06-14-2012, 04:05 PM
My father in law is in town for a visit and likes to fish even more than I do. So, we got him a two day license and I took tuesday and wednesday off work. The first day I decided I would go to the Gov't Wash. We got there just before sun-up (about 0445) and paddled out to my favorite cove. The fish were going nuts jumping all over the place.
I started with a swimbait because I had luck with it in that area before. My father in law started with a popper since they seemed to be on the top of the water. We fished these lures for probably about an hour and didnt even get a bite. Then as it was getting lighter out the topwater lure got nailed but the fish took it straight to the bottom and got the line tangled up in some weeds so it got away. I decided maybe I better try some top water lures myself and put on a slightly different color popper. I fished the popper for about 45 minutes and started getting frustrated because the fish were jumping all around us but didn't seem interested in our lures at all. I swapped to cranks, square bills, and finally in a last ditch effort to not get skunked I through the ol' senko worm out (watermelon colored). I cast it in to some brush and before it could hit the bottom I hooked a tiny little SMB (probably 3 or 4 inches). About ten minutes later I got another SMB a little bigger, probably 5-7 inches. My father in law decided what I was doing must be the ticket and threw on a senko worm as well. We ended up catching 9 SMB and 1 LMB but they were all pretty small so we didn't keep any. My father in law did catch one that was just shy of 12" (biggest fish caught in my canoe so far lol). Unbeknownst to me he also decided to try "trolling" while we were paddling back to the car. To my surprise he caught the second biggest fish of the day a LMG about 10". I couldn't believe it, we were just paddling along and all of a sudden he is saying stop stop... I look back and he is reeling in a fish lol. Not sure where the big fish were at but they weren't in my cove that day. We ended up getting off the water around 10.
Wednesday we went out to Stewarts point and launched around 0530. It wasn't really windy but it was windy enough to push the canoe around a lot (need to get an anchor or maybe a trolling motor). I decided I would start out with that same Senko worm I was having so much luck with the previous day. On my first cast I hooked up with a SMB and so did my father in law, at almost the same time (he was also using a senko). We were fishing off the south east point of an island not far from where we launched the canoe from shore. They were both pretty small 5-7". The wind pushed us just about back to where we launched so we paddled back out to the same area off the island and sure enough we both hooked up at almost the same time in just about the same spot with two more SMB again 5-7". This was in like the first hour of being out there. We decided with wanted to catch something bigger so we tried the point off the other side of the island but didn have any luck.. We let the wind push us back into a big cove and as it narrowed we both snagged another pair of SMB again 5-7". I couldn't believe we had caught 6 fish so quickly and that every time we caught them it was essentially at the same time. After that pair it slowed down considerably. We ended up catching 10 SMB's that day all in the 5-8" range. I did have one on the line that I thought felt like it could have had a bit more size to it but it ended up getting off the hook before I could see it. We got off the water a little early, probably around 0900, because I was tired of having to paddle up wind.
I don't know if I'm fishing in the wrong areas or if the big fish are just few and far between. I can't complain too much though... its very rare for me to witness/be part of catching 20 fish in two days even if they were small. It was fun too those little bass still put up a pretty good fight.
The first picture is of the one my father in law caught trolling I'm not positive it was an LMB but he thought it was. The second one is the SMB that he caught that was about 12".
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I started with a swimbait because I had luck with it in that area before. My father in law started with a popper since they seemed to be on the top of the water. We fished these lures for probably about an hour and didnt even get a bite. Then as it was getting lighter out the topwater lure got nailed but the fish took it straight to the bottom and got the line tangled up in some weeds so it got away. I decided maybe I better try some top water lures myself and put on a slightly different color popper. I fished the popper for about 45 minutes and started getting frustrated because the fish were jumping all around us but didn't seem interested in our lures at all. I swapped to cranks, square bills, and finally in a last ditch effort to not get skunked I through the ol' senko worm out (watermelon colored). I cast it in to some brush and before it could hit the bottom I hooked a tiny little SMB (probably 3 or 4 inches). About ten minutes later I got another SMB a little bigger, probably 5-7 inches. My father in law decided what I was doing must be the ticket and threw on a senko worm as well. We ended up catching 9 SMB and 1 LMB but they were all pretty small so we didn't keep any. My father in law did catch one that was just shy of 12" (biggest fish caught in my canoe so far lol). Unbeknownst to me he also decided to try "trolling" while we were paddling back to the car. To my surprise he caught the second biggest fish of the day a LMG about 10". I couldn't believe it, we were just paddling along and all of a sudden he is saying stop stop... I look back and he is reeling in a fish lol. Not sure where the big fish were at but they weren't in my cove that day. We ended up getting off the water around 10.
Wednesday we went out to Stewarts point and launched around 0530. It wasn't really windy but it was windy enough to push the canoe around a lot (need to get an anchor or maybe a trolling motor). I decided I would start out with that same Senko worm I was having so much luck with the previous day. On my first cast I hooked up with a SMB and so did my father in law, at almost the same time (he was also using a senko). We were fishing off the south east point of an island not far from where we launched the canoe from shore. They were both pretty small 5-7". The wind pushed us just about back to where we launched so we paddled back out to the same area off the island and sure enough we both hooked up at almost the same time in just about the same spot with two more SMB again 5-7". This was in like the first hour of being out there. We decided with wanted to catch something bigger so we tried the point off the other side of the island but didn have any luck.. We let the wind push us back into a big cove and as it narrowed we both snagged another pair of SMB again 5-7". I couldn't believe we had caught 6 fish so quickly and that every time we caught them it was essentially at the same time. After that pair it slowed down considerably. We ended up catching 10 SMB's that day all in the 5-8" range. I did have one on the line that I thought felt like it could have had a bit more size to it but it ended up getting off the hook before I could see it. We got off the water a little early, probably around 0900, because I was tired of having to paddle up wind.
I don't know if I'm fishing in the wrong areas or if the big fish are just few and far between. I can't complain too much though... its very rare for me to witness/be part of catching 20 fish in two days even if they were small. It was fun too those little bass still put up a pretty good fight.
The first picture is of the one my father in law caught trolling I'm not positive it was an LMB but he thought it was. The second one is the SMB that he caught that was about 12".
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