Westside bass check-in

Pink Nighty

Life of the Party
Pinky out on 1, is it tired or forgotten or am I outta line in my rookie bass jeans? Can always tell ask the wife it’s for practice.
Honestly that was by accident but will now be taking bass pics with the pinky out to class it up a bit. Gotta have some kind of bridge from mullets/whopper ploppers to tweed jackets and dries.
 

Zak

Legend
Forum Supporter
I've got a bass question. On my little lake at the end of last summer (when I moved in) and fall I was regularly catch LMB that were big enough to bend the rod (0.5 -1.5 lbs).

This spring, I've only seen and caught little baby bass. Were did the bigger ones go? Were those bigger ones last year just the babies grown up, so I'm waiting for these dinks to put on weight? Is this a common pattern for westside lakes?
 

Long_Rod_Silvers

Elder Millennial
Forum Supporter
I've got a bass question. On my little lake at the end of last summer (when I moved in) and fall I was regularly catch LMB that were big enough to bend the rod (0.5 -1.5 lbs).

This spring, I've only seen and caught little baby bass. Were did the bigger ones go? Were those bigger ones last year just the babies grown up, so I'm waiting for these dinks to put on weight? Is this a common pattern for westside lakes?
Zak. Not sure. Below is one from weekend before last at your lake, caught a few of them....along with several of the dinks. They were out along the edge of the weed line on the north end. Nothing in too shallow.
Screenshot_20220719-070056_Photos.jpg
 

Zak

Legend
Forum Supporter
Zak. Not sure. Below is one from weekend before last at your lake, caught a few of them....along with several of the dinks. They were out along the edge of the weed line on the north end. Nothing in too shallow.
View attachment 23453
Thanks! Looks you were right near my house. Shoot me a line the next time you come over and I'll hand you a cold one from my dock, or join you for a bit. I've been fishing much smaller flies, so I'll tie something bigger on.
 

Smalma

Life of the Party
Long_Rod_Silver -
Some largemouth bass information might help understand what is going on in "your lake" and its bass.

First in this state bass are relatively slow growing. In the typical western Washington low land lake on the average, it takes about 5 years to grow a 12 inchs (about a #). Meaning there are lots of smaller bass in many of those lakes. Further those fish you caught last fall were "babies" several years earlier. In those lakes the typical largemouth behavior is that as the lake warms the adult fish (those likely to spawn) move to the shallows preparing to spawn while the smaller fish (dinks) remain in the deeper water until about the time the adults have completed the spawn (water temperatures in the mid/upper 60s). At which point those "dinks" flood the shallows while the larger fish relocate to some sort of cover (logs, weeds, docks, etc.) often holding pretty tight though during low light periods they sometimes will venture from the cover looking for foraging opportunities.

Understanding the above may help your decisions on fishing times, locations and presentations with those larger fish often requiring greater refinement fishing aspects than the "dinks"

Tight lines
Curt
 

Zak

Legend
Forum Supporter
Long_Rod_Silver -
Some largemouth bass information might help understand what is going on in "your lake" and its bass.

First in this state bass are relatively slow growing. In the typical western Washington low land lake on the average, it takes about 5 years to grow a 12 inchs (about a #). Meaning there are lots of smaller bass in many of those lakes. Further those fish you caught last fall were "babies" several years earlier. In those lakes the typical largemouth behavior is that as the lake warms the adult fish (those likely to spawn) move to the shallows preparing to spawn while the smaller fish (dinks) remain in the deeper water until about the time the adults have completed the spawn (water temperatures in the mid/upper 60s). At which point those "dinks" flood the shallows while the larger fish relocate to some sort of cover (logs, weeds, docks, etc.) often holding pretty tight though during low light periods they sometimes will venture from the cover looking for foraging opportunities.

Understanding the above may help your decisions on fishing times, locations and presentations with those larger fish often requiring greater refinement fishing aspects than the "dinks"

Tight lines
Curt
Thanks Curt! I was the one with the question; Long Rod probably knows way more than me. I really appreciate your info!

Zak
 

Long_Rod_Silvers

Elder Millennial
Forum Supporter
Long_Rod_Silver -
Some largemouth bass information might help understand what is going on in "your lake" and its bass.

First in this state bass are relatively slow growing. In the typical western Washington low land lake on the average, it takes about 5 years to grow a 12 inchs (about a #). Meaning there are lots of smaller bass in many of those lakes. Further those fish you caught last fall were "babies" several years earlier. In those lakes the typical largemouth behavior is that as the lake warms the adult fish (those likely to spawn) move to the shallows preparing to spawn while the smaller fish (dinks) remain in the deeper water until about the time the adults have completed the spawn (water temperatures in the mid/upper 60s). At which point those "dinks" flood the shallows while the larger fish relocate to some sort of cover (logs, weeds, docks, etc.) often holding pretty tight though during low light periods they sometimes will venture from the cover looking for foraging opportunities.

Understanding the above may help your decisions on fishing times, locations and presentations with those larger fish often requiring greater refinement fishing aspects than the "dinks"

Tight lines
Curt
I didn't know that about the dinks swapping with the adults post spawn. Makes sense though. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing!!
 
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Smalma

Life of the Party
Zak/Long_Rod_Silver-
Sorry about my confusion.

Another aspect most don't realize about Washington largemouth bass is the low density of "desirable sized" (greater than 12 inches) found in our lakes. In a typical western Washington lake of say 60 acres it is likely that there are less than 125 such fish in entire population (less than 2/acre). Such densities is a small fraction of trout densities found in many lowland lakes. With such low densities successful anglers learn to spend their angling time targeting those prime holding areas.

In general, there is a significant overlap in trout and "dink' largemouth bass diet the better bass generally are foraging on food items at the larger end of the spectrum than trout. A nice exception is during cool water periods (the spring bass pre-spawn and the fall as water temperatures drop below 60 -October/November many of the lakes nicer trout can be found in the same areas chasing the same food (sculpins, crawdads, etc.). The result is the by-catch of trout while target bass during those periods while limit can include some very respectable sized individuals. In fact, I would say that over the years in Western Washington a significant portion of my trout between 4 and 9# were just happy accidents while bass fishing.

Curt
 

Peyton00

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Dragon flies getting smashed by big bass.
I had none to offer. I watched the 1hr show and enjoying the acrobatic displays.
I did get quite a few on salamanders.
 

Long_Rod_Silvers

Elder Millennial
Forum Supporter
Dragon flies getting smashed by big bass.
I had none to offer. I watched the 1hr show and enjoying the acrobatic displays.
I did get quite a few on salamanders.
I've never seen LMB chasing dragon flies - I bet that's super cool getting to see that.
 
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