I usually fish regardless of the "forecast" and let the fish decide if they like the weather or not, especially in this State because of the gauranteed spring cold fronts. Sooo I took my best friend up to Samish today, in hopes that the smallmouth hadn't shut down too bad with the cold front conditions. I got a little worried when I saw that the water temp had dropped 7 degrees since last week!! 44.9 - 45.5 degrees down from 52.5 Ouch!

Oh well, not much you can do about it, but try to adapt and go fish. We headed up the east shore from the boat launch first, and I picked up the 4.2lb smallie on about my tenth cast on my Rapala DT-6, "here we go", or so I thought... We fished right into the wind and at various depths, nothing. We switched over to the west side of the lake and tried some points where my buddy caught the 5lb nasty squawfish, big fish, but ugly and useless!

I was starting to put together that the bass were suspending at 12' in 20' of water on the downwind side of mainlake points, only problem with that was that the wind was really picking up, and with the main option being a drop-shot rig with a 6' or 8' leader and a yamamoto grub on a 3/8th ounce jig head for weight, the wind really compromised the subtle technique:(

It was too tough to hold position, and even tougher to feel the strikes. We decided to continue trying suspending crankbaits and slow falling plastics but to no avail. We ended the day by returning to the location of the first smallie strike and really pounded the area, but it wasn't to be.

I did get a chance to play around with some home modified rattle traps, and was more than pleased with the results, can't wait to try them in the hot summer water!!

---