This was a 'revenge' trip for me, after losing four nice fish last week, I fitted my favorite crankbait for this lake (a Bomber Fat Free shad in red crawdad color) with some brand new hooks and headed out to redeem myself! I didn't launch until about 9am because I needed the extra sleep (been ill)..... I headed into cove #2 on the east shore and tried the same crank pattern as last time. Problem was that last time the wind was out of the west and blowing right in there, this week it was blowing out of the southwest and had been for two days so this cove stayed fairly protected. I tried grubs around the docks, crankin out to 15' in here and my spinnerbait, but no takers.

I decided to get 'in the wind' and headed out to the rocky point on the northwest end of this cove and fished out towards the "saddle", still not a bump! I continued north and fished the east shore down to where the lake bends back northwest towards the parks. I was throwing a chartruese and white double willow spinnerbait around the vegetation near the docks, thinking that any bait fish would be using that to get out of the wind. Doing this I had a very nice smallie follow my bait back to the boat but didn't commit. I threw everything I had tied on back around this dock, but he wasn't going to play.

About 30 yards down the lake I noticed an old rail style boat launch that came out into the lake near a dock, my boat was in about 14 feet of water so I switched back to my crankbait and gave it a chunk in there....three cranks on the reel and it stopped, I set the hook thinking I had just snagged the launch when I felt a head shake, then she jumped and I got a look at her...then the prayers started "don't get off!!", "pleeeease don't get off!!", don't jump!! Rod in the water to stop her from jumping again, as I could see just the back hook in her mouth, then as she came by the side of the boat, I swung my rod and got the front hook in her gill plate and that slowed her up....FINALLY, I got my first largemouth out of Lake Goodwin for the year....6.2lbs!!

I got the photo and weight and put her back which took a little reviving. The awesome thing was that this bass had what appeared to be an 8" bass already in her throat judging by the tail and fin sticking out into her mouth, and still slammed my crank! Gotta love that!

I repositioned and threw my spinnerbait back in thinking they must be feeding on the smaller bass feeding on fry, five casts and boom, hooked into a 4lb largemouth this time, again landed photographed and released. I worked that area hard for about an hour and a half throwing everything I could think of in depths out to 15 feet, no further takers for me.

I headed back into the wind to the southwest end of the lake and began fishing back north with the wind. I didn't touch another fish until the cove that's due west of the state park, that fish was a 4.4lb smallie that took a grub I skipped up under a dock in about 8' of water, that was a great fight on my lighter gear. I only managed one more fish, a 2.5lb smallie on the crankbait about 150yards later. I did miss two fish on the grub, but oh well.

The water was in the upper 60's all day, and the wind blew constant at about 9mph until about 2pm then it died for a half hour and started blowing out of the northeast at about 5mph. Cloudy with of and on drizzles. Now satisfied with my results on Goodwin I can finally head for Samish tomorrow:)

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