Smallmouth on Sammamish

The air is starting to warm up this late May. Sixty counts as a good spring day in these parts. No wind and the American Bald Eagles were fishing low to the water today.

I took out my Outcast Fat Cat float tube in search of smallmouth bass, perch and maybe a cutthroat or kokanee. I saw plenty of little kokanee fry splashing around on this cloudy Sunday afternoon. I looked for smallmouth around the ample boat docks on the South end of Lake Sammamish.

I thought I felt a little tug at the end of one boat dock but that was about it for a solid hour or so. Finally I headed back to my launch point where there is a heavily wooded area with lots of submerged roots and fallen trees.

I had a 6-weight with an intermediate tip but set it aside and went with my Winston 5-weight we a brown Woolly Bugger. I cast back into some fallen trees and finally felt a convincing bite. I set the hook and found this little guy, a perch of some sort. (Might be a crappie.) Not a great fighter but a pretty fish.

Within a cast or two I noticed some fry jumping close to a bramble of trees and I cast just about where I saw the last splash. The take was not a crushing blow but my 5-weight doubled over pretty good. Once the fish realized he was hooked the rod tripled over and line began to peel off the reel. I suspected at this point that I had my first smallmouth on a fly. I really wanted to land this one so I played him, letting the fish make run after run.

The fish was probably 15 inches and fat, likely a pound and a half.

This opens up some new fishing for me nearby. I hear they also are on Lake Washington so I will give that a try as well.

No, I didn't keep anything. It's more fun to catch 'em, shoot 'em and let 'em go.