Anybody successfully chasing sunfish on the westside? Looking to get out now that things are warming and they should be feeding.

Well, I can’t divulge the name, but rumor has it a couple small / local lakes here, that the Pumpkin Seed are starting to get twitchy ! This next sunny cycle otta get them starting to think of sex, eating mini fly poppers, and Possibly digging nests.

We’ll see here next week if the rumors true. Time for the ole three weight to have a go.

I'll unlimber my 1 but also may Dad's old bamboo that I inherited. It is at least 77 years old; I want to catch something on it.

Mid May through June is always a good time for panfish.
WDFW used to have an excellent document on their website that showed which lakes contain what type of warmwater fish. When they changed their website it and a bunch of other good info disappeared. I have a pdf of it saved somewhere.
SF

Way back in time, ( early /mid 1970s), the Western Bass Club put out a great little book with the Help of many local Bass Fisher folk writing up details regarding lakes, pan fish and bass fishing potential of this state. I remember fishing and writing up fishing reports for submittal supporting the first few publications.

It was a great source of info on panfishing. Mallard Hole and Bass Lake in the Bald Hills come to mind, and were some great fun fishing. As a side note, back then in the 60’s and 70’s Bass and Panfishers were not highly regarded by the Trout, Salmon, or Steelhead fishers around here. Outlaws and Moonliters they were, and Gadabout Gaddis was the hero of the day for a lot of us.

A copy of that little guide book can still be had on the interwebz.

I'll look for the book, 28. My first work location was in the southern end of Discovery Bay. Crocker Lake was in the watershed. It had, according to the guys I talked to, one of the best Largemouth fisheries on the westside. On one OD, I checked a guy with a nice 2.5# Bucketmouth. When I reported it that evening for the press info, the Regional Fish Bio wasn't interested in bass. They no longer exist there as the lake was rotenoned to get rid of Northern Pike. It now produces huge numbers of coho smolts.

Went searching and found a bass and panfish of Washington book from 2017. Probably get it on my next foray into online sales.


Should add that juvenile Largemouth left Crocker and summered in Snow Creek. Found one in the fall that was 6-8" long and tubby. But, winter freshets blew them all out of the creek. Water was too cold for them to hold position in the velocities. But they sure grew over summer.