fishingaddictsnorthwest.com

If you’re looking for a fun day of successful fishing you may want to consider shad fishing. Although not considered a good eating fish they are a fun fighting fish. With millions going over the dam each year it’s easy to have high number success days and even come home with sore arms.

Shad also make excellent crab and sturgeon bait. Fishing from the bank you’re a limited on where to fish. The best fishing is found up at Bonneville. The technique used is simple and similar to drift fishing for steelhead and salmon. Using about a 10lb line run it down to a swivel. At the swivel attach a weight which will always vary depending on the current speed. You’ll have to make a few casts and adjust your weight from there. Make sure your lead never hits the bottom or you’ll soon find out how much gear you go through from snagging up on the rocky bottom. From the swivel and weight run about a 3 to 4 foot leader at 6-8lb. There are many different lures that can be used to catch shad but as you may find out the cheaper the set up the better because you can go through them. Shad darts in a 1/16oz is what the majority of fisherman will use. Colors vary but best success will be found on bright colors such as chartreuse. Although the river is large you don’t need to cast further than 30ft to catch shad. Cast slightly upstream and let your gear sink downstream until it comes to up a 45 degree downstream. At this point as long as your gear isn’t touching bottom do a slow retrieve. Almost all of you fish will be picked up as your gear is swinging in to shore. Fishing from a boat can be a challenge finding the fish at times even with millions of fish. There are many times when you can sit on anchor and watch boats right next to you using the same lure catch fish and you might not touch a single fish. The reason behind this is because these fish follow current seams upstream. Don’t sit on anchor and wait for the fish to find you. Look for water any where from 8ft to 12ft and keep moving until you’re able to get into the seam of fish and once in that seam get ready to have some fun. Run your main fishing line down to a three way swivel. The strength of your mainline won’t make a big difference to these fish. At the swivel run a dropper line about 2ft down to your lead. The size of your lead again will vary but you’ll want to make sure you’re on the bottom this time. Also coming off the swivel run a 3ft leader to your lure. Again many lures can be used as long as they are small and create a flash in the water. Dick nites in size 0 and size 1 have been found very successful.

by Travis Bishop AKA CatchADoradoWithMYCurado

If you want to leave the crowds behind, and aren’t afraid to put a few miles on your boots then head into the high country. Some of the best times I’ve had fishing was the 4th of July at about 4300ft elevation off of a snowy bank in a lake many miles from any pavement. The mountain lakes offer a great way to catch some very anxious fish, because of the lakes being covered in snow from the previous winter.

In early summer you can throw almost any sort of streamer fly and be ravagely attacked by cold water fish but later in the summer pay attention to the top water and what’s emerging off the surface. The very high lakes mostly hold brook trout that generally don’t grow to large size, but can be up to 18-20+ inches. Regardless of their size brook trout are some of the scrappiest fish I’ve come across. High lakes will also hold cut-throats, browns, and rainbows. The best tool you can bring in with you besides your fishing rod is a float tube, many of the lakes in early summer will be partially frozen yet with limited access from the bank. Typically early summer fish will be lethargic from the cold water requiring a slower presentation, typically sticking closer to the surface, and the shoreline will be your best bet. Some patterns that I’ve found successful this year already have been smaller size 6 bead head olive wollybuggers, size 6 and 8 crayfish patterns, size 6 white woolly buggers, with a 10 ft Umpqua 6lb leader, tippet usually not necessary. Something to remember is to keep the presentation to a slow retrieve. Often times these lakes will be gin clear and you will be able to see the fish slowly coming after the fly many times this will get people in trouble by setting the hook to soon, by watching trout bum diaries I’ve learned to say a little phrase “God save the queen” before setting the hook. But once there on the line the fish quickly wake up and the ride is on. Another method for fishing the lakes for larger fish is to slowly troll larger woolly buggers or egg sucking leeches with a sink tip, also finding inlets where small creeks flow in with structure can be very effective, calm areas unaffected by wind, shallower weed beds, and the downwind side of the lake where bait drifts too are some effective areas to keep an eye for. Its still early summer and some lakes are still frozen or access roads blocked by snow drifts, but you’ll never know until you get off your couch and go find out. Good luck to ya. Keep your hooks sharp and your tip up.

Your All Around Friendly Fly Fishermen- Lonny Brooks AKA Tight-Lines

As if catching a steelhead isn’t hard enough for most fishermen, try catching them in extremely low and clear conditions. In the Pacific Northwest we haven’t had rain for months and most the snow is already melted off. This leaves the rivers around here running so low and clear they are almost unfishable. I’m hoping a few of these techniques will help you in catching some of these bright summer fish hanging in the rivers.

First thing you’re going to want to look at is your gear, whatever liter your running now, prepare to downsize. Float fishing is going to be the technique of choice. You’re going to be running a 6 pound maxima ultra green liter with my preference of a smoke color fire line 14 pound braid. Make sure you have a long rod, at least 9’ 6”. My rod and reel of choice is a pflueger supreme reel and Lamiglas xmg50 9’ 6” rod.

For bait it’s going to be a combination of things. These fish are so smart and hard to catch in these conditions, we have to trick them in every which way possible. The first step is buying some jigs in 1/16 ounce size or smaller. You’re going to want them to be darker color patterns. I prefer nightmare, and or purple patterns. You need to get some good running floats. Steelhead Stalkers are going to be my pick.

Next thing you need is some sand shrimp. Once your all tied up with bobber, jig, and all, I like to tip the end of my jig with a little bit of sand shrimp as an extra incentive for these weary fish. Just break off little chunks at a time and tip the end of your jig. Make sure you have some nice waiters and a good pair polarized glasses, for comfort out on the water.

Now that you’re all geared up, finding the fish is a different story. The key to finding these fish is deeper stretches of water where these fish feel safe and can be cool. Since you’re going to be float fishing, you need to target areas of the river that are deeper than the rest but stretch long enough for you to get a decent float with your bobber and jig. Sometimes if you can find slots in the river, that’s going to be the ticket to catching your nice bright chrome summer steelhead. These fish don’t have a lot of water to work with so they will use the deeper slots to sit in and move up river. Most the rivers around here have these slots. With your polarized glasses, walk up and down river looking for these slots, but be stealthy. In the hunt for these slots it’s not uncommon to spot summer steelhead just waiting for you to float your jig by their face. Once these slots are found cast up river, and let your jig pass through the slots perfectly, if the steelhead is there….. “BOBBER DOWN!!!” you should have a fish on. Once the summer goes on you will find fish way way up river in the most oxygenated water they can find. Falls or rapids with deep pools are good areas to look!

Summer steelhead is extremely aggressive and feisty, when hooked its very likely that they will put on a nice acrobatic show for you. Make sure to be careful and play them out, with the 6 pound liter your chance of losing these crazy chromers is very good.

Now hurry up and get off the computer, head to Wholesale Sports, pick up your jigs, your shrimp, your line, your bobbers, and hey why not spoil yourself with a new lamiglas rod and pflueger reel. Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the forum! They will be answered immediately! Thanks for reading, cause once the addiction starts it never stops!

YOUR CRAZY ADDICTED FISHERMAN…THE BASSINPIMP

With the Columbia staying up unusually high and chilly for this time of year, Vancouver Lake is still a good place to hunt for big Largemouth.

Cast the pockets in flooded brush, look for leaner logs and bounce your spinnerbaits or jig-and-pigs off of them underwater, or yo-yo a Texas-rigged plastic worm up and down on underwater branches. Try rigging them ‘wacky’ too. If you’re sure the bottom is not too weedy, a Carolina-rigged worm, creature or lizard 18 to 24 inches behind the lead and bead might be the just the thing to fool a late Spring or early Summer Bass to chomp and romp. One recent Gallery picture has me holding up a hefty LakeRiver Bass that could not resist a twin-blade, Colorado and Willow Leaf spinnerbait dragged through and over a jumble of logs, then allowed to flutter down helplessly. Wham! What a bite and what a fight!

Lacamas Lake has been producing good fish too. My most recent June Gallery shot features a deep-bodied Largemouth that nailed the same bait just as it dropped in near an underwater branch. The picture is pretty dark {Hint!}.

Silver Lake has been producing good fish soft plastics and on jig-and-grub combinatons. Some folks have been having success with finesse drop-shot rigs, fooling Silver’s heavily pressured, tournament-wise fish. The old weedless Johnson Spoons are also producing, slipping and flashing through weeds and pads, but nobody much mentions them. Wonder why??!!

This brings us to the promised discussion of varying your Topwater assaults on the Bass’s world. In lakes, ponds or even river backwaters, topwaters will trigger vicious hits from aggressive Bass. I recommend getting in on early morning and late evening bites. Previous articles have discussed the floating minnow-bait such as Rapala or Bomber Long A, along with their jointed-body brothers. We’ve also discussed the delights of ‘walking the dog’ with a Zara Spook or other wigwagging, baitfish-resembling surface skimmer.

Floating wacky worms hooked in the middle and twitched open and closed also qualify as topwater tempters, as do ‘Salad Spoons’, Scum Frogs and other soft plastic surface offerings. Even the lowly curled tail grub, fished weightless or Texas-rig-pegged with a very light bullet weight will also slither across weeds and produce jarring surface hits. It’s a real thrill to watch the water hump up when a big fish zeros in on your helpless little grub!

Chuggers (Some come equipped with ‘weedless’ treble hooks), poppers and ‘Crazy Crawlers’ can also be relied on to trigger surface hits. The amazing, jiving, diving, rising BassOreno is another topwater that some place in a category all its own. They all get the fish looking up for dinner.

Probably one of the most time-honored topwater baits, though, is the ‘Buzzbait.’ Whether a single-blade, inline buzzer sporting a weedguard on the hook, a double small-to-large inline blade affair, a ‘safety-pin’ style buzzer with blade on the top arm and a hydrodynamic, skirted jig head on the bottom arm, or the fancy new side-by-side, ‘counter-rotating’ blades (or ‘wings’) on a safety-pin style buzzer wire, buzzbaits produce. You can also buy them in varying sizes, or with ‘clackers’ depending on how noisy or subtle you want to be. There are even hollow ‘spoons’ with rattles inside, designed to wobble and sputter along on the surface

These baits may irritate a lurking or hiding Bass into striking as they gurgle over the fish’s lair, they may resemble a fleeing baby bird or mouse whose luck ran out, they may resemble surface-busting baitfish being chased, or they may just attract random, curious, feeding Bass. For whatever reason, under the right conditions Bass will explode on them.

Because their hooks usually ride with the point up, buzzbait fishing can sometimes produce fish on only about 70% of the strikes the bait draws. But since the action can be really hot, it probably won’t matter! My preference is to fish them with a grub trailer, with the curled tail pointed down away from the hook point. I believe that a slightly inaccurate or short-striking fish is more likely to return for the kill if he got a taste of a lifelike, wiggling grub tail on his first whack at the bait! Either way, confidence in your bait is important.

I like to drag buzzers through ambush points between separate groups of lily pads, over grassy points, through thin stands of bullrushes and over slightly submerged weedbeds. What seems like open water can also produce well too, as can parallel retrieves along shorelines, no matter what features the bank has. Just a related note: Tournament Frogs or any floating frog imitation can sometimes do a surprising job of attracting big fish, even when retrieved across expanses of open water. It’s the only game in town, and Mr. Largemouth just might want to play!

My recommendation for this time of year, once the water is warm, is to have a variety of topwater baits ready and try them throughout the day, with special attention to evening hours when the water seems to ‘come alive.’

I think you’ll be glad you tried topwater tactics!

Have a great June and we’ll talk about the ‘dog days’ of Summer in next month’s article.

By Bassmaster Bob

As many of you guys might know, the date of June 6th is the opener on many of the West side streams and rivers. Everyday is one day closer to the date.

Following the weather patterns in the weeks prior to June is a key thing for your fishing. I for one am always hoping for an early spring thaw so that the rivers I target early June are fish able, unlike last year with the hellatious rain storm the week before triggering a mass thaw blowing out most all of the fisheries. Not only that, it will also determine the flies you pack because weather is a key factor in triggering the hatches. Typically the warmer weather will bring out the dry flies, vs. colder postponing them and sticking to below the surface.

Some items you will want to remember before your season begins are first and foremost your rod and reel setup. New line is a good idea, proper maintenance on your reel, checking the eyes on your rod, and having multiple leaders, personally I go with the Umpqua 10’ tapered trout leaders in the 3 pack from sportsman’s warehouse. Other things to check are your waders, put them on and try them out in your swimming pool, or your neighbors, also your wading boots, especially the laces. Airing up the pontoon and float tube to check for leaks. Packing the rain gear is also a good idea for late spring. Another is having a wide variety of flies, because late spring weather is unpredictable and the sun could be right behind that thunderstorm. Some different stimulator s, caddis’s, mayflies, drakes, bwo’s midges, stones for the dries, and streamers, woolly buggers, egg sucking leeches, egg patterns, hairs ears, prince nymphs, and natural fly larva imitations for the sub surface. One more thing to add is to check the regulations to see what new restrictions their may be, like boundaries being changed, selective gear rules, daily and size limits on the fish.
That’s a lil insight on the preparations for the awaited season opener. We hope you take the advice, good luck, keep your lines tight. And see you on the 6th!

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

This may be surprising to most, but Battle Ground Lake holds some of the biggest bass in the state! For most people this is just a myth, but I have seen them with my own eyes cruising the shores! These big green elusive monsters have been ruling over this lake since way back when. In most cases these fish are dang near impossible to catch. Besides the tight line worm fishermen hooking onto, “the huge fish that snapped their line….”

Kyle With A Nice BG Lake Bass!

These fish are probably never even hooked. These fish have seen every lure in your resume. They have become so line shy that catching them is near impossible.   There is always a way though, you can trick any fish you want to catch. It’s going to take some time and a lot of effort but if you’re up to it, you can catch them.  Right now is the key time.  The water at Battle Ground Lake has reached critical temperature and these big elusive bass have begun to spawn.  The fish in the lake use deeper areas of the lake to spawn. They focus on finding deep shelves or even logs that they can have a safe spawning bed on.  The key to catching these fish is finding the beds, this is the hard part. Be patient and take your time, walking the shore of the lake is very easy. There is a trail all the way around the lake, so access to every angle is very easy. What you’re going to need to do to find these fish is cast and cast and then cast some more.  As you walk the shore about every 50 yards make casts out into the water in all angles. Keep repeating this all the way around the lake. There are a few lures that can work in this situation. My favorite is going to be a Jig with crawdad trailer. Work the jig extremely slow across the bottom, bouncing it off logs or any other structure underneath the water.  Move it slow with just slight twitches and pauses in between the twitches. What you’re doing is trying to locate a bed, by covering every inch of shoreline on the lake. Eventually if you’re lucky you will bring the jig across the bed of a weary largemouth. Even though these fish are so smart to lures and line, right now it doesn’t matter. These fish are in protecting mode! They are going to attack to kill anything that approaches or threatens their spawning bed.  The bass in this lake have reached peak sizes. Some of them have been said to top 10 pounds!!  Now that you’re done reading this article…what are you waiting for, get out there and break the Washington state record largemouth!

Marlin Lefever bassinpimp69