Union Bay Success

Today at around noon I was able to land a good little 2lb largemouth in Union Bay near the Horticulture Center. Hammered a green pepper lizard soft bait. First largemouth of the season. Saw many other god size fish jumping. Eagles fishing around me, just a great day alone on the water. Other than that though, no luck in the bay. It doesn’t get any deeper than 7feet and I caught enough weed to start a pot shop. Any tips for shallow waters? I want to try going for cutties and Kokanee in Lake Washington now, anyone want to head out?

On the east coast I attacked shallow water panfish with light gear (6-8lb braid, 4-6lb fluoro leader) and baitfish patterns. I'd tie them in various weights.. can't cast them too far, and wind makes it tougher, but it allows you to keep the presentation off the bottom while maintaining a slow, varied retrieve. Makes for a fun fight, too.

Also you can tie them so that they're more or less weedless.

Union bay gets hammered by all manners of folks so pulling good fish out of there can be hard, nice job. For weedy stuff texas rigged plastics work well. Also try some topwater to avoid the slop when they're hitting that.

If you want some smallmouth action, the bridge pilings in the ship canal bridge or the rocky point in front of gasworks can put out at times.