Northwest Fishing Reports

just thought it'd be cool for everybody to tell their stories

Well I grew up fishing for native brook and rainbow trout in upper New Hampshire and Vermont. Actually I was very talented with a fly rod by the age of 8. The oldtimers were very jealous when they saw me walking back from the stream with a limit everyday. I spent my entire summers close to the Canadian border in our trailer at a campground and fished everyday from the ages of 5-14. When I joined the military all my friends were from the south and they turned me on to bass fishing. I have fished some of the most unbelievable bass lakes across the country. Some have been Guntersville, High Rock, Norman, ClarksHill, Gaston, Potomac, Lake Fork, Erie, Ontario, Smith Mountain.. so many. All I can say is when I went out with my southern Army buddies for the first time for bass fishing ( back in the 90's) and caught a bass on a topwater frog I was hooked for life.

In my younger years I was an all salmon, trout guy, but then I discovered that my area was surrounded by farm ponds full of largemouth and once I hooked my first one of those green fish it kept going from there, and I will bass fish untill I die! :bom:

my first experience bass fishing was on the potholes...

i was sitting on the dock catching nothing (cuz i sucked at fishing then) and i was just kinda playing around with my tackle box. this one guy on his way by noticed i had a bag of senkos in my box, so he showed me how to rig them and use em. i got 3 hits on my first 3 casts. all that weekend i caught a ton of LM & SM bass up to 18". not huge, but back then they were MONSTERS! ever since that day i've been addicted...

I got hooked on largemouth at Lake Alta before it was killed off. It was so much fun the lake had great water clairity good structure and you could sight fish 3 pounders all day. The fish had good size and the action was fast and I have been hooked ever since. I miss Alta bass to bad WDFW decided Lake Alta was to be a trout fishery only.

As an alternative to trout fishing cause I fish for them so much and at such a good lake, well they get boring...The ever elusive largemouth is just fun for the pursuit...Not a great fight, I just love the pursuit of a new species since I've got trout fishing down...

Childhood fishing trips. They were never very successful, my dad knows squat about bass. But vacations always were to the lakes. Very NE Washington a lake called Curlew seemed like paradise. Pot Holes Reservoir the Taxidermy fish are in my mind like a kodak picture from childhood. And last but not least quiet mornings and evenings on any lake with no wind where the lake is like a mirror. I love it when the sounds of the lake just engulf you at those times. The sounds of nature just sorround you if you listen hard enough.

Just Like BASSMASTER 2000. I grew up a trout snob, and have a father that knew nothing about bass. I was 12 years old fly fishing on a family vacation to Curlew when I hooked up a 16" largemouth that took 5 minutes to land. Thats all it took for me

When I was growing up my mom and dad took my sister and I everywhichway fishing mainly after crappies, panfish, flyfishing for trout. As we got older we got into a bit bigger fish like bull trout (when it was legal) and kams on lake Ponderelly
Then as I got into my teens crappie fishing we'd see the Bass cruising the banks, and would throw all this garbage out of the tackle box, then found a silver mepps and finally caught a couple. thats all it took. the ol tackle box got bigger with buying rapalas and more mepps. now I have so much stuff i end up giving my boys the older stuff I don't use. I'll never give up on the bass fishing but I can never have enough time with trying for also walleyes, steelhead, panfish, kokanees, channal cats, ect. ect.

Well years and years ago I was a good trout fisherman (and still am). Chucking out power bait for all the stocker trout like all the other people. One day on Lake Meridian the fish just weren't biting well. This guy on the dock rigged me up with a black with chartruese tail 4 inch Powerworm, pointed and said "fish over there". He told me to fish towards the shore, near the swimming area. I threw that worm everywhere, no fish, but I was hooked from then on. Not sure how old I was, but I'd guess around 10 yrs old. Every time we went to K-mart or any other type of stores, my mom would buy me $50 worth of bass lures, and the collection started. haha. I think I owe my mom a lot of damn money

By fishing for largemouth on topwater buzzbaits in an East King county lake. All I had caught before then was trout on bait, and holy crap...nothing compares to a topwater bass strike. I'll fish for trout only when I have been skunked for a while and want to remember what a bite feels like!

Clam Man

My old man went to school at Louisiana and bass fished in the bayous in the late 70s. We moved to Minnesota when I was able to hold a pole and started panfishing for crappie and sunfish. Eventually my old man took me bass fishing and I've been hooked since. Caught my first bass with a Heddon Hula Popper, what a blast! We then move to Kalamazoo, MI. I took Bass Fishing to whole new level when I got older. My buddies and I would take trips down south Kentucky Lake, Lake Okeechobee, Lake Toho, Stick Marsh, Farm Pond 13 and Texas Lake Fork. Had a lot of good times. Recently I started a new chapter of my life by moving out here to the Northwest, I was so thankful when I heard there was bass fishing here.

kzoo wrote:My old man went to school at Louisiana and bass fished in the bayous in the late 70s. We moved to Minnesota when I was able to hold a pole and started panfishing for crappie and sunfish. Eventually my old man took me bass fishing and I've been hooked since. Caught my first bass with a Heddon Hula Popper, what a blast! We then move to Kalamazoo, MI. I took Bass Fishing to whole new level when I got older. My buddies and I would take trips down south Kentucky Lake, Lake Okeechobee, Lake Toho, Stick Marsh, Farm Pond 13 and Texas Lake Fork. Had a lot of good times. Recently I started a new chapter of my life by moving out here to the Northwest, I was so thankful when I heard there was bass fishing here.

Okeechobee, I'm jealous. I dont fish for bass much, the lake I want to fish the most is Wies lake in Alabama for crappie. But Okeechobee is 2nd on my list, forget the the crappie I want the bass from there. Because I heard they have some nice crappie in that lake. Anything other fish in there?

The great "O" has gone downhill since the hurricanes hit. Pretty much ripped the vegetation up and muddied the water. When I was there (late 90's) the crappie fishing was pretty good. They also had nuisance fish like dog fish and alligator gars, and of course alligators. It was an uneasy feeling when your fishing along a bank and there's a 10' gator basking in the sun.

For crappie fishing, I recommend Kentucky Lake. We were using bass lures catching 2lb crappies. Kentucky Lake was also great for bluegills, saugers and white bass. I caught these two on a 1/2oz spinnerbait.

When I was a kid we used to drop a worm down on a #6 baitholder hook along side the dock while watching the little bass (8 to 10 inchers) thru the slits between the boards until one day their Mama came by to play. She was probably only about 2 pounds but looked like 10 to a little kid. Been hooked ever since.

As a kid growing up in Sacramento,Ca. and living only 2 blocks from a lake and a mile from the river, fishing at least 2-5 days a week espeacially after school.

Man those are some huge crappie kzoo. Most of the time you'd be lucky to catch a crappie of that size let alone 2, VERY NICE fish

Man those are some huge crappie kzoo. Most of the time you'd be lucky to catch a crappie of that size let alone 2, VERY NICE fish

Those crappie are incredible, I had to do a double take, because I thought they were a funny looking bass at first. WOW!

As for me, I grew to love bass fishing on the Snake River. Snake River Smallys are so much fun to catch!