Looking For Some Potholes Reservoir (Wa) Summertime Tips

[Matt B]

I know a ProCrafter, Glenn and a bunch of other Northwest folks spend a fair bit of time fishing Potholes and I'm hoping to pick your brains a little bit.

I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon prowling Potholes looking for bass to no avail. Part of the problem is that I just don't know where I should be looking for them right about now. The water is still high, but dropping fast. The spots where I had found fish earlier in the spring are now mostly high and dry. I poked around in the dunes some, but couldn't find any great looking spots. I'm sure there is still a ton of area out there to explore, but my fear of getting lost keeps me from going too far in. I also briefly stopped at the rocky island out near goose island, but didn't see any smallmouth activity.

I'm guessing that since the spawn is over and the weather is finally warming up the fish have begun moving deeper? Here's where I get lost, I've never really spent much time fishing away from the banks. At the moment the only depth finding capability on my boat is one of those nifty flashers mounted in the dash. I'm not to fluent in reading it, though.

So do you Potholes fishing vets have any tips for someone still learning his way around? Did I simply catch the fish in an "in between period" and things will pick up more as the water drops further and the days get warmer? I can usually at least get into a few smaller fish, or maybe see some cruising around, but yesterday brought me nothin'.

~Matt

[Glenn]

Sorry for the late response. I just saw your post.

You don't need to get away from the banks on Potholes. There really isn't much "offshore" structure to "fish deep". There's so much abundant cover that the fish use it year round.

I'd fish the outer dunes - the ones closest to the main lake - this time of year. Get off plane well before the first dune if you're new to the area. It's very easy to beach your boat on a sand dune hidden just under the surface. So don't just run up to the first dune you see - you might abruptly stop before you get there! Don't forget to hit Frenchmans' canal, as that can be good this time of year.

Jigs and Texas rigged worms are standard fare in the dunes, as are Senkos and spinnerbaits. The topwater bite in low light conditions can be exhilarating! Colors that work are junebug, green pumpkin, grape, black, and white. Add some chartreuse to the tails of your baits if the water is cloudy.

You didn't mention Linde Coulee, but that's another great area to fish now through the fall. Just cover the banks with crankbaits, tubes, football head jigs, and twin tail grubs in natural colors such as green pumpkin.

Hope that helps!

[Matt B]

I can't believe you couldn't take time off from your iCast schedule to come and post on here, Glenn.

Thanks for the tips, I'll stay up in the weeds. The other weekend I just wasn't finding a lot of likely looking spots, it seemed like the water had dropped down below all the brush and wood to where I saw mostly sandy beaches. I just need to explore some more, I'm sure the good stuff is there. I looked around for some beaver huts but didn't find any yet.

For some reason I haven't yet ventured over to Lind Coulee yet, not sure why. The other day I was looking at it on google maps, though, I didn't realize it had all those little fingers of water poking into the shoreline. It's definitely on my list to explore. So much water, so little time...

[Glenn]

2 things:

In the sand dunes, watch your depth finder. You'll find brush and stickups under the water near the shore line. Fish them!

If you venture into Linde Coulee, don't go any further back than the island from now through the fall. It gets very shallow really quick, and you could end up damaging your boat if you go ripping through there on plane. When the water is up, it's a different story. But for now, you shouldn't go past the island.

[Matt B]

Just an update in case anybody is interested.

I finally got back out to Potholes yesterday. I only fished for a few hours, from 1:00 to 4:30 or so. Not exactly prime fishing time, but I take what I can get.

To start I headed down to Lind Coulee for a bit. Mostly I just threw a crawdad crankbait along some of the rocky shoreline, I managed one 10" smallie there. I didn't slow down and fish the points, there were too many ski boats/people back there for my taste.

Next I headed over toward the dunes. I picked a couple spots nearest the main lake. Frankly I'm really clueless as to what to look for with cover here. The entire shoreline of most of these dunes are covered in weeds and bushes in shallow water. It's probably good fish cover, but there is so d**n much of it I didn't know where to begin. I tried to find anything that looked different from the rest of the shoreline, but it really all looked the same to me. I threw a jig for a bit, then a spinnerbait and finally a bluegill colored crank. I had one dink follow the crank, but no other signs of fish. The lake is going through an algae bloom and is really green and murky right now. To be fair, I didn't take much time to fish any spots really thoroughly as I didn't have a lot of time. I just didn't feel confident in the spots I was seeing, though.

Glenn, I know you said to find submerged brush piles, but I don't have a depth finder other than a flasher unit (and I don't really know how to use it beyond seeing the depth.) and the water was too murky to see anything down there.

So anyway, that's where my Potholes experience is at. I miss the springtime when you can just about throw an old boot out and catch a fish. I'll probably update this again as I fish this reservoir through the summer and into the fall, if nothing else to have my own little record of how I do out there. Maybe someone else might find it useful one day.

[leberama]

Potholes in mid summer when the lake gets low and the temps are high can be tough going.  The key is get out early before 6 am and fish into dusk in the evening.  What has constantly worked for me during the hot days is working the points of the dunes where bushes and weeds are still submerged.  Don't be fooled thinking that the bass are in deep water.  I tend to catch sizable LM bass just off of the floating weed mats along the shore.  I find that senkos and salamanders without any weight seem to constantly work.  Cast them on top of the weed mat and pop/drag them off the edge.  My goto color (Yamamoto Senko) is the brown with purple or blue glitter.  Black and red to well too.  When the water is down and the rocks along the dam are starting to surface, work that area with medium running cranks and you can catch lots of small mouth.  As others have said, Frenchmen's inflow right by the state park is a hot spot.  Hit it at sunset!  Just fished there two days ago with the water down about 10 feet and Frenchman's inflow was hot for both LM and SM bass.  One thing I love about Potholes - when the mid day bite is not happening, I love to bird watch.  Head up in the dunes and look for cranes, herons.  I even saw some bald eagles and white pelicans this last trip.