Lake WA Report

Quick report for lake Wa. We hit the lake at 10:30am looking for crappies up shallow. After trolling cranks and jigs for about two hours with not much to show for it we decided to hit a hole I have not fished in about three seasons. We starting working jigs in 17' of water bouncing the jigs off sunken pilings. It started to pay off in short order.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...wa-5-26-08.jpg

By 3pm we had 41 fish in the boat and not one was under 12". The smallest fish weighted in at 1.2lbs and the big girl for the day was 15.5" and 2.2lbs. Not a bad way to spend the day :D.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...wa-5-26-08.jpg

These fish are not ready to spawn yet...maybe another two weeks or so. We're going to try it again the morning so I'll have another report. Tight lines fellas.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...wa-5-26-08.jpg

very nice

You Do The Damn Thing !!! When I Grow Up I Want 2 Fish Like Slab- I'll Holla - Cbb:)

Hey, new to the board here but have viewed it from time to time over the years, wow those are some huge slabs there, seems things are starting to finally heat up after a very slow spring, i ran down to the local dock here on lake washington and came up with 4 crappie and a little (not even worth mentioning) bass, no where near this big but better than nothing....finally, another week of warm weather and we should be in full swing, tried to post a couple of pics but still trying to get the hang of it:mad:

Nice stringer of slabs there slabking, looks like the temps are getting better.

Yeah, the spawn should be here soon. Good times are coming :).

Welcome to the board gtundro1.

Hey folks, finally arrived in Tacoma. Nice slabs there. No doubt that they're black crappie. Ours in Texas are no where near that dark, it's hard sometime to determine if its a black or white. Anyway, what type of jigs and what size are you using around here? Thanks, TF

I'll post a pic of the jigs we use when I get home but 1/32oz tubes seem to work best. 1/16oz feather jigs work great as well.

You are truly the king of slabs. May I call you to get some advice? My friends and I plan to go catch some crappies this weekend and would love it so much if I can get some detailed advice from you as to where to go (where we can rent a boat), what jigs to use, which areas within the lake to fish, what time we should start fishing... Please please please please.... A thousand thanks. My email is [email protected].

Ryan

Hey Clearvision,
You can rent boats at Kapowsin and Tanwax which both have nice crappies. I'd bet Kapowsin is the better of the two right now and will get even better over the next two weeks. The boat rental is pretty cheap as I remember. You could rent a boat or fish right off the dock at the resort. We've caught plenty of crappies, perch, catfish, and bluegills right off the dock. From a boat you'd want to fish around the island or along the shore to the right of the resort. Yellow body/white crappie jigs have always worked good there. Tip the jig with Berkely maggots or a small chunk of worm. (One of these days I'll post some pics of setups that have worked for me in the past)

On Tanwax you'd want to hit the far north end right in the middle of the north bank and all along the west and east shores. You can catch them from the resort dock there as well but you'll get bored quick since there is not a lot of water to cover from the dock.

There's not much happening from shore yet on Union or Washington but it'll pick up soon. The south end of Union, the UW area, and logboom park should start to get good. Right before dark (about an hour before dusk) is best for the crappies.

Send me a PM, I'll give ya all the help I can offer.

great catch slabking, i see how you got your name. i went down to silver lake last year hoping to meet you, but your plans got rearranged, i have been reading this site for a few years now, finally joined. maybe in the near future we will meet, you look ffamiliar, sure i have seen you somewhere on the water. ggoood fishing

Slabking,

I went to http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ and got reports that Kapowsin and Tanwax just haven't gotten a lot of bites. So we decided to go Pine lake at Sammamish. We saw a lot of fishermen there but they all laughed when I told them I wanted to get some crappies since they haven't seen one in ages. We ended up fishing at the dock for trouts. I got a total of two relatively small trouts. People were catching trouts but the action wasn't that great accept for this Japanese guy. He had found the secret to fishing for trouts or something cuz he caught 5 within 45 minutes of being there. One was a huge one that weighed at least 2 lbs. He used a modified fly fishing rod and a long leader. He threw pretty far out, too.

Going back to my story, do you know of any place 2 to 3 hours away from Seattle that has some great crappie fishing? Going to Roses lake at Lake Chelan is a little too far but anyone can catch a bunch of crappies by just standing ath the dock.

If you think that Kaposin is still a great place to go then my friend and I will probably go next weekend.

Sincerely,

Ryan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crappiehunternick

great catch slabking, i see how you got your name. i went down to silver lake last year hoping to meet you, but your plans got rearranged, i have been reading this site for a few years now, finally joined. maybe in the near future we will meet, you look ffamiliar, sure i have seen you somewhere on the water. ggoood fishing

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Welcome to the board crappiehunternick. I have a room booked at Silver Lake Resort for the second weekend of July. Bad time for fishing but we're taking friends down and they wanted to go when the weather was "nice" lol :D. At least the bluegills should be biting.


clearvision2005,
We went to Tanwax yesterday and did okay. Tons of perch and about 9 trout and 4 bass. Not one crappie though. The water temp was only 61*.

If you are going to make a 2-3 hour drive I'd check out Moses Lake. It's a little early to catch them from the bank but if you go July-Sept you can catch them at the state park from the I-90 bridge. The dock at MarDon will be good then as well: http://www.mardonresort.com/

Check out Kapowsin, if nothing else you can catch a bunch of bluegills off the dock. The crappies should be up soon as well.

i was over at mar dons memorial weekend, only big and small mouth bass was caught by my crew, others were catching walleye, hutchinson lake was ok for small crappie and bluegills, didn't not have any luck at lower goose, didn't put the boat in the water there.planning on trying wapoto, dry, rose lakes sometime soon.

Hi Slabking,

Can I expect to find some nice crappies at Silver Lake now? We rented a boat about a month ago but didn't catch anything at all. Of course we also didn't know what to use as bait as well. We just used worms.

Ryan

SlabKing, Man your pics are gettihng me more excited about moving to Tacoma. My name is Ken (nickname Big Duff) and my family and me are moving to the Tacoma area during the 2nd week of July. We are relocating from Denver. I haven't seen Slabs like these since my days growing up in Pine Bluff Arkansas. Needless to say, I will be dusting off and tunning up the fishing equipment. I have printed of a list of all the lakes in the Tacoma area. Would you please be so kind as to inform me of the 5 - 10 best lakes to fish for Crappie. If you list them numerically I would greatly appreciate it. I will visit the lakes in the order you provide. I will be living on the east side of Tacoma (E 72nd St. area) near a place called Puyallap.

Please respond at your first opportunity.

Hey Ken,
The fishing up here can be great but you'll have to put in some time to find the big ones....just like anyplace else I guess. Not many people fish for crappie up here so when you find them you'll find a bunch of them. Just have to weed through them to find the bigger fish or figure out which lakes have the most big fish in them. The best lakes close to Tacoma are (in the order of biggest/most fish) Alder, Kapowsin, Harts, Tanwax, and Clear Lake. As for lakes that just have a ton of fish and kick out a few slabs: Ohop, Rapjon and St. Clair would be my top picks.

The best lakes/rivers in the whole state for monster crappies are Moses Lake, Potholes, Snake River, Lake Union/Washington, Long Lake (spokane county), Soda Lake, Upper Goose Lake, Crab Creek, Mesa lake and Potholes Canal. There a lot more but those are all places that will put out big ones without much work.

By the way, you'll staying right down the road from me (about 3 miles or so :D). Anytime you want to head out fishing give me a buzz. In July the bass fishing should be on fire when you get here. On the east side of the state the crappies will be just starting their hot summer bite day and night.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clearvision2005

Hi Slabking,

Can I expect to find some nice crappies at Silver Lake now? We rented a boat about a month ago but didn't catch anything at all. Of course we also didn't know what to use as bait as well. We just used worms.

Ryan

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Crappies can be hit or miss on Silver. The best time is from the end of Sept through early Dec then again from Feb to about the first week of April. You can still find them but they'll be offshore. Right now the bass, trout, and bluegills should be biting good. For crappies, I'd fish around the old piling rows on the west side and outside the canals on the west side. Try an all white crappie jig (1/32oz and tipped with crappie nibbles) about 16" below a small float. Cast that around wood, pads, or at the mouth of a canal and twitch it every 15 seconds or so until you've worked the area good...then move and try again until you hit some fish.

I have a friend that lives down that way...I'll give him a call and see if I can get a report.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SlabKing

By the way, you'll staying right down the road from me (about 3 miles or so :D). Anytime you want to head out fishing give me a buzz. In July the bass fishing should be on fire when you get here. On the east side of the state the crappies will be just starting their hot summer bite day and night.

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Hi Slabking, any chance of me and my friend being able to hook up with you just like what you're offering Ken? My friend and I are 31 year olds. We're mature and just love to fish but we don't know much. And even though I'm not at all homophobic, my friends and I are not gay. We have wives already and just want to have some fun time fishing that's all. Trust me, we won't be bothering you and annoying you. We can handle the fishing rods pretty well. It's just more fun to be able to go with an experienced fisherman you know.

Also, I have a rental in Olympia with a small private lake in the back yard. This lake can only be accessed by 10 houses. I heard people there said that there are quite a few bass there but we don't know how to catch them. Do you have any experience with bass fishing?

Sincerely,

Ryan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clearvision2005

Hi Slabking, any chance of me and my friend being able to hook up with you just like what you're offering Ken?

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Anytime dude. I fish just about every weekend. The next three weeks will be the peak of the pre-summer fishing then things will slow down until the night bite picks up. Let me know when/where...and I'll be there if I can.

I think I'm a better bass fishermen than I am a crappie fishermen. The fish might not agree with me though :D. But yeah, I can get you guys on some bass too.

Slab,

OK, you make me jealous! Not that I don't catch my share of fish but holy cow, I haven't caught a stringer of crappie like that since I left TN, and not even there most days.

Those are some great looking fish man and its good to see ya too! I'm just about to put my boat in the shop to upgrade to dual LMS-520's but once I get her back, I'm hoping to get out and catch some of those. :D