Saturday, May. 24, 2008

Potholes Reservoir offers 22 species of fish

By Jeffrey P. Mayor, The (Tacoma) News Tribune

Levi Meseberg is a man prepared to fish Potholes Reservoir.

His 21-foot Ranger fishing boat is festooned with a forest of fishing rods. He has rods for flipping plastic baits, pulling crank baits, casting tube baits, pulling worm harnesses. He has rods with bait casting reels and others with spin casting reels.

While the former guide's arsenal might be more than most anglers have or need, it reflects the options in this massive lake -- home to 22 species -- south of Moses Lake in Grant County.

The fishing for the big three -- walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass -- is so good that Potholes is the site of fishing tournaments every other weekend from spring through fall. Anglers also catch rainbow trout, yellow perch, crappie, bluegill and bullhead catfish.

Meseberg (pronounced MEES-berg) grew up fishing the lake while working at the family's MarDon Resort on the lake's south shore. He guided for more than four years, but now serves as the resort's head of maintenance, which allows him more time for tournament fishing, and fishing for fun.

On a cool but sunny morning earlier this month, I joined Meseberg and his father, Mike, for a day on the water. We headed east on the lake. After a short run, we stopped a third of the way up Lind Coulee. Meseberg shut down the 300-horsepower motor, put the bait on the worm harnesses, slipped the bow-mounted trolling motor into the water and had us fishing.

We were after walleyes first.

When I mentioned growing up in Cleveland, the Mesebergs assumed I was an accomplished walleye angler. No, I explained, Lake Erie was still a cesspool back then. After I left town, the lake was cleaned up and became one of the nation's best walleye fisheries.

That's why it was more luck than skill that I caught the first walleye of the day. It wasn't big, but at 16 inches, "it was the perfect size for eating," Meseberg said.

Trolling with worm harnesses -- a combination of hooks, colored plastic beads and a small metal blade -- is the most effective means of chasing Potholes walleyes. It's a big reason the resort sells 600 to 800 dozen a week during the summer.

On this day, we were fishing a ledge about 20 feet below the surface. The walleye were suspended in deeper water just below the ledge.

Each time we made a pass, Meseberg kept an eye on his Lowrance LCX-28C fish finder. "There's some fish," he said pointing to the color screen.

Almost without fail, within moments one of us would reel in a fish. On occasion, two of our rods would be bent over with a double.

With water temperatures at 59 degrees, we trolled at 1 mph. As the water warms up, and the fish become more active, Meseberg said he would increase his speed up to 1.5 mph.

We were dialed in this morning. "That's a keeper," Mike Meseberg said each time we tossed another walleye into the live well. He said it more than a dozen times before we decided to shift focus.

After another short run, Meseberg positioned us near rock piles off the face of O'Sullivan Dam. As he guided the boat into position, he armed us with different rods and lures.

It wasn't long before a few smallmouth bass fell for the crankbaits we were using.

As we fished along the dam, Meseberg pointed out the occasional rock that poked up through the lake's wind-rippled surface. "That's the thing about this lake. A spot you caught a fish at in the spring, you come back in August and it will be dry land," he said.

Water from the reservoir is used to meet the irrigation needs of farmers in the area. As the summer heat builds, the lake is drawn down. "The lake is always changing, and the fish are moving from one spot to another," Mike Meseberg said.

And so did we.

Our next spot was Frenchman Hills Wasteway, along the north edge of Potholes State Park. Meseberg worked the boat up what is essentially a creek, fed by unused and returned water from the irrigation system west of the reservoir.

Casting plastic baits among the tangle of willow roots that lined the bank failed to produce any fish. So we switched to casting leeches -- live and artificial -- into the channel and slowly retrieving them.

We landed our first largemouth bass of the day and more smallmouth, including one that weighed 3 pounds.

After lunch, we continued our pursuit of bass.

We made our way through willows, reeds and Russian olive trees among the sand dune islands that dot the north end of the lake. We stopped to fish the creek created by the Winchester Wasteway.

We first tossed plastic lures close to shore, but the largemouth bass we caught were in the deeper water in the creek channel. We also spooked a number of carp cruising the shallow waters among the islands, a favorite spot for anglers who prefer using a bow and arrow.

As afternoon gave way to evening, the temperature cooled and the fishing slowed. We decided it was time to head back to the resort. En route we were entertained by birds. Graceful white egrets stalked the shallows, while red-winged blackbirds chattered from tall reeds along the shore. We saw a great horned owl sitting in a nest, protecting a fuzzy owlet peeping over the edge. Western grebes, often in pairs, dived under the water as we buzzed by.

At the day's end, Meseberg was busy wielding an electric knife at the resort's cleaning station. It took about a minute to filet each walleye.

A plastic bag filled with filets were the physical rewards of the day's effort.

But the memories of making new friends and fishing new waters will last much longer.

On the Net:

Washington State Parks and Recreation: www.parks.wa.gov/

Department of Natural Resources: www.dnr.wa.gov