I Went to Washington and All I Got Was This Stupid License

I made my way to Washington this weekend and my wife told me I wouldn’t have time to fish so I didn’t take my fly rod or any other fishing gear at all. We were there for my sister in laws graduation but that was on Saturday. When we arrived on Friday we got our hotel room, hung out for a bit and then my wife said we had free time and I should go fishing! Go figure! 

When I usually go to Washington I go to Othello and this time we were in Seattle/Kent. We decided to go to a public lake/pond so I went to the local Wal Mart to pick up a 1 day license. I had to pay $20 to fish for one day since I am from California. My brother in law paid $10. 

When we arrived at the park, there were guys walking by us with limits of trout and every one of them answered that they were catching them on powerbait.  One guy had a fly rod and we talked a bit about fly fishing which was cool; I felt like I was part of a secret club or something. He had been catching them on an olive wooley bugger.  We looked at the pier and then noticed one guy who was slaying the trout off of powerbait. I hate to accuse a person of anything but this was more of an observation than an accusation. The guy was pulling out fish after fish and keeping them all. I saw him pull out a limit in about 15 minutes and he just kept fishing and throwing them in his bucket. There is no telling how many he pulled off before I got there. 

We used my brother in laws rods but he had 15-20 lb test on one of them and a thick braid on the other. I knew that if we were going to catch something, it was going to be difficult. While at walmart I picked up some tiny trebles, some small weights and he had swivels. What was the one thing we forgot? POWERBAIT! All we had was worms. 

I tried to recycle some power eggs that I found floating around but then we found another problem. The line was too heavy and we couldn’t cast them out far enough. My brother in law had one bobber so I decided to try a nightcrawler on a long leader. I ended up getting one takedown but it didn’t materialize into a fish. All of this took place in about 45 minutes and before we could even make a powerbait run, one of those famous Seattle storms came. I had my rain jacket on but not rain pants. My Brother in law had no protection and was getting soaked. The rain eventually turned into hail as we found cover. It looked to be a short storm so we waited for a while until it calmed down.

We found another spot and fished for another 5 minutes or so before the storm got strong again. At that point we went back to the car and called it a day. Unfortunately there were no fish but I did get into some pretty decent BBQ at BBQ Petes in Kent, WA. If you guys are ever in the area, give it a try. 

Total Fish= 0

Washington State Fishing!!

I’m back from Washington! It feels good to be home although I am tired. Nonetheless if somebody asked me to go fishing with them, I would still go no matter how tired I am (somebody please ask me to fish with them!).

Well anyway, on Monday I convinced my brother in law Conrad who we call Coco, to take me fishing.  Coco picked me up around 3 and we took Mike (wifes younger sisters boy friend) with us as well. It was his first time fishing EVER! Between me and Coco we know a good deal about bass fishing so he was in good hands.

Coco knows some FANTASTIC honey holes in Eastern Washington. He took me to one spot where a creek dumps into a large pond. He was talking up the spot so much I was excited. However when we arrived, the spot was taken. Instead we looked around for another spot and found an area where the pond drains out into a small creek. We saw a small largemouth in the water there so we decided to stick around.

We started off with frogs and popping frogs. i had no luck but one of my bro's in law got a few strikes.

My brother in law fishes for bass and nothing else so he has a lot of bass gear. I am often wary of buying gear that is too expensive and doesn’t necessarily work. Fortunately this was not only a time of fishing but of testing his gear!

After a bit i switched up to a red and silver rapala x-rap pop. I got a few pops in and let her sit at one point because my bro in law was talking to me. When i looked back my popper was gone but I felt no tension. i reeled in and then i felt it! I set my hook, adjusted my drag, reeled in and I reeled in this 3 lb 17.5 in washington state bucketmouth!

A bit later I traded rods with mike. His reel had bad line in it, which Coco had warned me about, but I ignored. I stopped getting bites on the popper so I went in Coco’s tacklebox and fished a hedon torpedo. Really i was just testing it because I had never used one before. I found the lure to look a bit dainty  but the small propeller also intrigued me.

On my second cast i was zipping it over my way when all of a sudden I got a smash. I start reeling in and the fish was putting up a nice fight. All of a sudden I heard a pop and the line tip flew at me as the fish swam away. The line had snapped right in the middle. I was pissed! a second later the torpedo floated to the top of the water and was carried away from the current.

At this time it was about 7 and we would have kept on fishing but this storm came and chased us away! We packed up just in time to avoid the huge storm that ensued! 

Washington state seems to be a great place to fish for bass! We en

ded the day with only one fish and although I would have wanted all of us to get at least one, I was happy that I wasn’t skunked! I was also happy that i got to bond a little with my brother in law  and sister in laws boyfriend.

Washington State Fishing!

The one thing that I love about Washington State (besides my Fiancé) is the amount of lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks and streams within a small radius. While driving in Washington State I was overwhelmed by all the potential fishing spots you see driving down pretty much any road. I have wanted to fish this area since the first time I went out there and this past weekend I was able to do just that!

My Brother in law took me fishing this past Sunday at a small marshy lake/pond/ body of water he simply referred to as “JT’s.”  My Brother-in-law Coco, doesn’t fish by bank so I didn’t stay true to this blog on this fishing trip… I fished by boat. Dissapointing, I know but its how Coco fishes so when in Rome… 

We had 2 hours to fish before we had to go home and enjoy a dinner with the in-laws. In the boat was Coco (using a popper), his buddy Brandon (used a popper and powerbait) and myself (popper and crankbait). We launched the boat and the first half hour was spent finding a good spot. I really wanted to show off my fishing skills which luckily I was able to do by making the first catch!

A small bluegill but a milestone nonetheless.  This fish was the first fish I have ever caught in Washington State! And it certainly wouldn’t be my last. Even though we were fishing for Largemouths, the second half hour was full of bluegill. I caught the first two but Coco quickly caught up and the race was on! 

Brandon only caught one fish but coco and I had a friendly competition going on to see who would catch the most fish! By the end of the first full hour we had only caught bluegill and then I had a bit of a surprise.

I know most of you might see this as an everyday thing, but I had never caught a crappie in my life, and this is the first time I did that. 

After the crappie we knew it was time to kick some bass! We were catching everything but bass until all of a sudden I had a harder tug than usual on the other end of the line. Sure enough I caught the first bass of the evening (about 11 in.)  and I was proud of it. In fact, I ended up catching the second bass (12 in.) of the evening as well! 

I seemed to be winning the competition, I was two fish ahead of Coco and it was almost time to leave and then it happened! Coco got a heavy tug on his line and it even moved the boat a bit. It didn’t put up a huge fight but he could tell it was pretty big. Next thing I know the guy pulls up this huge hog, probably a 10 lber (we didn’t have a scale) which was his last fish of the night!

I pulled him into the boat and we all celebrated his catch. Although I would go on to catch one more bluegill, making a total of seven fish of three different kinds, none of them bigger than the lunker coco caught!

 

Between me, coco and Brandon we caught a total of 13 fish. I caught the most but Coco Certainly caught the best. In all it was a good day of fishing and some great bonding with my future brother-in-law.