Spent the week with my folks in the Tri-Cities, so my dad and I took a morning to go up the Yakima to where he grew up by Horn Rapids Dam (now called Wanawish). Started they day by running across a nice large Rattlesnake guarding some gopher holes. It was s a big one and I should have taken a picture, but didn't think to. We let it be and moved on to our target fishing spot. The river above the dam was really choked with milfoil and weeds. There were a ton of carp in the water. Tried throwing some topwater among the weeds and casting some plastics out beyond the weeds, but nothing was biting. Decided to go somewhere else after about 30 minutes. Drove back down to West Richland and fished a WDFW area above the West Richland Bridge. It's heavily fished, but still managed to get some hits. Finally caught a fish on my baitcaster setup (first time) using a crawfish looking creaturebait Texas rigged that I was slowly pulling along the bottom in a stop and go fashion. The bass was only about 12". Tried a number of other lures and rigs between my dad and I, but that creature bait was the only one eliciting strikes. Had a few decent hits and some obvious dinks picking it up, but only the one hookup.
Saw two large channel cat carcasses that had been filleted and left in the water at the boat launch. The slow action and hot sun finally got to us and we quit at 1pm to go in search of air conditioning and lunch. Nice to get out with my dad on the old stomping grounds. Too bad the fishing wasn't better.

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