lake washington bass

Hello SpaceFish,

Over the weekend I went out and fished the closest “lake” to my house, Lake Washington – which is actually not a lake at all, it is a really wide and long section of the St. John’s River. I feel kind of bad for not fishing here, especially after driving down and fishing Headwaters and the Stick Marsh several times over the summer, but I went out this weekend, explored, caught some Bass – so here we go!

Where to Launch: Lake Washington Park – 6000 Lake Washington Rd, Melbourne, FL 32934. This a large public park with a fishing pier, playground, picnic tables and pavilions and public restrooms. There is an airboat launch area, a boat ramp, and an area beside the boat ramp that is an ideal place to slip in a kayak, or canoe.

Where to Fish: So this past weekend, the weather was pretty good for December, lower winds, sunny and clear. The wind we had was blowing E and ENE. As a kayak angler, I try to always fish as close to where I launched as I can, after all, we’re there to fish and paddle, not just paddle. When I first launched, I went north, I fished the little cove just north of the park, went around the bend and kept going north, working that eastern shoreline. After close to 3 hours of nothing, I paddled back in and took a break. When I re-launched I went south, working along the shoreline, but targeted emergent vegetation off the shoreline – this is where my action started picking up, finding emergent grasses and lily pads where there was some wind blown water pushing through. I also worked the mouths of two canals where they meet the lake, these were productive as well. But once I got on this pattern I caught between 20-25 fish over the next few hours. None were very big, but it was a heck of a lot of fun to just go out and catch a bunch of bass on a beautiful, clear and warm December day.

What Didn’t Work for Me: Topwater – Swim Baits – ChatterBait. I got out around 8ish, and it was kind of chilly, in the low 60’s, and the bite didn’t pick up for me until around 11 am. I threw a black whopper plopper for an hour, running it around grass lines and lily pads – nothing. I then went to a Chug Bug, which I will say is a really good top water bait, you can fish it like a popper but it also walks really well. I fished the Chug Bug both ways for about 40 minutes – nothing. Then for the next hour and some change I fished a white chatterbait with a white Gambler paddle tail – nothing. Then I went with a Gambler swimbait in their Forty-Niner (Gold) color, on a twistlock hook with a gold Colorado blade underspin (last time I fished Headwaters this was a killer combination) – nothing.

I am not saying these baits won’t work at Lake Washington, they just didn’t work for me from 8 am – 11 am on an early December morning. I also don’t think I was fishing very intelligently, I was fishing right up on the shoreline and there was no moving water. I have found that Bass, much like Snook, prefers to hang out in some sort of structure with moving water.

What Worked for Me: So once I cycled through 5 things that didn’t work, I settled on 3 profiles, in 3 different colors that got me a lot of action. The Speed Worm, on a Charlie Brewer’s Spider Slider Head (my all time favorite for rigging a Speed Worm!) I threw a Zoom Black and Blue color first, but the color they absolutely loved was a Zoom Watermelon Red Candy. I fished this primarily by throwing in the emergent vegetation and slowly dragging it through, once I cleared the vegetation I would hop it back to me like how I would fish a trick work. I caught close to 15 on this bait.

Once the wind picked up and took a ENE shift, water started moving down the shoreline a bit more, my best shoreline bait was a Watermelon Red, Zoom Fluke, rigged Weightless on a 3/0 worm hook. I was throwing this as close to the vegetation and cover offered on the shoreline and just dead sticking it, letting it sit for about 30 seconds, and if there was no fish on, I would slowly “jerk” it back to me, but letting it flutter back down after each jerk or jerk-jerk. I caught 3 on the dead stick, and 1 took it on the fall after a jerk-jerk.

Around the mouths of the canals (you can find them on google maps) I slowly drug and shook a Texas rigged Watermelon Candy 7 inch Culprit Worm (ribbontail). I picked up another 5, and had my best shot at 2 larger fish in the 3-4 pound range, but one spit the hook right at the kayak – it was kind of funny, he came up head first shook his head and the hook landed in the kayak, like he was just wanting to give it back to me. I lost another healthy fish as I was trying to get him in the net, and he came off. I like pegging the weight (I was using a ¼ oz Tungsten) but having the bobber stopper an inch or two above where the hook is tied so that weight can go down first, because the ribbon tails having a really good action on the fall. So what I like to do is let them sit, drag them a bit, then hop/shake them off the bottom and let them fall. I have noticed that the bigger bass typically like them just sitting on the bottom or being slowly drug around, but when those smaller Bass, the more aggressive ones love to hit it on a fall when that ribbontail is fluttering in the water.

Conclusion: I think Lake Washington is an overlooked fishery, I never even saw anyone else fishing out there, I saw a ton of airboaters, and people just out on the water recreationally. This “lake” may not have the reputation of a trophy Bass fishery, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great place to fish, especially if you live in the Melbourne area and just want to go catch some fish closer to home.

I hope everyone has a great week, the weather forecast looks great – get out there and catch ‘em up! Until next time!