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I've been meaning to check out Chambers Lake for a while, but for some reason I hadn't gotten around to it. Maybe it's because it's right in the middle of Olympia, but I think I figured it would be unproductive and/or crowded. Well, Tuesday I finally decided to go for it, and I wish I'd done it sooner.

It kind of reminds me of a little bit of Florida here in Washington. With the abundance of aquatic vegetation, shallow bowl shape, and tannic water, it has a lot in common with the waters of the sunshine state.

Anyway, on to the fishing. There is a lot of cover in this lake with abundant pad fields. However, I only caught one 10" dink off the pads on a spinnerbait. The mature fish were all up against the banks hanging around the floating mats and woody cover. I caught a foot long male on my first cast on a soft jerkbait I made in a watermelon blue flake color. I worked the shoreline and picked fish off here and there with the jerkbait. I missed quite a few too, maybe I'm rusty with this type of fishing. Eventually some storms threatened to blow in, but no rain came, just wind and cloud cover. Once the wind died but the clouds remained, I experienced a flurry of activity, and also began catching some fish on a Grande Bass Rattlesnake in a black blue flake/watermelon laminate.

The best fish of the day was just shy of 4lbs. I was slowly working my bait back from a likely spot, when I paused to look at an Apache helicopter flying overhead. When I went to twitch my bait again, there was no weight, like it had been cut off. Luckily it only took me a second to realize that a fish had taken the bait and was swimming toward me. I quickly reeled up the slack and set the hook. It was a good fight with only a few feet of line out.

In the end I landed 17 bass and lost several more. Most were in the 1-2.5lb range. The water was a balmy 70° when I left. All the bass I caught appeared to already be post spawn. I didn't realize just how shallow that place is with 5' the deepest water I found. I really wish I'd fished at Chambers back in April when I was getting skunked, but I'll remember it for next year.

bob johansen

5/10/2018 7:27:33 AM

Excellent Report. I have had the privilege of fishing that lake a few times but never had a catching day like you did.

grubowski

5/10/2018 11:09:02 AM

Thanks! It was a fun little lake, and perfect for a float tube fisherman like myself. I will be back for some frog fishing once the fish pull out from the banks and start hanging out in the pads. I'll definitely be back early next spring to catch those fish while they're still fat and sassy prespawners :) That being said, these fish seemed to fight abnormally hard. I kept thinking I had a big one on when the fish would hit, and it would be another 2lber.

Jamesb

5/12/2018 11:52:10 PM

Nice fish. I like Chambers fished there 1995 when I lived in Olympia. Have to make a trip south sometime to fish it again. Sounds like a great day and 4lber!

grubowski

5/13/2018 9:38:49 AM

It’s a really fun lake to fish. Being new to the area and having so many lakes to choose from it’s tough to decide whether to focus on one or two and really learn them, or whether to keep exploring new ones.

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