Kress Lake Fishing

I went out again today with my pontoon. I still do not have that down real good. I need an anchor. The wind really blew me around today.
I went out on this small lake called Kress Lake. It was fun, but I do not know how to fish a lake like this. I went all around the shore and fish with my Trout Magnet and caught bluegill and pumpkinseed. The lake is stocked with trout and some steelhead, but I had no luck with them.

The pumpkinseed adds one more to my summer goal of ten species. Now I am up to four...six more to go!

Contest Over...Quest Continues

The roughfish.com specie contest is over for 2008. I considered filling this entry with my whiny excuses, but it comes down to me not making enough time to fish this month.
The fellow that won, Dr. Flathead, had 42 different species in 30 days...wow!
I was feeling pretty pathetic when he wrote this to me, "One species at a time man! It just flat out takes time and patience to catch some fish. I've sat on the end of a fallen tree for hours trying to float hooks into algae sifting buffalo's mouths many times. But its very rewarding once it finally happens....Good luck with your catches." What an encouragement!
I did get five species (actually only four since the bullhead is a sculpin and does not count as a fish, but is a minnow), my goal was ten and I failed in that, but I will not give up. I have decided that I will make the ten species a goal for the summer for me.

That is my challenge...TEN by September 30!

Maiden Voyage...three specie!

I bought a used pontoon from a guy on craigslist and had it out for the first time today.
Not like the canoe that's for sure. I had a hard time maneuvering at first, but it came quicker than the canoe did last year.
I learned some important lessons today like wear boots, check the time and bring a small cooler. The only thing I lost today was a hand towel I use to dry my hands with...it was in my lap and then it was gone. And the worms all died a horrible death without the cool comfort of an ice chest.
It was a kick in the pants and I caught three specie today. Black Crappie, Yellow Perch and Bluegill. A very colorful catch of the day.


Took my pontoon out for its maiden voyage Saturday...what fun that is. It was not as hard to figure out the maneuvering as the canoe was last year!
Got on the water about 9:00am at the new launch on Lacamas tried fishing the dock with the plane, but since it was the first bit of getting around with the pontoon and the wind was blowing a little I could not stay in position to fish the dock, moved on under the bridge to Round lake. Water was high, barely fit under the bridge.
The air was warm the water was warm also, sorry no thermometer...no temp. I made my way around the lake in a clockwise direction hitting all the usual trees and small docks and was pleased with the action. I used a trout magnet (1/64th oz "shad dart" jig with a split-tail grub) most of the time, starting with char/green and switching to red. Color did not seem to matter. I switching to a worm on the bottom for a while with no success and I tossed a gold kastmaster around a bit with no fruit either. When I got over to the dam I tried a worm under a bobber for a while, but it did me no good.
Caught a bunch of small bluegill and a few pan-sized black crappie. Not knowing how things would go in the pontoon I brought minimal gear and had not figured on keeping any fish so I released all unharmed.
It was a good day, I did not count the fish, but I caught three specie. The last was just as I was leaving Round lake the north corner next to the bridge I tossed my trout magnet right near the bushes and caught a small yellow perch. On the way back to the launch I fished the Moose docks and caught a couple more bluegill. I did not measure any of the fish, but I know I caught my personal best black crappie!

The only real negative on the day, besides not getting a bass or trout at a lake that is suppose to be great for both, was that I was suppose to be home for my kiddos coming back from California by 3:00 and I always lose track of time on the water and did not get off the water until 5:00. Wonder why I had to make my own dinner tonight?

Roughfish...Peamouth

Just a quick update on the Roughfish.com specie contest.

Went out to Wintler Park on the Mighty Columbia again Wednesday evening and caught a peamouth.

It was kind of hard to find a good spot. There were not too many fishing, but they were spread out pretty good. One guy was using a cresent wrench for a weight!

Roughfish Contest

The roughfish.com Specie Contest is going on the whole month of June. The point of the contest is to see how many different specie of fish you can catch in the month of June. The winner gets a custom made fishing rod. This is the third day and some of the members already have more than ten specie. Dr Flathead has nineteen...what a fisherman. Last years winner had over forty species caught.

Went down to The Mighty Columbia and the slough I frequent at Catapiller Island was 5 or 6 feet higher than normal. The boat ramp was almost unusable. Fished for a half hour and decided it was fruitless, went to where there is an underground entrance of the river into Vancouver Lake. There is normally pan fish close in and squawfish, suckers and catfish a ways out. It was also higher than I have seen it. fished for an hour or so and only caught a sculpin, which is concidered a minnow by contest rules and is not even qualified as a specie.

Hopefully I will be able to head out some nights this week and get some fish. My goal for the contest is ten species.

Canoeing On Round Lake

Monday, Memorial Day, I took My pal Shawn and his son, Lance out in the canoe on Round Lake to try for some pan fish. Met at about 8:00am and got out on the water. No thermometer so I do not know the water temp. It has to be a little warmer, but not quite warm enough. We paddled from the City Park to the airplane and fished the shoreline to the bridge with no luck. I was a little concerned, because I always get the first fish of the day there...not this day. We scooted under the bridge and there were the usual spots on the shore taken by trout fishermen. We paddled the shoreline clock-wise hitting all the promising spots and some not so promising with very little action. We were using jigs under floats. I was using Trout Magnets, 1/64th oz jigs with a split-tail grub and they were both using 1/8 oz jigs with tube shaped grubs with skirts. Shawn tried worms for a while , but to no end. We did catch seven fish between us. I caught two crappie and a fair sized bluegill and a bass fry about three inches long. Shawn caught a couple crappie and Lance caught a crappie in the six or seven inch range. We chucked them all back except Lance's. His dad had gone on so much about how good they taste he wanted to take it home. Shawn showed him how to clean it and they took it home to mom for cooking.

Not much action, but all in all a good day. I love to see kids catch fish.

Wintler Park

Went out to Wintler Park about 8:00 this morning and fished until 11:00.
There was a guy who had been there since about 7:30 and he had three or four fish on his stringer but he did not know what they were. Best we could figure they were squawfish. He also had a nice 10" smallmouth bass. He was catching fish with almost every cast and I caught two squaws the whole time. No suckers, dang!
We were both fishing worms on a leader with a weight above. Tossing them out and letting them drift a little.
Oh, well not a complete waste of time since I found a twenty dollar bill in the grass.

Left there and went to Caterpillar Island hoping that the water has warmed enough for the perch to be biting...not yet.
I was fishing a worm under a slip bobber and the water was higher than I have ever seen it. All I caught was three baby steel head between four and six inches.