Fresh News From MarDon
Devon Gonzalez from Moses Lake enjoyed some fine Crappie action this past week fishing off the MarDon Dock. Devon’s group caught and released 32 crappie during their day-long fishing trip.
Cooling weather this past week has erupted into fine trout action. The mouth of Frenchman's Wasteway near Potholes State Park and Medicare Beach would be your best bet to catch some trout. Trolling Needle Fish or Rapala Shad Raps has produced rainbow from 2 lbs to 4 lbs with some 5 and 6 lb trout.
Bass fishing has been tough this past week as our surface temperatures have dropped from the low 70s to now right around the 65 degree range. With warmer weather in our forecast we are hopeful that water temperatures will warm back up next week.
MarDon Dock Fishing
Dock fishing continues to provide great action for Yellow Perch. This past week bluegill and crappie action has much improved for dock fishers as well.
Your best lure and baits for crappie fishing would be to use mini-jigs tipped with a grub (maggots).
Washington Bow Fishing Tournament on Potholes Reservoir
Thanks again to all those who attended the 2013 WBA State Championship at the Potholes Reservoir this past weekend! We had 91 competitors on 36 boats and finally got the weather we've been hoping for. Approximately 20,000 lbs of carp was removed from the reservoir and almost $7,800 in prize money was awarded!
Congratulations to Chris and Cody Bird who came all the way from Oroville, CA to take home the State Championship trophies and $1350 first place prize money this year with a grand total of 136 fish! Also want to say congratulations to our first all-women's team of Kelly Valentine, Amy Wakefield and Miranda Nash on their 25th place finish. Watch out boys, these girls are getting serious about stickin' fish! We also had a quite a few ties that came down to the big fish tie-breaker rule.
Carp Tournaments provide great recreation for archers. These events help remove carp that make silt while rooting around in the shallows. The carp enter the shallows after the Perch, Crappie, Blue gill and Bass have spawned. The silt that they create while rooting around in the bottom drifts over to the recently delivered spawn and kills it. There are several areas deep in the sand dunes that I experienced quality bass fishing during the '70s and '80s that no longer hold bass, due to the infestation of thousands of carp. Additionally, in the '50s, '60, and early '70s we had commercial carp harvesters in Potholes Reservoir and Moses Lake that would sell carp by the ton for not only fertilizers but for a religious dinner celebration to be shipped to the Mid-West and East Coast.