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One of the advantages in working a booth at the annual
Sportsmen's Shows is getting to meet other vendors and their representatives.
As a pro staffer for the G. Loomis line of bass and walleye rods,
I happened to meet a colleague who was an expert in salmon and steelhead
fishing. "Bass, eh? I haven't had much time for short sleeve
fishing!" Well, I broke out laughing immediately. Bass fishing
has been referred to with various forms of slang, from "lip
ripping" to "hog hunting", but "short sleeve
fishing" was a new one on me!
Obviously, my fellow fisherman's impression of
bass fishing consisted of hot summer days on lily pad filled lakes.
Noticing a raised eyebrow when I mentioned that I fished for bass
year round, I felt obliged to illustrate this startling revelation
with a fishing story.
Several winters back I had been telling Troy Apple,
then manager of Auburn Sports and Marine, how good the winter smallmouth
fishing was on Lake Sawyer. We decided to take a day off and give
it a try. As luck would have it, we awoke to find snow on the ground.
To make matters more challenging, it was the third straight day
of below freezing temperatures. Troy's phone call was brief;
"Are we still going?" I said; "Absolutely!"
Arriving at the launch ramp, we stepped from the truck
to gaze upon a lake that was as smooth as glass. Correction; smooth
as ice. The entire shore line was frozen. Unable to launch the boat,
we decided to go to Lake Sammamish. Being a larger body of water
we figured it might not be frozen. We were right.
After launching our boat we started motoring up the
ice cold lake. Where to start? Faced with colder water temperatures
and a different body of water, I was not sure the same patterns
and tactics I had been using on Lake Sawyer would work here on Lake
Sammamish. But we had to begin somewhere, so we pulled up to a small
point on the east side of the lake.
With chilled fingers we rigged 1/4 oz. jigs with Kalin's
4 inch finesse worms and began a slow controlled drift across the
tip of the point. Reflecting on the previous week's experience,
I suggested we start at depths of 25-30 feet. On our first pass
both our rods arched as identical 2-1/2 lb. smallmouths came to
the surface. Within an hour and a half we put 6 fish in the boat,
the largest just over 3 1/2 pounds. Tempted to stay, we opted instead
to see if this pattern would hold true on other parts of the lake.
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After a short ride, we found ourselves over a sunken
ridge. It appeared to run for a hundred yards or so, topping out
at 25 feet . Within minutes another smallmouth surrendered to our
pattern. During a pause in the action, I found myself reminiscing
about a bass fishing clinic I had attended several years ago. "If
you find yourself in a 'successful pattern' situation,"
suggested the speaker, "take advantage of it. Purposely deviate
from the pattern, trying different lures, sizes, or presentations."
The challenge was to see if an angler can isolate the specific factors
contributing to their success.
I suspected the slow methodical retrieve we were using
might be one of those keys, and this seemed like the perfect time
to put it to the test. I told my partner to continue fishing the
same pattern. I decided to try the more traditional style of hopping
or swimming the bait back. The test resulted in the next three fish
finding their way to the boat via my partner. My patient experimentation
screeched to a halt. After all, there is only so much experimenting
a guy can do when his partner is announcing, "I've got
another one!"
Since then, I have spent many chilly but fruitful days
fishing the same patterns and techniques on Lake Washington. There
is, however, one major difference: the fish run a lot larger! New
Year's Day 1996 found my partner and I launching the boat at
Gene Coulon Park while most of Western Washington's fishing
population were still in bed recovering from the previous night's
celebrations. Having positioned ourselves over one of the many small
points in deeper water, we let our jigs settle to the bottom. Halfway
through the telling of a tall fish tale, I am interrupted from down
below. It's only 7:30 a.m., but I'm hooked up with a big
one!
"Do you need a net?" my partner asks. Our
first glance at the fish sends him scrambling for the net. Several
rod bending surges later, a 5 lb. 4 oz. smallmouth finally surrenders
to get his picture taken, and is then quickly released. It was to
prove to be another great day of winter fishing. (Of the seven fish
landed, only one of them went under 3 pounds!)
As I look back over the last ten years of winter fishing,
several factors have consistently led to successful days on the
water. Location, being number one. Look for points, large or small,
as long as they are surrounded by deep water. If these points happen
to have rock piles, old debris from past dumping, or just changes
from hard to soft bottoms, these are key spots.
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