arboretum

[angler]

anybody out there ever fish the area around the arboretum,i took a walk out on the pathway that extends out onto lake washington and it looks like real good habitat for crappie,perch or bass.i would like to go out in my float tube so for safety would like to stay close to shore. thanx

[Kokanee King]

well that whole area is filled with all the fish that you have mentioned. and they are really in there in the spring. go over to the lily pads on the other side and fish spawning bass, crappie, and other panfish.

[SlabKing]

The Perch and Pumkinseeds start to move into that area in late March and the bass and crappies should be in there around mid-April. The areas around the walk way are were you can find smallmouth bass, trout, and perch. Most of the larger crappies that I've caught from around there seem to only move in to spawn the quickly move back out into the main channel of the cut. The smaller crappies will stay there until late fall and can bite best very early in the morning. The trick to finding the larger fish is to find areas with a harder bottom since most of the arboretum has a very muddy bottom.

The catfish move in around the first week of March and can be caught all day and night. When ever there is a good rain shower in the early spring you can sometimes see them feeding on bugs on top.

The largemouth are found closer to the main lake, under 520, and along the rocks and wood stick ups on the outer edged of the arboretum. They are VERY lure shy because they get a lot of pressure during tournments. The best why I've found to catch them is to use weightless plastics and slowly drag them through cover. Grassfrogs work well in the late evenings if you fish them right on top of the larger pad fields. You may fish all day and only hook one or two fish but I've never caught one under 3lbs and you'll often see larger fish up 6lbs but they are very shy and hard to not scare off, even during spawn.

[urban_fisher1]

Have you caught trout from the walkway? Are they rainbows or cutts? I have fished from their before but assumed that all the trout would be out deeper.

[SlabKing]

Have you caught trout from the walkway? Are they rainbows or cutts? I have fished from their before but assumed that all the trout would be out deeper.

The first dock (starting from the UW side of the walkway) is pretty shallow, no more than 7 feet or so. Casting out into the main lake from that dock you can catch cutts. Toward the end of the chain of docks you'll be in water than can get as deep as 35 maybe 40 feet if you cast out into the main lake. You can catch nice rainbows (the state calls them steelhead if they're over 20", better check the regs first :D) if you use a slip bobber with a worm. They don't eat power bait or nothing like that, they are all wild fish as far as I know. They'll hit crankbaits in the summer (use green, silver, brown w/orange belly, or perch colored cranks) while you're fishing for smallmouth bass too.

[urban_fisher1]

Thanks for the great info!

[Kokanee King]

Go ahead tell me about your bass.Jerk.

[urban_fisher1]

I didn't catch it at the arboretum, or in lake washington.

[urban_fisher1]

and i caught it boucing a chartreuse, single colorado blade spinner bait
and the fish was most likely between three and four pounds, and i caught it on a lite action spinning rod

[Kokanee King]

ok where
come on tell tell