It’s time to celebrate bass fishing in Washington.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has declared July 8-14 as Bass Week. The department is promoting fishing for bass in Washington State and will be offering bass fishing tips and discussions on techniques on its social media and online platforms all week.
They are also holding a bass photo contest, and a biggest bass contest along with the Bass Pro Shops.
There will be prizes awarded for the first, second, and third largest bass caught between June 27 and July 14. There will be five winning categories for the best bass photo contest, including the biggest looking catch, the smallest looking catch, the best pose, most excited anglers, and all-around best photo.
There are instructions on how to enter the contests on the WDFW website, at: https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/contests/big-bass-contest
Entrees must be submitted before midnight, July 15.
Anglers may also participate in an online live question and answer session about bassing with fish biologists Marc Peterson and Danny Garrett. It will be held on the WDFW Facebook page on July 10 at noon.
Danny Garrett, a WDFW warm water biologist, is happy to promote bass fishing in Washington, which he said can rival bass fishing anywhere.
“We have some of the best bass fishing in the world,” said Garret, “both for smallmouth and largemouth. We’ve been wanting to promote bass fishing for years.”
Bass Week gives the department a chance to do just that.
Compared to many other states, Washington bass are relatively under-fished, and there is plenty of room for growth. However, anglers are reminded to release the larger, spawning age bass if they want the good fishing to continue.
Garrett wants people to know: bass fishing is fun.
“We want people to know that we have a lot of great bass fishing in the state, so go out and give it a try,” he added.
