I grew up fishing for bass and panfish for the most part like most people in the Midwest who fish.  When I was in middle school my dad got way into bass fishing and was part of the semi-pro bass tournament circuit in the Midwest so I used to get dragged all over the place to fish.  We mostly threw plastic worms, spinners and crank baits but at times I would fly fish for them.  When I moved to Des Moines after college I got serious about fly fishing for bass and spent many days on the Middle Fork of the Raccoon fishing for smallmouth or out at a lake fishing for largemouth.

When I moved to the PNW I  focused on trout, salmon and steelhead and hadn’t bass fished much.  Sure, I went to the lower Yakima and caught smallmouth, I got the occasional smallie on the Deschutes and got a few random largemouth while trout fishing. Well, with COVID and staying closer to home this summer I got inspired by Washington Bass Week and loaded up the boat and hit the lake in town with Lira dog, a 7-weight and some bass bugs.

We’ve been having fun going out every few days and I seem to catch or at least hook bass every morning.   Most are 8-10″ but I got one that was in the 12-17″ must release slot and one that was just under 12″ that got turned into tacos.   This morning we even managed a few panfish on my 5-weight with a smaller bug.   So being ‘stuck’ close to home has been kind of nice.  I’m rediscovering a type of fishing I did for decades, occasionally getting something to eat other than trout and salmon and saving a ton on gas.   Oh yeah, we still get out for trout on tenkara every few days too.