eastside report

just got back from the potholes area on my spring break. this is how my days went...

tuesday: started out fishing the I-90 bridge and had no luck. then i went to the alder fill and my dad caught a 10lb walleye on his first cast. he used a jig and crawler. then we went to hutchinson lake. we only caught two small bass and 3 bluegill from shore.

wednesday: in the morning we took the boat out to hutchinson to do a little bassin. caught about 10 bass all around 13" on spinnerbaits. then we went back to hutchinson without the boat later in the day to fish for crappie and bluegill. the fish were surfacing all over the lake. we caught about 30 crappie and bluegill on mini jigs and maggots under a bobber.

thursday: the wind came out to play this day. we first went to soda lake and plunked around for a while with no results. then we went back to hutchinson for the rest of the day and got another 10 bass from shore. it wasnt a very good day :mad: .

friday: what a day :D . went out to hutchinson in the morning and was catching crappie and bluegill on every cast. fished for about 4 hours in the morning, and another 5 hours in the evening. between me and my dad we caught over 100 fish. i even got some on a beetle spin for the first time :D .

saterday: ugh :(. the weather sucked. it was windy and the rain wouldnt stop. caught about 15 crappie and bluegill. then we tried bass fishing and caught 4 more bass. including the biggest one of the trip at 2lbs 5oz.

hutchinson lake basicly saved our trip. we only keeped 9 crappie, 7 bluegill, and 3 perch. the crappie in this lake surprised me. most all the crappie were 9" and got one at 10". a lot of the bluegill were at least 7" and up to 9". the 3 perch were all 11" and very fat. my picture will be in the next weekly report from mardon with my stringer of fish i kept. my dad will also be on there with his walleye. i dont think there is a better way to spend a spring break!

sounds very nice, my spring break just started, Im leaving for there tommorow!

Where is Hutchinson at?
my knowledge of that area is low

PM sent :D

man that sounds awesome! way to go, good to hear of people gettin into some fish!

Man I just got back from banks and If anybody getts a chance the bass are just stacked up beyond belief. The water was only 42 but the are absolutly hammering cranks. I even made some money in the NW BASS tournament yesterday. The fish were in 2-8 feet of water, It was the craziest thing I have ever seen.

42 degrees! thats crazy, and it sounds like they were pretty aggressive too. maybe i should go try that on washington or union.

crappieking, do you think it would be possible to camp at hutchinson?

i think there was a sign that said no camping. i forgot to tell you that there is no gas motors allowed in the lake.
urban: do you have a boat?

yea i got a 12 foot lund

should be perfect. i have a 14' myself and it worked good.

I think it might work on washington or union, because there are places where the water is murkier like banks lake.

i haven't caught a ton of fish on crankbaits before, what kind of a retrieve is best? slow and steady, stop and go?

Well I start out stop and go, slow and steady, then I might speed up or, I might stop for a long time and then go with a suspending crank.Just toy around with it and let the fish tell you what they want.At banks lake they wouldnt hit the pause and go they wanted the crank fast! It was crazy!

I have heard that the fish at banks are very agressive and that by burning white spinner baits they will tear em up.

Now...that's a report lol. Gongrats on the fish CK14. I love it out there early in the year.

I knew there would be a few walleye hanging out at Alder Fill;). They're biting up at the headwaters of Crab Creek at night too.

did you make it over to moses slab?

I wish lol. I'm so backed up on work that I may not get out until early May. We have old family friends that live in Moses so I can get update reports:p. With any luck I'll make it over for the spawn.

Just got back from potholes area a couple minutes ago. All I gotta say is thank you CK because otherwise it would have been a disaster. Got to potholes and talked to the guys at mardon who said it was REALLY slow. Headed to hutchinson and started catching and releasing crappie and bluegill until I felt sorry for them:D


Woke up today and talked to a few people who told us it wasnt worth the gas or time to go try for walleye in the potholes. Headed to Hutchinson and it was pouring rain, didnt get any better so we roughed it and went and caught some more, decided to take a couple home for the frying pan, because thats what the locals were doing. Pulled in some fat perch too. Decided to head back today because the weather wasnt worth the stay. Its about time I got rid of my skunkin. That lake seems to be loaded with fish!

i'm glad i was able to help you catch some fish. thats to bad about the weather :( . it was like that on my last day over there. did you try any bass fishing? i know its hard to go bass fishing when you're catching crappie and bluegill on almost every cast :D

We caught a couple bass, but your right, I couldnt make myself specifically target them when the other guys were biting so well.

Can you still have a gas outboard on the boat as long as it's out of the water? I know a few electric only lakes in King County will let you slide as long as you have the big motor up. Thanks for the reports fellas.

i'm not sure if you have to take your motor off. i did, but i only have a 9.9. i think you would have to find a grumpy warden to fine you for haveing your motor up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SlabKing

Can you still have a gas outboard on the boat as long as it's out of the water? I know a few electric only lakes in King County will let you slide as long as you have the big motor up. Thanks for the reports fellas.

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I had my motor up (out of the water) on north lake and the game warden told me it was still illegal ...... at least he was nice enough to let me go with a warning! But he said I was only getting one! He was waiting for a guy in a bass boat boat to come in so he could ticket him ..... he said he had warned him 2 weeks before ..... I guess some people never learn!

thanks for helping in clearing that up....and welcome :D

Thanks Keith. I know the Regs state that you can't have a gas engine on the boat at all but it's been a grey area on most lakes in King County. The Police tell you one thing then the Warden says another. Better safe than sorry though. Since the Warden has the power to write the ticket....I'll be staying off the electric lakes :D.

yep .... I'm kinda wishin I hadnt got rid of my 13 foot valco .... I could just use it on these little lake with my electric .... now I'm stuck with my new 18'5 footer ...LoL.. and theres no way I'm going to get the big motor off with out alot of work!!!

i went out yesterday and threw cranks and spinnerbaits for 3 hours. went 0 for 1. got one big largemouth to hit the spinnerbait but no hook up. i guess the water is still cold although he did hit it pretty hard. i put a trailer hook on after that. i think i may have also gotten a hit on the crankbait but i didn't see it so i cannot be sure. water was high and there seemed to be alot of garbage in it. i found a nice rod handle floatin around. i fished mainly little drop off areas that went from 2 -5 feet sown to about 10 -20 feet.

Ok heres the deal on the electric lakes.You may have an gas motor as long as it is not in the water. The lakes all fall under the law of "the use of internal combustion engines is prohibited" I read that in some state code.

It's all very confusing....and I'm sure the WDFW likes it that way so they can freely interpret the law as they write you a ticket lol.

This is what's written under the "Special Rules" (page 30, PDF):

References in the Special Rules to "motors
prohibited" mean fishing from a floating device
equipped with a motor is prohibited. "Internal
combustion engines prohibited" means fishing
from a floating device equipped with an internal
combustion engine is prohibited. "Equipped
with" means the motor is attached to the
floating device, regardless of whether the motor
is in the water.


Now, if I were a betting man I'd say that as long as the lake is not clearly marked as a "Internal combustion engines prohibited" in the Regs or at the ramp...you could get away with running the bowmount and leaving the big motor up. The main problem is that not all lakes are listed in the Regs. I've fished many lakes that have signs at the ramp that state "Use of internal..." seems like you could argue your way out of ticket on those lakes and use the bowmount only there as well. Don't take my word for it though :D. Like I said, better safe than sorry. Still, there are a few "Use of internal..." lakes that I can't give up and I'll take my chances until told other wise lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by urban_fisher1

got one big largemouth to hit the spinnerbait but no hook up. i guess the water is still cold although he did hit it pretty hard. i put a trailer hook on after that.

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have you ever put a soft plastic trailer on the hook? this seems to improve my hookups on spinnerbaits and buzzbaits ;) . i was using a beaver at hutchinson. i didnt miss any there and most of them were only 12"-14".

yea i do actually i often put a white curly tail on it. i think the main problem with this was that i just wasn't expecting the bite and didn't react soon enough. hopefully i will have plenty more chances later on in the season

on the subject of spinnerbaits(kinda)has anyone ever tried one of those new baits called a chatterbait? i just got some the other day and look kinda cool. they must work really good because they were backed up and it took them about 2 months to get it to me, and for a while they were going for like $35-$50 on ebay :eek:. now they are only going for about $15.

they look like they would work but i don't get what is so amazing about them, maybe you have to fish them to find out