Trophy Bass on Potholes Reservoir with Bonner Daniels

I was over fishing on the Potholes Reservoir last weekend. Tyson Ahina, Bob Jorgensen and I were catching large and smallmouth bass between two and six pounds on soft plastics, along with jerk baits. The bass were both in spawn and pre-spawn mode. The weather was great. The fish are all in great condition and very scrappy. We catch and release ALL of our trophy bass.

When we are looking for table fare, we catch walleye.

This year has been great with limits being the norm for my boat. We mainly troll spinners and crankbaits for the fish we target. We also release the trophy walleye we catch, but all the rest are headed for the deep fryer

If you’re looking for a nice change of pace, the Eastside has some truly wonderful warm water fisheries. Give me a call and let’s go catch some fish.

Sincerely,

Bonner Daniels
Bonnerfishon.com
425-281-8772

Jason Bauer and Rod Hewitt Win Walleye Classic!

2010 Rod Meseberg Spring Walleye Classic was held on Potholes Reservoir this last weekend, May 1 & 2. Seventy-nine teams fished this year’s classic. We experienced heavy winds with gusts up to 45 mph on Saturday. This was a day that marks a fisher as a competitor. The 79 teams brought in 355 walleye for 866.2 lbs of walleye. Sunday’s weather was a little kinder to us bringing us 5 to 10 mph winds, which we call the perfect walleye chop. All told our teams caught 238 more fish than last year’s event, with 5 less teams.

This is a Catch/Release Tournament, all fish were released safe and sound with one exception. Overall $20,530 was paid out to winners along with Lamiglas Rods, Walleye One Spinner Bags, hats, coats and trophies.

Tourney Stats / Teams / Fish Caught / Ttl # / Avg Size
2010 / 79 / 653 / 1619.44 / 2.48
2009 / 84 / 415 / 950.35 / 2.29
2008 / 97 / 605 / 972.18 / 1.61

Now that the winds have finally quit it is time to plan a long weekend and be here while the walleye bite is ON….Best bet is the Lind Coulee Arm, Frenchmen’s or Winchester Wasteway or try Goose Island or the Crab Creek area for a chance at a trophy sized walleye over 10 lbs.

Contestants indicated the primary lures fish were caught with were spinners and crawlers behind a bottom bouncer. Use a floating rapala behind one and a half colors of lead core trolling line and the fundamental jig tipped with night crawler or a Gulp artificial leech.

Jason Bauer of Arlington, Wa and Rod Hewitt of Monroe, Wa shown here with Dan Conrath (middle, Ranger Boat Sponsor) won the 2010 Rod Meseberg Spring Walleye Classic. Jason and Rod netted 12 fish in the 2 days of competition for 39.44 lbs using custom made rods from Fetha Styx. Rod Hewitt won our tournament 2 years ago and knew what he needed to do well this year. He is a fireman and has used Fetha Styx rods from the True Hero Series in the past. His specially made rods for this tournament together with his and Jason’s walleye knowledge earned them the title this year. Day 1 they weighed in 19.08 lbs, Day 2 was 20.36 lbs. Most tournament fisherman will tell you the hardest job in a tourney is to stay consistent and they managed to do that in spite of the tough weather. Our hats are off to them. Good job and we’ll see you for next year’s competition!!

Report submitted by Mike Meseberg,
MarDon Resort on Potholes Reservoir
509.346.2651 (mardonresort.com)

The Latest and Greatest Fishing Report with Bonner Daniels

It is officially springer salmon, late-run hatchery steelhead and native steelhead season. With that said, literally every mainstem river of the Washington Coast and Columbia River has fish in it right now. Big, bright, chrome fish…get out and get in on some of the action!

The trout lakes have been, or are being, planted; the walleye bite is beginning over on the Potholes Reservoir and Moses Lake; the Potholes Open is right around the corner; the Grande Ronde, Salmon, and Clearwater Rivers are overflowing with steelhead; and the Westside chromers are arriving right now. What a great time to go out and go fishing in this wonderfully mild weather.

My days have been consisting of side drifting bait for steelhead and springers out of my Wooldridge XL Jet Sled, which holds five guests comfortably. The fishing has been consistent with multiple fishONs!!! per day. This spring run has started off well, and should continue strong and even get better well into April. I am currently booked up through the 1st week of April, if you would like to get out and get after some of these chrome beauties, give me a call and lets get you on the schedule before its too late. See you on the water

Here are but a few pics from this week’s trips….

TIP of The Week: Keep On Casting!!!

Sincerely,
Bonner Daniels
bonnerfishon.com
425-281-8772