ProCrafter

We have several fisheries that have an over abundance of Smallmouth so the DFW instituted a raise in the keep totals from 5 to 10 per day to help bring the ratio back into check and we have seen a size increase from a 1-1/2 lb per fish average to a 2-1/2 lb average and still have alot of sub 12 inch fish and a shore breakfast of Bacon wrapped Smallmouth Filets and eggs is the Bomb!! Largemouth...no...yuk!!!

The Western Bass Club will be having an open invite "Fish-In"this Saturday on Lake Sammamish and we will meet at 0630 for breakfast at the Denny's on Gilman in Issaquah and then proceed to the launch at 0800 to get folks on the water....this is intended as a new member meet/greet and to introduce folks to deep water winter fishing. Afterwards we will all head over to Fatburger for some post fishing discussion and get some hot food in our guts to warm up!! If you wanted to check out a club, have a boat or not then come on out and take a look....beats watching fishing shows all day! If you have a PFD bring it and of course, this is Washington....some rain gear/gloves would be a good choice!! Heres a fish caught December 29th at 3 lbs 11oz caught in 47 ft while dropshotting.

Welcome Gordy!

Amen and will tell some of ya personally at the Roadtrip!!

Here is mine...thought I posted it awhile ago....2003 ProCraft Pro190 18'6"Merc. 150 EFI Great Boat and later this week gets out of the shop after new Lowrance Elite5 DSI units are installed and new ignition/wiring to ensure many more great trips on the water!! Had to beach her in this shot as a thunderstorm had barreled in! Here is my work rig... ; )

The Thurston Co. Lakes have a good population of Crappie, Bluegill and in the deeper lakes Stickleback Minnows, Yellow Perch and Sculpin. The main staple forage is Crayfish which, depending on the watercolor can range from deep brown to almost black but each spring get their orange/green pumpkin coloring as they go through a molting and shed their carapace in favor of new growth. spring craw colored crankbaits, green pumpkin and watermelon/red flake plastics (Senkos,tubes and Brush Hogs) get most of my bites in these waters. Water color can range from very tanic/brown in spring to clear 2-3 ft in early summer to clear/with algae blooms late summer.

Kriet...he's due.

Oh...and yes, that is a Bassresource Jersey!

Had a great trip last May at Banks Lake in Washington State....Not sure if I posted it here but its what gets me through the Winter months! Used the GoPro Hero-2 mounted on the engine cowling and on the helmet strap system.

Registration mailed off....arrive in Nashville the 30th at 11:00 PM, Hotel and in the AM drive to Pickwick!!! (Hotel is pretty much to rig up tackle and get organized! Not much sleep gonna be happnin!)

Flight Booked....will download the sign-up sheet and get it mailed for ya Mike. I'm officially committed and starting the wait clock!

Is they're anyone looking for a cabin or room co-renter? also will have a rental car for shuttle runs and stuff. Handled...Thanks Rhino and Dinky!

I went out on Dec. 29th on Lake Washington in Seattle and got a nice 3-11 Smally on a dropshot with a 3 foot length between the weight and the bait...this I believe allowed the fish to see the bait from a distance and with a very slow presentation seems to get the most bites. The fish was in 47ft of water so a quick weight, pic and down he went back to the bottom. Two other boats from my club each caught 3 Smallies from 40+ feet on the same presentation. I use 8 lb mono and place a swivel about 2 ft above the hook to help with line twist.

Okay...pricing flights and looking to get the form filled out....been a long time since Kentucky Lake!! Hope to be signed up soon!

I'm going on the 10-13th of May on a guided all inclusive 2 bird trip won at a NWTF auction that will be filmed here in Eastern Wa. in the Colville area. This is going to be my first hunt and will be my barometer for continuing in the sport as it runs into the bass sight fishing period and I prefer upland game bird shooting as it is for the exercise that I am going "Birdy". will post a report when I return.

Yeah this was a suck-fest for us...we came in 48th of 120 for 8.77 lbs got food poisoning Sat-Tues but fished Sun with no sleep was a mess. Mon. fished and caught 7 Largemouth and 1 Smally and did some GoPro film....heres the link. postpotholesopen2012_0001.wmv will see if it loads........if not go to scudfshmn on you tube.

Got an Invite to the Open on the 21st-22nd and was wondering who else is going.....last time I fished it was in 2007 and took 11th out of 115 boats...takes around 50+ lbs to win this thing so got all the gear ready for some big Smallies and even bigger Largemouth!!

We started, years ago...attending the regional Sportsmens show (O'Laughlins is ours)...most clubs are tax-exempt so alot of shows are free entry for booths...must have a tax-ID number from IRS and we average between 5-10 new members from these activiites...we also have a Cabelas and they will have spring outdoors days and ask local clubs to come down and talk fishing opening another opportunity to recruit!! Also utilizing an internet website has gotten us multiple new members doing random searches. Ours is at www.westernbassclub.com if you want to look at a demo.

My "Jill" and I took 3rd. and big fish for $1200.00 in a Jack-N-Jill tournament there last month before the lake began drawing down and caught/weighed all Largemouth in the punchbowl fishing Senkos skipped to reeds, this might not be possible now but the offshore weedlines should be they're haunts now as thats where they go for Sept. September the lake is usually down 5-7 ft. so the pattern of wacky rigged Senkos or light Niko-rigged baits should do well...if any wind kicks up tie on a frog and fish with the wind over those same weed edges and hang on! Good Luck and post a report!

Hope im not too late.....we had our Jack-n-Jill tourney last weekend and fish were caught mostly on footballhead jigs with a variety of colors...mostly earthtones....dragged or hopped in 5-15 ft of water...topwaters paid off in early am and in the heat of the day the dropshot filled and culled up the limits. I fished mostly around the cattle farm upriver of Plum Point....and then worked our way back to Spring Canyon fishing coves and rocky points...we averaged 35 fish a day for 17+ pounds and a third place finish but an engine problem prevented more areas from being fished...winner had 25.01 for 12 fish...all smallies and 2nd was 24.62....no Largemouth caught. Will be at Banks Lake this weekend for the Northend Jack-N-Jill also if the shop gets the boat ready!!

Had lots of wind Thursday & Friday up to 40 MPH which churned up the water and mixed up any warming to the flats so we found hardly any bedding areas and lots of cruising Largemouth but only when the wind quit and the heating began again...water temps started at 49 degrees and by Sunday were up to 57!! but of course thats when we headed home...I did manage 2 Largemouth at 4.9 and 4.8 Some of the sunsets and time away from the city made it all worthwhile!!

Got the camper ready....getting some trailer work done and Thursday morning heading out to Potholes reservoir for 4 days of relaxing sight fishing and going for a new PB Largemouth (Over 7-2) Hope to see folks there, but mostly the fish!!!

Potholes Open was just held and it took 50 lbs to win it,,,I believe they had a 6 fish limit per day for this team event for two days!!! I'm so ready to hit that lake for four days of whackin fish!!!

Ouch!!! This was as tough as we thought it would be...we had 8 boats with 11 anglers..(Dang Economy!!) and only two fish caught for the whole event!!! good thing was I caught both fish for a total of 6.82 lbs!!! Took 1st. place and big fish title. W.D.F.W. had a biologist there and stated there is an ongoing study as to why this fishery has shown a drastic decline without a known fish kill. Will post some pics when downloaded. Water temps from 48 in the morning up to 51 and tanic-cloudy colored water at 1-3 ft. visibility.

The Western Bass Club will be on Silver Lake in Cowlitz Co. Wash. St. for the annual Draw Tournament Sat/Sun the 16th/17th. The last two tourneys on the fishery (Open events in Late March and april 9th) had about 56 boats combined and only 11 fish total caught....foul weather, high water and a possible lake decline period has been rumoured as the culprits and I will post how we do on Monday after our event. Silver is a shallow lake maxing out at 14 ft. deep and approx 2.200 acres...lily pads and stored logs from logging gone by make up alot of the structure...not uncommon to see an 8 or a 9 come from any two day tourney.