Last Saturday Pat Perez & I headed out to Deer Lake for a change of scenery & some Bassin'. We started the day off with a Smallmouth, then started targeting Largemouth. After an hour or so we figured out a pattern for the day, which was flipping deep into the reeds at the mouths of bays/ targeting shallow docks near the same reeds. In flipping, if the bait landed 2 inches short of the reeds you might as well reel in & flip again. They absolutely refused to bite anything unless it was put in the reeds near their beds, which were just starting to take shape. We ended the day with an even 20 Bass, with about a 60/40 Largemouth/Smallmouth ratio. Most of the LMB were between 1 3/4 & 2 3/4 lbs- with the two biggest going 3 lb & 3 lb 11 oz -- all the SMB we caught were dinks. There's some big Smallmouth in Deer, but there are millions of little guys too. I believe anyone fishing Deer should encourage & practice the harvesting of some of these tasty little SMB so the big ones can get bigger. The larger fish don't taste worth a damn compared to the little 10 inchers that are so prevalent in Deer Lake anyways, so keep the little ones & throw the big ones back. Plus it takes such a long time for a SMB to reach 5 lbs, it would be a tragedy for it to meet it's end courtesy of a filet knife.. ***Note*** Pat caught the big fish of the day but I don't have the pic- it's on his camera, these pics were the only two I can find from last Sat..

Bass Hunter

7/4/2011 1:14:00 PM

IF YOU WANT THE SMALLIE POPULATION TO GO UP DON'T EAT THE LITTLE ONES , THEY CAN ALWAYS GROW UP!
BASS IN WA AREN'T GOOD TO EAT DO TO HIGH LEVELS OF MERCURY IN THE MEAT. YOUNGER BASS HAVE LESS MERCURY,ANY THING 12" AND UNDER IS GOOD FOR EATING.

bluegrouse bill

7/5/2011 10:42:00 AM

I don't want the SMB population to go up @Deer. If it went up anymore you could walk across the water on their backs. What I was getting at is harvesting some of the dink smallmouth bass. It's hard for either little or big fish to grow when the species is over populated & competing for food. Fish management is a lot like whitetail deer management, you balance the harvest so you optimize the number of big healthy ones. If you look at the studies in which Fish&Game instituted slot limits on certain bodies of water the positive results speak for themselves. Protect the big brood stock & selectively harvest the legal or slot limit fish.

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