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Got these monsters today at a pond near Klineline on Salmon Creek Park in Vancouver, Washington. I was fishing for bass, but ended up trying the deeper water instead of my usual shallow water haunts. I need to try a dropshot rig at this location, but I was still rockin ' the 4'' Yum Dinger on a Texas Rig. Had a few small largemouth tackle the lure and a sunfish engulf it, but these Northern Pikeminnow really stole the show. Both struck near the shore, just around dusk, ripped drag, but never went airborne. Smaller one was just over 13'', biggest was pushing 17'', definitely my PB pikeminnow . Interestingly enough, you can actually get paid to catch the much-hated pikeminnow if you catch it in the Columbia River. A partnership between the Bonneville Power company and the WDFW pays $4 per fish over 9''. Some anglers have reportedly made over $40,000 a year just catching these baby salmon-killers.

Awesome scenery. Loads of fish. Great weather. What more could you ask for? Growing up, I was lucky to see a bass on a fishing trip, let alone ever catch one. An excellent day of fishing was catching one largemouth, and I'd cherish the memory for weeks (I didn't get out much). With more practice, I started catching bass more regularly, and, even had a few trips where I lost count of how many bucketmouth I had caught. Still, this never happened in my home state of Washington. Bass were just too hard to find, and too small to make things interesting. However, this year has been different. I’ve finally learned enough about bass fishing to make trips with loads of fish possible. Today was one of those days-loads of fish, big and small. Probably my best day for bass fishing in Washington, ever. I only took photos of a few of the fish though, got too caught up in the angling. Went out to some small ponds (secret, shh!) out in the north county of Clark County last Sunday. Someone stoc...

1.5 hours, 7 fish landed, 4 lost, all from the bank. Biggest sculpin I've seen in a long time. Nailed a Yum Dinger hard. Caught two of these big northern pikeminnows, both on the Dinger. Really a surprise, a little dissapointed they weren't big bass. Still, they pulled super hard, unlike most pikeminnows I catch. Never had 'em hit a Senko-style lure before. This one in the above pic was 15 inches. This is the biggest largemouth that this park has ever produced for me, sitting at 14 inches. Not huge, but a monster compared to the dinks that I usually catch here. Good fight on 4lb test. Klineline pond and the surrounding waterways in Salmon Creek Park continue to surprise me with largemouth bass. I've lost some pretty big ones here but hopefully I'll connect and actually land them on my next trip.

One Fish Hunter Sevylor Raft. Two oars. Four fishing rods. Two anglers. And a whole lot of wind. We fished Mud Lake, lightly at first, since the awful visibility, brisk wind, and choppy water made it hard to fish with any confidence. We finally had a little bite on a Yum Dinger near some weeds, and on a plastic grub, but no fish were landed. Saw a few No Trespassing signs on the far shore too, didn't want to make anyone angry by landing over there. Finally went back to the main launching area, stetched our cramped legs for a bit, and made a few casts. I lost one, then landed a little guy on a Dinger. Really surprised they even could find the lure with the poor visibilty. Got back into the raft, headed to another part of the lake. My brother loves fishing plastic grubs on jigheads, and he lost a fish off a weedline on a white grub. We caught a couple of frogs in the thick grass for fun, then moved to another part of the lake. Water looked good, every thing seemed perfect-and we c...

Got these little tykes off a weedline at one of the Salmon Creek Park Ponds. So far, I have managed to catch largemouth bass at but one of the ponds at this park. The main pond, Klineline, has been the hardest to crack, I'm still working on that one. Clear water, loads of pressure, not much cover. Oh, and I lost a really big one today, also on this Yum Dinger, 4''. Never even got to see it before it took off and threw the hook.

Accidently stumble across a series of big ponds on Google Earth ("recon"). Find a couple of forum posts on local fishing forums discussing the ponds ("intell"). Contact one of the guys who fished it once, find out that the ponds have easy public access ("local informant"). Actually drive out to the place today, fish it, find loads of eager biters, mostly dinks, but one decent 1-2lb fish that couldn't resist the Yum Dinger ("awesome"). Looked like this largemotuh was going to lose an eye. I went really horrible, but fortunately the hook slipped right next to the eye, slid out without any noticeable damage, fish seemed a-ok. I hate hooking 'em near the eyes. Definitely going back with my Fish Hunter Sevylor raft. Don't you love finding new places to fish?

The Columbia River has world-class smallmouth fishing, with B.A.S.S. holding at least one tournament per year on it. The best smallmouth fishing is usually upriver, in the Columbia River Gorge area, but you can still catch smallmouth closer to Vancouver and Portland. I fished on Wednesday at Wintler Park for smallmouth bass and caught this guy, plus a few others. I love how explosive smallies are and how much of a fight they put up. Even on my heavier rod, they still pulled drag and made mad runs. This was my first fish of the day, caught on my favorite watermelon Yum Dinger. He was probably a little over 1lb, 13 inches or so. More after the jump. Lots and lots of little taps kept bugging me as I was fishing a Jewel Sculpin Hypertail near the shore. I assumed it was just juvenile smallmouth, but when I set the hook, I snagged a small yellow perch! While they are not uncommon in the area, this is the first yellow perch I have caught in the Columbia River, ever. Waaay too small to eat, I...

There is one pond at Salmon Creek Park, in Vancouver, that I can never seem to catch any bass at. I have seen bass, had bass bite my lures, even found a dead 6 lb largemouth in the shallows with a big heron wound on its side, yet never landed one myself. Finally, at dusk, I caught this guy on a Yum Dinger. Dink? Totally. Still glad to shake the bass skunk at that pond.

I fished Lewisville Park for several hours this Saturday. Exploring the East Fork of the Lewis River as it winds through the fir trees and swimming spots, I ran into the usual mix of fish, plus one new personal best for myself. Lewisville is just north of the city of Battleground, Washington, and is probably one of the most peaceful city parks in Clark County. Report and more photos after the jump: ^Too many falls on the rocks. The day started miserably cold, for July. I spent the better part of the morning walking upriver, ending at the main swimming hole. A few picnickers had showed up, but most people were staying out of the frigid water.  Totally overcast day but the water was super clear.. There were dead crayfish everywhere I stopped. I don’t know if this is a sign of decreasing water quality, or if they just happened to run into some hungry raccoons. More annoying than this was the abundance of trash day...

Oh Hai ? Salmon Creek Park is full of turtles. In elementary school, we used to watch videos of endangered sea turtles laying their eggs on beaches. It would seem that the common freshwater turtles in the Pacific Northwest do the same thing. I've lost track of how many times I have stumbled across a female turtle, digging a hole near Salmon Creek for its eggs.

I fished Round Lake, in Camas , Washington this morning and early afternoon. It is really a picturesque lake, especially when you get there before the summer swimming rush. My brother and I tossed jigs, Senko-clones, and flies for a nice assortment of fish. We caught largemouth and (oddly enough) yellow perch. Here is my big bass for the trip. He was traveling with two other similar sized bass, crusing the shallows in the morning. I haven't seen bass of that size school up before, usually I find them as loners, hiding under logs and weeds. My brother was trying to catch a fat bluegill that kept nipping at surface flies. I guess all the topwater action brough the bass (and large bluegill school) in closer to the shore, and they couldn't resist a wacky-rigged Cabela's Glo-Stick. Check out the chunk to this fish! I lost loads of dinks and 'gills while fishing, but managed this one on a Berkely Gulp minnow. Round Lake has a lot of fish, the key is finding them without spoo...

Salmon Creek Park, in Clark County, Washington, is loaded with small ponds. Some hold hardly any fish, others have all kinds of different species. The main pond, referred to as Klineline Pond, gets stocked with loads of rainbow trout every year and subsequently receives insanely heavy fishing pressure. There also is a lot of bluegills and other sunfish in it, and some huge bass, but they are quite hard to reach. I love exploring Salmon Creek and the ponds in the park. I've found some spots with loads of bass eager to bite. Most are dinks, like this guy, not much bigger than the Yum Dinger I got it on. Still, they put up a nice fight on light tackle, and there are some much bigger specimens available too. Most of the ponds are really weedy, so you really have to work to present your lure to the fish. Here's a report from one of my most recent trips: Another 45 minutes to spare for some fishing in the evening. The closet spot was the Salmon Creek Park ponds, so I grabbed the ge...