoned vets or legendary Washington hammers that took the crown… it was two “kids”!! Kai Wikstrom and Madden Tobeck…</p>
<p>The second year of the Mike Albertson Memorial tournament was a huge success! The event drew anglers from all over Washington, with 39 teams vying for a handsome payback. Looking around the launch in the morning, one could see the faces of numerous previous tournament winners on Lake Washington. But at the scales this year, it was a different story. It wasn’t a team of seasoned vets or legendary Washington hammers that took the crown… it was two “kids”!! Kai Wikstrom and Madden Tobeck surprised the entire field by sacking an enormous 22.9 pound bag of Lake Washington bass. While they were the youngest team competing, these two showed a maturity and poise far beyond their age, both on and off the water. But don’t let yourself be mistaken, they may be young, but Kai and Madden are no strangers to Lake Washington. This last Saturday, the two college anglers burst on to the Washington tournament scene and showed everyone that they meant business!</p>
<p><strong>Interview with Kai Wikstrom and Madden Tobeck:</strong></p>
<p><em><u>Being young in the sport, how do you compete with guys who have been fishing for more years than you’ve been alive?</u></em></p>
<p>Kai and Madden both echoed the role of confidence in their first big win: “For us, having confidence was the key. This tournament field was full of great anglers, but we knew that if we fished clean and made good decisions, we could hang with them. Although we are only 20, and relatively new to the tournament scene, we have been fishing Lake Washington for years.” (Kai) We have learned that the spots on Lake Washington’s have good and bad cycles. Our vast time on the water helped us stay on top of those cycles which served as a huge confidence boost on the water.” (Madden)</p>
<p><em><u>What assumptions did you have as to where and what the fish would be doing at this time of year?</u></em></p>
<p>The young team had a very dynamic plan that involved targeting both species over the course of the day. “With the rapid increase in water temperature, we knew the smallmouth would be located in staging areas, waiting to move up and spawn. As for the largemouth, we knew that the fifty-degree water temp would be pushing those fish up shallow.”(Madden)</p>
<p>"Looking back at my notes over the last 4 years, the main lake water temp has ranged from 45-52 degrees during the last week of March Nonetheless, I had managed to catch quality smallmouth in the 20ft zone in all four years. From our experience, these main lake fish seem to be on a schedule and work up towards the spawning areas, despite the main lake water temperature.” (Kai)</p>
<p><em><u>What is your process for practicing for an event on Lake Washington/How did your practice go?</u></em></p>
<p>“On Lake Washington, our process for practice is fairly straightforward. We choose a few baits that will allow us to cover water effectively, and cover their hooks with plastic tubing (the kind you get with spinnerbait trailer hooks) so we don’t sting any of the fish. Then we go out to areas that we think they might be around, and start a little shallower than we would expect them, and work our way out. This time of year, all we had was a white spinnerbait with the hook covered for largemouth, and a football head with the hook covered for smallmouth. Typically, the fish on Washington are very finicky and stinging them the day before or even a week before can really shoot your chances of them still being there.</p>
<p>Instead of practicing for the Mike Albertson Memorial tournament, Kai fished the ABA event on Lake Washington the weekend before the Albertson. He was able to practice the Friday before the event as ABA allows for a day of practice:</p>
<p>“At my first spot, I got bit on my first four casts, shook them all off, and left without making another cast. At my second spot, I got bit twice in the first few casts, shook them off, and left again. The pattern continued like that until I had about 6-7 smallmouth spots that I was really confident in.”</p>
<p>During the ABA event, Kai ran the same smallmouth pattern that he found the day before, and the fish he found the day before were still there. Catching about 15 fish on the football head, Kai and his partner weighed a little over 20lbs of smallmouth, ending up in 5<sup>th</sup> place in the event.</p>
<p><em><u>Your final bag at the Albertson was a mix of smallmouth and largemouth, how did target your fish?</u></em></p>
<p>For the smallmouth, the team decided to run a very similar pattern to the one that Kai ran in ABA on the week before. “We fished in the east channel, as well as up north by Kirkland, targeting points in 15-20ft that had rock mixed in somewhere. The fish were typically located on the transition from the soft bottom to rock and would bite as soon as our bait would come across the rocks. We threw a variety of football heads and swimbaits because we noticed that the bigger fish were holding close to the bottom. We would throw our lures out there, let it hit bottom and slow-roll it back to the boat”</p>
<p>When targeting the largemouth, Kai and Madden looked up on shallow flats to find the dirtiest water that they could. Kai was throwing a white spinnerbait for most of the time that they were targeting largemouth, while Madden flipped a jig. Madden caught both of the largemouth on a dark, natural colored jig on docks and boat lifts in 4-6ft of water.”</p>
<p><em><u>What drove you to target both species? At what point did you make this decision?</u></em></p>
<p>Last year in the Albertson, Kai and Madden decided to start out targeting largemouth in the morning, and then switch their focus to smallmouth, but unfortunately that pattern only yielded 3 fish. “This time we weren’t going to make that mistake again, we wanted to catch a good limit of smallmouth first. Ultimately, we knew that during this time of year, the potential to catch giant smallmouth is always there.” (Madden) “After weighing in 20+ pounds of smallmouth the weekend before and taking 5<sup>th</sup>, we knew that we would need a kicker green to give us a shot at winning.” (Kai)</p>
<p><em><u>Did the conditions on tournament day affect how you fished for/caught them?</u></em></p>
<p>Conditions: Low overnight temperatures</p>
<ul>
<li>Largemouth bite in the morning can be tough</li>
<li>Deeper smallmouth are usually more reliable as they are less affected by the lows</li>
</ul>
<p>Condition: Bluebird skies with high suns and little wind</p>
<ul>
<li>Largemouth bite is much tougher during the beginning and middle of the day<ul>
<li>Stained water will heat up more over the course of the day</li>
<li>Largemouth more likely to hold next to cover in stained water</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Smallmouth tend to feed better<ul>
<li>Smallmouth are site feeders, so the high suns allow them to feed on slower moving profiles more easily</li>
<li>Reaction bite can be a bit slower until the wind picks up</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Condition: Rapid temperature increase in afternoon</p>
<ul>
<li>Largemouth bite can pick up<ul>
<li>Shallow stained flats become more active later in the afternoon</li>
<li>Use shade from cover to ambush prey</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Smallmouth can be more active up shallow<ul>
<li>Cruisers up shallow on inside and outside weed lines</li>
<li>Use weed line structure to ambush visible prey</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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<p><em><u>How was the bite for you? Tough fishing or a numbers game??</u></em></p>
<p>“Outside of a few flurries, the bite was very tough for us. We began our day with the best 10 minutes of bass fishing that we’ve ever had. We pulled up to our first spot, positioned the boat in 20ft, and started casting up to some rocks in 15ft. Then the school got fired up!” Kai got bit on his fifth cast, and it ended up being a 5.5lb smallmouth. While he was putting her in the livewell, Madden hooked up, and brought in a three pounder. Madden got bit again on the next cast, and about 3 seconds after him Kai got bit and they were doubled up. Madden boat flipped a 3.5lb smallmouth, grabbed the net, and scooped up another 5.5lb smallmouth. As Kai put the fish in the livewell, Madden fired back out and hooked into another one that was just about 3lbs. In 5 casts, the young guns had 20+lbs of smallmouth in the livewell… and it was still only 7:15am!</p>
<p>“After the school died down, we bounced around between a few different areas and caught a few smallmouth in the mid-3lb range and made a few small culls. At 11:00 we decided it was time to fish largemouth. Pretty quickly, Madden stuck a solid one over 4lbs flipping to a boatlift with a jig. After a dry spell with no bites, we transitioned back to smallmouth for a few hours but couldn’t catch anything that helped. With 45 minutes left, we decided to fish for largemouth again. With no more bites and a decent run to the launch, I told Madden that we needed to go, and I set my rod down… then I heard a hook set. I scrambled for the net and scooped up a giant largemouth just shy of 5lbs, a massive 1.5lb cull on the last cast!”</p>
<p><em><u>Reflecting on the event, what are the biggest learning lesson that you got out of the win?</u></em></p>
<p>One if the big lessons learned was trusting our instincts and targeting smallmouth in the morning. After getting burned the year before by targeting largemouth first, we decided to catch a limit of brown before going for largemouth, and our decision quickly proved to be the right one. The other big learning lesson was really listening to the fish – if the fish are giving you good, positive feedback early, stick with the pattern and replicate.</p>
<p><em><u>For someone who really struggled in the event, how would you point them in the right direction to catch a limit on Lake Washington?</u></em></p>
<ul>
<li>Target smallmouth first during an early spring event like this one<ul>
<li>Focus on high percentage areas<ul>
<li>Points and humps entering spawning flats</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Start shallower than you think they might be and work your way out until you find them<ul>
<li>The bigger fish sometimes pull up first</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Target smallmouth with a football head,<ul>
<li>Keep the football head right along the bottom around rocks</li>
<li>Great bait to cover water</li>
<li>Good for catching a limit and has big fish potential</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>If the football head bite is tough switch to the drop shot<ul>
<li>Dead stick or work it slow, especially if you are graphing fish</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>“Largemouth can be very temperamental this time of year, and a lot of the ones up shallow just got there, so they can spook very easily. Smallmouth are the far more reliable option this time of year, so personally I would focus on them in high percentage areas where you would expect they might be.”</p>
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<p><em><u>Is there anyone that you would like to thank for their support? Family, friends, sponsors, etc?</u></em></p>
<p>“I would like to give a huge thank you to my family first. They have supported me so much throughout this process, and it means a lot for them to be my biggest fans. I’d also like to thank my good buddy and partner, Madden Tobeck – he has a nose for finding the right fish, and I’m looking forward to fishing many more events with him.” (Kai)</p>
<p>“I would first like to thank my parents for supporting me so much in the sport of fishing. Additionally, I would like to thank everyone who helped me to learn more about the sport of bass fishing and how to be a better angler. Frank Murata at Daiwa has also given me an awesome opportunity to be on their staff, and I am very thankful to use such great products and represent Daiwa on the water. Lastly, I would like to thank my good friend Kai for being a great tournament partner.” (Madden)</p>
<p>“We would also like to thank WBA for putting on this great event and thank everyone who came out to it, there were a lot of great sticks, and the support they showed us after the tournament was really humbling.” (Both)</p>
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<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1846768524?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="align-full" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1846768524?profile=RESIZE_710x"/></a></p> Western Washington ABA – Lake Washington – Eugene and Sergey Gutsalotag:www.wafish.com,2019-04-06:2523793:Topic:3010912019-04-06T02:14:55.284ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>Eugene Gutsalo and his brother Sergey have been fishing Lake Washington for many years. It is no secret that the brothers have a tremendous amount of experience on the lake, having won numerous events, including the last Northwest Bass event to venture across the mountains. Yet on March 23<sup>rd</sup>, all of the countless days fishing, scanning, and learning about Lake Washington culminated in one of the biggest bags of <u>smallmouth</u> ever coming across the scales on Lake Washington.…</p>
<p>Eugene Gutsalo and his brother Sergey have been fishing Lake Washington for many years. It is no secret that the brothers have a tremendous amount of experience on the lake, having won numerous events, including the last Northwest Bass event to venture across the mountains. Yet on March 23<sup>rd</sup>, all of the countless days fishing, scanning, and learning about Lake Washington culminated in one of the biggest bags of <u>smallmouth</u> ever coming across the scales on Lake Washington. Boasting a 6.01 pound kicker smallmouth, the Gutsalo brothers weighed in a massive 22.92 pounds of big mean smallmouth! I sat down with Eugene this week to talk about the event and he laid out a lot of great insights about early spring fishing on Lake Washington.</p>
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<p><em><u>How did your large amount of experience on the lake clue you in to what the lake was doing?</u></em></p>
<p>“Sergey and I typically start going to Lake Washington every weekend starting in late February and this year was no different. We noticed pretty quickly that this spring was a tougher than normal to catch decent numbers of smallmouth and the big ones were very hard to come by. Despite the weather holding the bite back, we knew that the fish would still be moving back to spawning bays, and so we focused on trying to intercept them along their way back into the spawning pockets. We were just mentally prepared to have to grind out a limit because practice had been so tough.”</p>
<p></p>
<p><em><u>Lake Washington is a bit of a unique lake, what’s your process for practicing for an event on it?</u></em></p>
<p>“When we practice for an early spring event on Lake Washington, we do a lot of graphing and try to mark fish on the sonar. Typically the fish are either glued to the bottom or are a few feet above it this time of year, so they are easy to identify on the graph. If we think there are fish in an area then we fish that spot and try to catch a single fish to check the size of the population. This time of year, the smallmouth seem to school by size and often can be patterned to other similar locations. I used to drop a camera for practice but now I prefer to catch a fish because I have been burned a few too many times by seeing a strong population of fish but not being able to catch them. I think that just because you can see the fish on the bottom doesn’t mean that that is where they feed. Some fish can move considerable distances to get to certain areas to feed.</p>
<p>Once they feel like they have a decent pattern figured out for the smallmouth, they will go and either chase a completely different smallmouth pattern or go and look for largemouth. “When looking for largemouth, we try to cover a lot of water in the bays until we run into a group of them. We try to not set the hook on them, but we will pull into them to try to gauge the size of the fish.”</p>
<p></p>
<p><em><u>How did you target and catch your fish?</u></em></p>
<p>The week leading up to the ABA tournament on Lake Washington was unusually warm and consistent weather for Western Washington. This was set up perfectly for Eugene and Sergey’s plan to target smallmouth moving up main lake points. The plan was for them to target rocky points that were outside of large spawning flats. On tournament day, the team relied heavily on their electronics to help them target specific rocky sections that they had marked in the years prior. The graphs also played an integral role in their choice of presentation. If they would see the fish on the bottom or not see anything at all, they would throw a football head because the fish were glued to the bottom. However, if they started seeing arches 1-3ft off of the bottom, they would switch to the swimbait and slow roll it just off of the bottom. For the first half of the day, the brothers worked their best few points pretty hard, but after they had a 20+ pound bag they started to cover water a lot faster, targeting the bigger, more aggressive fish.</p>
<p>“With the warm weather during the week, we thought that the fish would move up and so the plan was to target fish in the 20-30 foot range almost all day. In the tournament we actually caught 10-15 fish on or around main lake and secondary points near spawning flats in 20-25 feet (except the first fish came in 17ft of water). We targeted the fish exclusively with a football head and a paddle-tail swimbait. When we pulled up on a point we would start with the football head paired with a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver. If we caught fish on it, we would stick with it, and if not, one of us would switch to the swimbait if we could see fish suspending just off of the bottom. We alternated between two different swimbaits based on the depth, a 3.8” Keitech Swing Impact Fat on a 3/8oz head and a 4.8” Keitech on a 1/2oz head. The key was to let the swimbait fall all the way to the bottom and slow roll it just off of the bottom.”</p>
<p></p>
<p><em><u>What is it like fishing your tournaments with your borther?</u></em></p>
<p>“Sergey and I have fished together for so long that we process every situation on the water as a team. We are always chasing similar patterns, but targeting different fish to maximize our chances. If we are out deep and one of us starts throwing a swimbait, the other picks up a football head. Same situation if we are shallow, if one of us is skipping a senko at docks, then the other will crank the ends of docks or throw a spinnerbait. We always want to always work together by doing different things.</p>
<p></p>
<p><u>What would you recommend to a person who either struggles in the early season or is new to fishing Lake Washington?</u></p>
<p>“On a typical spring day, I would recommend that they rotate between a football head with a hula grub or a beaver trailer and a swimbait. For the swimbait, a lot of brands work well, but the most consistent swimbait on Lake Washington early seems to be the Keitech Swing Impact Fat. The soft body of the bait allows it to kick even if it is reeled extremely slowly. If the fish are not cooperating on the moving baits, slow down to a more finesse presentation, but in the same areas, especially if there are still fish on the graph. Techniques like a neko rig and dropshot can be deadly when the bite gets tough.” One of Eugene’s favorite techniques in tough conditions is “dropshotting a roboworm… wacky-style because it allows it to fall slower and the action on the bait is different, which can be key when the bite is tough.” A ned rig is a good final option if none of the above are working. Fishing it like a football head, casting out and slowly dragging it back is a great way to pick up the smallmouth that in a negative feeding mood but are still locked on the bottom.</p>
<p>Eugene and Sergey had an amazing day out on Lake Washington. But this event was not any matter of luck, but rather a culmination of countless days on the water that came together perfectly. Their hard work yielded one of, if not the largest bag of all smallmouth ever weighed on Lake Washington.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p> Spokane Bass Club’s Moses Lake Champion – David Slatertag:www.wafish.com,2019-04-04:2523793:Topic:3010862019-04-04T01:55:15.929ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>Pulling into to the launch on Sunday morning, David Slater didn’t think he would be pulling out later that day having crowned his proudest achievement in bass fishing. It was little over a year and a half ago, when David was lucky enough to survive a boat crash that totaled his Z519 Ranger on the Pend Oreille River. A malfunction in David’s GPS unit led him out of the river channel and up on to a shallow rocky flat. A split-second maneuver avoided a catastrophic collision with a shallow rock…</p>
<p>Pulling into to the launch on Sunday morning, David Slater didn’t think he would be pulling out later that day having crowned his proudest achievement in bass fishing. It was little over a year and a half ago, when David was lucky enough to survive a boat crash that totaled his Z519 Ranger on the Pend Oreille River. A malfunction in David’s GPS unit led him out of the river channel and up on to a shallow rocky flat. A split-second maneuver avoided a catastrophic collision with a shallow rock pile but flipped the boat, leaving the Ranger totaled and the David badly injured. A few months later, after David was finally reimbursed by the insurance company, he made the decision to buy a smaller boat. It was perfect timing as his friend and fellow club member Noah Whitten was selling his aluminum Bass Tracker and David jumped at the opportunity. After fishing with the Tracker for a year, David loved being back out on the water, but came to believe that “[he] would never be able to win another tournament against fully-rigged bass boats.” Little did he know that his 16.61 pound Moses Lake stringer would revive his tournament confidence, and give David his first win in his “LB” (Little Boat)!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Interview:</p>
<p></p>
<p><em><u>Do you have experience on Moses at this time of year and how did that help you prepare</u>?</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over the last several years, David has spent a large amount of time on Moses Lake in the early prespawn. “Moses, like most lakes right after ice-off, fishes really tough. This time of year, if you can put together 5-8 bites, it’s a successful day on the water. You can go hours without a bite and then run down the same stretch you fished an hour ago and pick off 3 fish… that’s just spring fishing!” David expressed that it was his mental toughness from years of tough early season fishing that helped him grind out his limit. “A lot of guys can get really spun out from the tough conditions, but if you can just maintain your composure, you have the best chance for success.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Were you able to practice for this event, if so how did it go?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Due to a late ice-off in central Washington, David didn’t get to practice for this event. However, being that the Spokane Bass Club’s event was on Sunday, David was able to get out and “practice”/compete in a Panhandle Bass Angler tournament on Moses the Saturday before his club tournament. David managed to bring a decent limit to the scales and learned a lot to prepare him for the next day. “Late in the afternoon, my non-boater caught a 4 pounder on a chatterbait on a flat that we had been fishing for hours. I realized that as the water temperature was approaching the high 40s, the bigger females were moving up onto the flats and starting to feed.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Going into Sunday’s Spokane Bass Event, what was your game plan?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I had made my mind up to run back to the Cascade Arm again. The weather on Sunday was sunny and 65° and that arm is typically muddier than the rest of the lake, so it tends to heat up faster.” On Sunday, when David launched the boat, his graph read 43° at blastoff (up 4° from the day before) and by the time he reached the Cascade arm, his graphs tipped off at 49°. “I felt confident that the fish should be in a more positive feeding mood on Sunday when I saw the water temperature, and when the 4<sup>th</sup> cast of the morning produced the first fish, my confidence grew even more.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Walk me through your day – how did you catch them and what did you see out there?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>After the run up to the Cascade arm, it didn’t take long for David to start catching them. Starting the morning off throwing a Strike King 1.5XD on a shallow rocky flat, David put his first fish in the boat right off the bat, with another following suit shortly after. “It felt great to get the first two fish early in the day… I didn’t get my first bite until 9:30 the day before. However, I realized that both of the keepers that I had were males, and I knew that if I wanted a chance to win, I had to make an adjustment to target the bigger females. In the past, I had noticed that the staging females tended to suspend around the first break off of shallow rocky flats. When I moved out onto the break, I could see the fish suspending right off of the contour change, but couldn’t get them to eat out there. I realized that I may have to play the waiting game, for the warm midday sun to reposition those big females.</p>
<p>As the day progressed, the muddy water rapidly warmed, the bite started to turn on as a subtle afternoon breeze blew across the lake. “After the sun had been up for a few hours, I returned to the shallow rocky flat throwing a green pumpkin Z-man Original Chatterbait. I paired with a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper as the bass were up chasing baitfish. My approach was to slow-roll the chatterbait over the shallow flat so it would deflect off of or hang up on the rocks… generating a reaction bite. It was a very similar bite to slow-rolling a chatterbait around pad-stems or pencil reeds where the chatterbait would hang-up and then the bait would explode forward out of the cover.”</p>
<p>After David put his first 3 pounder in the boat on the chatterbait, a subtle breeze started to blow across the flat. “The breeze was the last piece of the puzzle that I needed to really turn the chatterbait bite on! Almost as soon as the wind started, I came over a shallow rock and hooked into my kicker, a big prespawn largemouth. After that fish I started targeting the specific pieces of the flat that were getting hit by the wind and I filled out my bag and even culled a few times.” The wind added just enough surface disruption to entice those big females to move up on the flat and start to feed. And David was right there to trick them into biting!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>Explain how you think the conditions affected the bass and what you adjusted you made?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Condition – Blue-bird skies and sunny with air temperature in the mid-60s</p>
<ul>
<li>Largemouth bite would be tough with the lack of overcast but the sun would warm the water temperature at the end of the day and may help the bite<ul>
<li>Target muddier water because it tends to be warmer as it traps more heat from the sunlight</li>
<li>Look for shallow spawning flats near deep water that have rock or wood on them to provide cover and additional warmth for staging bass</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Condition – Reduced water visibility from normal conditions (6-8 inches)</p>
<ul>
<li>Largemouth will want to hold close to shallow cover like wood or rock<ul>
<li>Approached the fish with multiple reaction baits that would deflect off of the cover that the bass were holding to – eliciting a reaction-strike</li>
<li>Switched from the traditional red craw crankbaits to ones with a bolder presentation (Chartreuse Sexy Shad and Chartreuse Black-back)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Condition – Weather transitioned from flat calm to a 3-5mph wind</p>
<ul>
<li>Largemouth tend to feed heavier when the wind picks up as the baitfish cannot detect the bass due to disruption on the water’s surface<ul>
<li>Switched to a chatterbait because it put out more vibrations and was easier for the bass to detect and target </li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p><em><u>Reflecting on the win what are some key learning lessons you can see in your day out on Moses?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>You don’t have to let the size of your boat limit you in any event – you just have to change the way that you fish<ul>
<li>Multiple long runs aren’t possible... pick an area that you want to target and break it down with multiple techniques</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Don’t let a visually feature-less lake throw you off… in lakes like Moses Lake fish relate heavily to very subtle contour changes<ul>
<li>If you think about a shallow bay that is only 10ft deep at the max, a 2ft ledge is proportionally the same as an 8ft ledge in 40ft – subtle changes on a graph can be massive changes underwater</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Being mentally prepared for tough fishing conditions allow you to stay focused when you aren’t getting consistent feedback from the fish<ul>
<li>Typically, on warmer days, the bite will get better over the course of the day as the water temperature increases – be patient and you will be rewarded</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Listen to the fish and reflect on bites<ul>
<li>Ask yourself why you got a bite and what was the situation when it happened and try to repeat</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p><em><u>To someone who hasn’t been out on Moses in the early spring what advice would you give to help them put fish in the boat?</u></em></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>The best chances at putting fish in the boat and pulling a limit together is to target the smallmouth population<ul>
<li>Target rocky points and humps leading back into large spawning pockets</li>
<li>Spawning bays that are south facing will be the first to spawn</li>
<li>Simplify your approaches<ul>
<li>Cranking rocks with fire-red crankbaits that run in the 4-6ft range</li>
<li>Slowly hopping a Blade-bait</li>
<li>Dragging a 3/8oz tube in natural colors (green pumpkin, watermelon, etc.)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>David’s big win came from years of hard work, time on the water, and a strong mental approach. He embodied the love and passion that we all have for this sport and his emotions and ongoing excitement over his first win out of “LB” were definitely felt. I couldn’t be happier to have spent the time speaking with David about his recent accomplishments and share his story.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If you are in the Spokane area and looking to join a club, look into the Spokane Bass Club. It has a great group of members that are willing to share with and develop newcomers!!</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1760341604?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="align-left" src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1760341604?profile=RESIZE_710x"/></a></p> Youth Mentoring - Build the Future of our Sporttag:www.wafish.com,2019-03-21:2523793:Topic:3004112019-03-21T01:54:48.118ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>This page is going to focus on promoting the youth movement in our sport. From interviewing young up-and-comers to linking kids to captains so they can fish in tournaments. This is where the WAFish community is going to facilitate the knowledge transfer and create opportunities for the youth that will keep them in the sport forever. It only takes one day on the water to get a wide-eyed kid hooked for life!</p>
<p>This page is going to focus on promoting the youth movement in our sport. From interviewing young up-and-comers to linking kids to captains so they can fish in tournaments. This is where the WAFish community is going to facilitate the knowledge transfer and create opportunities for the youth that will keep them in the sport forever. It only takes one day on the water to get a wide-eyed kid hooked for life!</p> Tournament Previews and Insightstag:www.wafish.com,2019-03-21:2523793:Topic:3002572019-03-21T01:44:16.980ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>This section will provide the inside scoop from locals and pros leading up to upcoming tournaments. The focus for this is to provide members who didn't have time to practice or just couldn't figure out the fishery in practice, a new perspective or at least a starting place going into the weekend. Also this will be a great way to get those anglers contemplating the idea of fishing an event the confidence to show up and blastoff with a few more tools in their back pocket!</p>
<p>And let's be…</p>
<p>This section will provide the inside scoop from locals and pros leading up to upcoming tournaments. The focus for this is to provide members who didn't have time to practice or just couldn't figure out the fishery in practice, a new perspective or at least a starting place going into the weekend. Also this will be a great way to get those anglers contemplating the idea of fishing an event the confidence to show up and blastoff with a few more tools in their back pocket!</p>
<p>And let's be honest... who doesn't like a little pregame hype for the big weekend derby!?</p> How to be a better bass angler in the NORTHWESTtag:www.wafish.com,2019-03-21:2523793:Topic:3004092019-03-21T01:38:33.129ZEric Urstadhttps://www.wafish.com/profile/EricUrstad
<p>There are thousands upon thousands of articles, videos, and blogs strewn across YouTube, various websites, and social media, all focused on bass fishing. But how many of them actually are completely relevant to what fishing is like in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, etc. Too many times have I seen young or new bass anglers struggle to catch fish because they are simply misinformed.</p>
<p>In the last 5 years alone, I have seen numerous anglers get into the sport and then give it up because they…</p>
<p>There are thousands upon thousands of articles, videos, and blogs strewn across YouTube, various websites, and social media, all focused on bass fishing. But how many of them actually are completely relevant to what fishing is like in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, etc. Too many times have I seen young or new bass anglers struggle to catch fish because they are simply misinformed.</p>
<p>In the last 5 years alone, I have seen numerous anglers get into the sport and then give it up because they just couldn't figure it out. After the fifth or so angler to put the rods down and sell the boat, I was starting to see a common theme... misinformation. It wasn't that they were getting bad info, they were just getting the wrong info! I know that most of us at one point thought that we had to buy a bunch of shad lures because all bass love shad... without knowing that WE DON'T HAVE THE SHAD THAT THE REST OF THE COUNTRY HAS!! While this is just one example, it is a clear example of how fishing in out area is simply different. We have massive weather swings.... we don't have the illustrious grass populations of the Southeast... we don't have the knockout ledge fishing of the Midwest... we don't zebra and quagga mussels like the Northern lakes... and our Northern-strain largemouth are FUNDAMENTALLY different than Florida-strained Largemouth that populate the South. While a lot can be learned from these different fisheries, WAFish is going to make your search a lot easier.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This forum will be our massive filter of what makes a good Northwest bass angler! This is meant to help beginners become strong anglers and strong anglers become unstoppable hammers.</p>
<p></p>