I decided that I am going to get into some Lake Washington Bass fishing this year since last summer I went to the lake a lot to swim and catch perch and always saw some big bass at the local docks and I fish for anything in freshwater and saltwater except bass, but I am going to try and catch some this coming season. I have done some research online and on Washingtonlakes.com for bass fishing, but I am somewhat new to bass fishing and I am not sure about when the best seasons are and when the bass start biting and if would be worth going to try it out now in March because I am antsy to try out my new bass gear. I also don't have much of an idea of what to use to catch them (Mostly smallmouth).I used to always go look under rocks for fun with my snorkel gear to find crawdads in the summer months, and once in a while a bass would lurk its way over to me and wait for me to let the crawdad come out of their hiding spot unnder the rock and then swallow it whole, which is really a cool sight. So I bought a went out to the sporting goods store and bought a crawdad imitating crankbait for that reason, as well as 2 lipless crankbaits (fire tiger and silver with blue on top and a bleeding gill sort of a thing), 2 Strike King 1/8 oz jigs (watermelon color and pumpkin color) some bass attractant, some leader and terminal tackle like weights (Egg and bullet weights for carolina and texas rigging) and some various plastics (tubes, grubs, worms, and crawdads) and I bought some jigheads and swivels and hooks and all that stuff and I dug out two rapalas, some weighted spoons and a spinnerbait from my trout box. I was wondering if any of you have any help for me since I am looking into getting some good bass fishing action this season and I need help with times of the year to try for these bass and what to use and how to use them and what else I should go buy and throw in the tackle box! Thanks.

I'm sure there are fishers much more qualified to answer your post but since this board does not often get a lot of action and smallmouth are one of my favorite fish to catch I'll tell you what I can. I have not fished Lake Washington but every year think I should. It seems you are on the right track with the baits. Smallmouth like rocks so if you find a rocky point or shoreline it would be worth some time. This time of year I would stick with the slower moving baits, worms, tubes, jigs. I would immagine the fish will be a bit deeper right now probably 15 feet or more. Smallmouth will probably start to move onto spawning beds, look for gravel, in 5 to 10 feet of water in middle April to early March depending on the weather/area and can be in the shallows until late March to early June. People who really know what they are doing say you can see thier beds in shallow gravel areas with some polarized shades. 3 to 4 inch tubes in pumpkin (crawdad) or watermellon (perchy) colors on a Carolina rig should work. I like to cast crawdad and perch colored shad raps in the SR5 and SR7 size along rocky shorelines during the mid to late spawn. Smallmouth are schooling fish so if you find one chances are, there is at least one more around. Later in the summer go back to fishing deeper with deep diving cranks or your jig, tube, selection. I'm not sure if this helped, or is accurate since I have only fished for smallmouth in the Eastern part of the state. Good luck, I'd be interested to know how you do.

Thanks fishen1, the info is very accurate and very helpful...I am new to the whole bass scene and I am just waiting to catch my first one (I have caught some bass here and there trout and perch fishing), and I have found a few perfect beaches that I was swimming and snorkeling at over the summer and I have seen some big bass their. The beaches have docks, rocky bottoms, rocky points, dropoffs, some seaweed, points, ledges, crawdads, perch, and some other forms of cover like sunken logs and cement blocks that make it look like a perfect smallmouth spot and I have sure seen a few around these places. I am also wondering if people find any luck with Senko's, they seem to be in a lot of people successful posts on washingtonlakes.com

Hey FH07, welcome to my latest addiction. Have you had a chance to review articles under Featured Writer Bruce Middleton? He does just bass and there are some good articles on bassing. Next, I'd use the SEARCH box in the upper left corner of the front page. Type in two names: Bob Johansen and David Newby. Do the search under Freshwater Reports. You will be able to pull up all their old reports. These two guys are amoung the best bass anglers that contribute to the site (my apologies to the rest of you that I'm not mentioning). Once you have those reports, check out the dates and read the early spring reports for their successes and techniques. That should give you a wealth of information. I plan on doing a month or so of trout fishing and then starting my bass trips in mid April or so. I know Dave Newby has some good early season reports to review. Good luck and send some reports to let us know how you do!

Thanks Mike... also thanks for washingtonlakes.com, it helps us fishermen in Washington get information on their favorite spots and new lakes they want to fish and the topo maps and articles and photos, its a great site. I check the site every day. Yes I have read all of Bruce's articles on Bass fishing which helped me alot...and I read every new lake post on Washingtonlakes.com for any lake in the state so that helps, and I recognize Dave Newby and I know that he is catches ridiculous amounts of big bass at and I recognize the name Bob Johanson as well, I will read their reports over again. I also spend my weekends trout fishing at local lakes like Pine Lake and Beaver Lake until about the middle of June when the trout fishing isn't as good, then it will be all bass, saltwater fishing and some fishing for trout up at Deer and Lone Lake up at Whidbey Island where I spend a lot of time at my summer cabin...I will most definetely do some bassing around April and May and June as well since those are good bass months and maybe if the weather clears up for us maybe some visits to the lake in March...Mike I know that you always go up to Pine Lake for opening day (I read all the reports on the lakes I fish a lot), I will be up their in a green Sevylor raft and its called a Fish Hunter 280, so if I see you I will row over and say hi!