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Probably the most popular and most used line on the market is Monofilament line, it is used by all anglers across the world. Monofilament is availible in many different pound tests and can be used on both spinning and baitcasting reels. In most case mono is not used for deep-water fishing because  it can take on water and its sensitivity will decrease. It also has a tendency for the knots you tie to weaken.

Monofilament line can weaken when exposed to heat or sun, and comes off the spool where it has been stored which can prove annoying by becoming tangled quite often. For that reason you should change your line out often. Despite all its draw-backs, this is the most widely used type of line because it is cheapest and comes in a variety of colors and strengths. It is also for the most part virtually invisable under the water in most cases.

The other widely used line is braided line. This type of line is the strongest there is in relation to its diameter. Braids are very abrasion resistant. This line is so strong that you may have trouble breaking it when you get a snag, so a fish is even more unlikely to break it in a struggle.  In contrast to monofilament line, braided line is used for deep-sea fishing where strength and durability are of the utmost necessity. The braided line has a much smaller diameter and no stretch, so every time a fish bites you will know! The downside is that braids are very expensive in most cases.

Unlike the monofilament line, braided lines are very visable in the water, and are  known to spook fish in some cases cause they can see it. Use braided lines if you are fishing in murky water, or at night. The visability of the braided line is especially unwanted when you are fishing with a lure that a fish can see for a long time before choosing to bite.

Using all the above points, it is usually in your best to use a monofilament line at the end of a braided one as a leader, to minimize the visibility of the line to the fish, yet still have the strength of the braided line to catch bigger fish known to put up a fight. When trolling, mono line is the best to use, because the stretch it provides is an added asset.  Although mono is half as expensive as the braided line, the cost does not end up being as much of a factor because it needs to be replaced a lot more often. To get the best of both worlds, use a braided line for strength with a mono line tied onto the end for the invisibility needed to get fish to bite. The Uni-Knot is a great knot for doing this. The bloodknot is also sometimes used.

Welcome to the fly fishing section of Fishing addicts Northwest. We hope to hear and learn about your insight in the sport of fly fishing. In these articles we take a no bull crap approach to the sport we love.

To be soundly educated in the sport of fly fishing, and be able to match knowledge with others you dang near have to live for the sport, sometimes it means sacrificing maybe some friends, time, money, jobs, and relationships (she’s not worth it). To the dedicated fly fisher finding the balance between chasing the steelhead in the upper east fork, locating the scrappy brookies in the small spring creeks, matching the hatch in a still alpine lake, and the trials of everyday life is often challenging. After all, once the addiction starts… it never stops. In our next month article we will be covering the preseason preparations for the June 1st opener.

by
-Lonny Brooks aka tight-lines
& Cody Lindberg aka troutbum89

If you’re looking to catch Kokanee now is the time to start. Spring is be the most productive time to pull out these fun and very tasty fish in both Merwin and Yale. Spring is not the only time you have a chance at these fish. You can find them throughout the entire summer but its going to take a little more effort finding them and a lot more weight, preferably a downrigger to get down to them.

Early in the season, March and April, Kokanee are in large, very concentrated schools near the surface of the water. You’ll need to fish very shallow with little weight. Troll the west end of Merwin where the water temp is warmer until you start catching fish, then stay in that area and you’ll notice patterns in where you catch fish due to the large schools.  In May and June the fish will follow the water temperature line down deeper into the lake. As the water warms, the fish will go deeper and deeper. For this reason you’ll need to fish deeper than you did before. Using a quality depth finder is an easy way of targeting the fish. If you don’t have one fish at different depths until you find them. Also, as the water warms, the fish will move to the east end of Merwin where fresh and cooler water enters from the upper Lewis River.  Fishing for kokanee can be done many different ways. Jigging, trolling, and casting are most popular. Trolling will be the easiest way in Merwin and Yale due to their size. Start by trolling ford fender flashers followed by a wedding ring spinner. When fishing on sunny days, use silver flashers, and use copper or brass on overcast days. Wedding ring spinners come in many colors but only red and green are your must have colors in your tackle box. Use the red early in the season when the kokanee are shallow and green when the kokanee move deeper. Also use Green Giant white shoepeg corn for bait, just one or two kernels per hook. Other bait such as single salmon eggs or a night crawler can work but corn tends to be must productive. Kokanee are strange in that sometimes they will bite best on things that other days they won’t touch. If you aren’t catching fish, make a change to your presentation about every 30 minutes, you’ll eventually find something that works, then stick with it.

Pre-Spawn, Spawn and Post-Spawn Largemouth Bass are always a hot topic for committed Bass anglers. In the Pacific Northwest, the topic can almost drive you to distraction. That is because our changeable weather and differing waters can mean that the Spawn runs from early April to July or even later, and not just in separate bodies of water…..but even on the same lake!

Different sides of the lake warm at different times, and different ends of reservoirs reach different temperatures as well. Add to that coldwater springs in some lakes, and runoff from warmwater creeks in others – even the pumping of warm water by landowners from flooded fields into ponds or rivers – and you can get quite a wide-ranging spectrum of temperatures.

The magic temperature that forces Bass into reproductive mode is generally agreed to be 60 degrees farenheight, but fish can spawn in slightly colder or slightly warmer water than that. Once the right temperature is reached, the urge of nature becomes irresistable and Bass begin spawning.

In the same way that a Spring Chinook Salmon is driven by its genetic makeup to run up the Columbia from the ocean, seeking out its home spawning tributary and completing its life cycle, Largemouth Bass must find the right spot, build their nest and spawn when the temperature reaches that magic spot on the thermometer. Luckily for us Bass fishermen, this does not end the fish’s life cycle. It just starts new ones for another generation of Bass that manage to survive and beat nature’s harsh odds to adulthood.

This April started out cold and is warming only slowly. As I’ve mentioned before though, watch your thermometer and weather patterns closely. Warm weather and warm rains can cause a sudden jump in temperature. It pays to have a way to check the temperature for yourself. Your boat’s fish finder will tell you the surface temperature. You can also buy a castable glass thermometer that can measure either the surface or deepwater temperatures. They can be found at quality sporting goods stores such as Sportsman’s Warehouse/UFA or flyshops. Experiment with your thermometer and you’ll find quite a gradient from top to bottom at times. This may come in handy as we progress into Summer. More on that in later months.

Water temperatures are ranging from 46 degrees in the Columbia in warmer areas, to 53 and higher in various lakes and reservoirs. This means that most Bass will still be in Pre-Spawn mode. The Pre-Spawn tactics and baits discussed in last month’s column will work just fine, but because we are nearing spawning temperatures – especially for bigger fish – it is good to start including a few baits for the Spawn in your arsenal.

Besides those spinnerbaits and jig-and-grubs for Pre-Spawn, think about soft plastics like lizards, worms and tube baits for subtle presentations in reedbeds, weedbeds and likely spawning areas. Texas rigs, skin-hooked will prove more manageable than Carolina rigs at this time. Dropshotting with small, subtle amounts of lead will work as well.
You may well find spawning beds that appear as well-defined light spots or dark spots (This depends on the composition of the bottom in that area) in comparison with the rest of the area. Take your time and use your polarized sunglasses and you may also catch sight of a fish, or its shape, hovering near a bed. Soft plastics can be dragged over beds or allowed to actually settle into the bed. This may stimulate a savage strike. Bass can also gently pick up the bait and deposit it away from the bed without really ‘eating’ it. For this reason, some recommend brightly colored baits so that you can actually watch what the fish is doing. You will not always have this luxury, so I recommend paying close attention and staying attuned to your line and rod. For obvious biological and sporting reasons, please handle any spawning bed fish carefully at the water level, get the hook out gently and release an upright, rested and revived fish. The fish and all your fellow bass fisherman will be grateful!
Another great bait around the ‘crazy time’ of the Spawn, when big fish can sometimes be the least wary, is the floating stickbait. A Bomber Long A or Rapala in a baitfish pattern such as rainbow trout or perch can be deadly. Look for an opening in a brush pocket, or along green grass growing up out of the water along a point, or over the top of flooded brush and submerged stumps, or along the outside lines of reeds, or over actual beds which you will find about 10 feet out from shore. Hmmmm! Sounds like there are quite a few spots where these baits will work!

You may need to experiment with a larger bait or a smaller bait, or a different color pattern, but the stickbait can be a real producer, and there is no fancy or secret technique involved here. Just find a likely spot like those mentioned above. Toss the stickbait near the grassline or reedline, or beyond the brush or submerged wood. Let it sit. Let all the ripples from its entrance into the water disappear. Let it sit a little more! Often just the appearance of this bait will cause a savage attack. I have actually watched a big bass rise out of the water and pounce downward on my stickbait. Heart attack time!
If no immediate strike occurs, and after waiting as long as you can, gently twitch the bait. As minimal a movement as you can make. Let it sit some more. Repeat this process a few times. This can also be irresistably tantalizing to Bass.
If you still have no bite, move the bait. Don’t reel it down and dive it. Just pull gently and move the bait over the top of the water. Anywhere from 6 inches to a foot or more. Use this time to ‘position’ your bait if you are going after fish hiding in submerged wood. Make use of the time it is directly over your target to twitch it again. This tactic can also stimulate a charging or a sipping bite from the hiding fish.
I was fishing from shore in a backwater of the Columbia, casting to a favorite submerged ’schoolmarm’ or forked log, with some of the forks exposed above water. My brother laughed as I complained about getting my stickbait and its treble hooks ‘too close’ to the exposed wood. Concerned about losing this expensive bait, I held my rod to the side and painstakingly, slowly pulled the bait between two threatening stickups. I thought I had escaped the trap when to my dismay, I came up hard against what I thought was a submerged stick. Wrong! A huge bass had decided that my bait would travel no further past his hideout! When I finally battled the fish in, my brother just laughed and said maybe a little ‘worrying’ was a good thing!
After exhausting your sitting, twitching and pulling reflexes, one last tactic remains: Get your line tight, reel quickly for about 4 or 5 turns of the reel handle, forcing the bait to dive and swim erratically, then stop the retrieve and let up. Often this ‘escaping’ action of your stickbait is just too much for the Bass. Repeat this process back to the boat or your position on shore, if depth allows.
Who knows what your Spawn adventure will be? Get out there, experiment, look for likely spawning areas, and you might be ‘worrying’ about a monster on the line too!
See you next month, when we’ll get into some specifics about topwaters and tactics.