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I am sure many people are welcoming a cooling trend here in the region. It makes it more comfortable to be out on the water for sure. I am very pleased with the Smoker Craft I am driving this year, with the removable side, and back covers on a hard frame. I do have a portable mister that I put on board, for the really hot days.
I introduced Tom Verschueren to fishing for smallmouth bass many years ago on Banks Lake, and he instantly liked it. He likes catching bass on Moses Lake, too, and we headed down there last Wednesday. We dumped the Smoker Craft in at Peninsula Park and ran a short distance over to Gaileys Island. I kept an eye on my Garmin, as there are some shallow rocky points that extend quite a ways off the shore, and I also tilt the Mercury 250, so I don’t drag the skag over them. I also trimmed the Minn Kota very high, so it wouldn’t bump the rocks. As we made our way around the island, we landed some smallmouth and a largemouth and lost several fish as well. At one point, as we worked our way along the west shore of the island, I thought I was snagged on the bottom. In frustration I jerked very hard on my rod twice, trying to break free. To my surprised the rod jerked back! Turns out it was a big largemouth. It was big enough that when I tried to lift it into the boat it broke off. Boy, what a dumb move. This week’s photo is of a small largemouth that I managed to land.
The announcement at the North of Falcon meeting in Wenatchee on March 18th that we may not have a summer run salmon season on the upper Columbia this year sent shock waves through the angling community. I was sitting next to Mike Mauk, who conducts the Brewster King Salmon Derby, and he just shrugged after seeing the presentation. “It is what it is”, he said. “Guess it’s going to be a sockeye derby this year.” The WDFW representatives did say that their prediction was based on their forecasts and they could only hope that the return would surprise them. I know I am not alone when I log onto the Fish Count page on my website every day to see the fish passage numbers at Bonneville Dam. I also looked at a Columbia River Joint Staff Report that stated that at the time of the review the sockeye return was at the lowest in ten years. The summer run count on Bonneville for June 12th showed a total of 21,000 had passed through the dam. The number of salmon that passed over the dam that day was ahead of the ten-year average of 1,813. Last year on this day the number was 1,842, and the current year’s number was 1,894. I sure hope the trend continues!
The sockeye numbers are still below the ten-year average and behind last year’s run incredible record return. When the run really hits at Bonneville the numbers soar, so keep your eyes on this one day-to-day.
As many of you know, I have a large catalogue of videos on my YouTube channel. There are over 275 videos in the collection, with over 2.5 million views of them. Some are short informational “How-Tos” and many show fishing destinations. I always include descriptions of where we are fishing and what we were using to catch the fish we are after. I recently posted two bass fishing videos. One on Moses Lake and the other on the San Poil Arm of Lake Roosevelt. Also, I have done a couple of series that show popular fishing lakes in the region. I did a series on Grant County lakes last year, and the year before that I did a series on the Grant County PUD Recreation Sites. In these videos I show the size of the sites or acres of the lakes, and the fishing opportunities available at them. I have just started a project for Okanogan County Tourism and will be visiting 20 fishing destinations and shooting videos describing them and why anglers should add them to their list of places to go. So, look for six new videos soon on the Dave Graybill YouTube channel as I work through this project.
I managed to get all of these shot in one day. I started at Alta Lake, then drove up the Methow Valley, and took a right just below Twisp to shoot one on Davis Lake. From there I passed through the town of Winthrop and stopped at Pearygin Lake and then on to Patterson Lake. I headed back down the valley and took a right at Pateros and took the short drive north of Brewster to Rat Lake. My last stop was at the Washburn Island Ponds, not far from the turn off to Bridgeport from Highway 97 to Highway 17. I should mention that many people know this lake as Chicken Creek, but it is listed as Washburn Island Pond in the Washington Sport Fishing pamphlet. It was a long but fun day. I talked to some great people at some of the lakes, and although I did experience some wind at some locations it didn’t interfere with my shooting of the videos too badly. I encourage you to visit the Dave Graybill YouTube channel and let me know what you think of the work I am doing.
After the weekend I will be rolling up my sleeves and writing my next E-Letter. I will have some great information for folks on a variety of fisheries in the region. There are tremendous opportunities on our lakes and the Columbia River, and I will touch on them as I continue to keep an eye on the returns of summer Chinook and sockeye.
My next adventure will be to Banks Lake for Father’s Day, with my daughter Whitney. She really likes fishing Banks for smallmouth bass but has also had some spectacular success with walleye. My friend Brian Nielson, of BJs Guide Service, sent me a great report on walleye fishing recently on Banks Lake, so we may spend more time trying for them. We don’t fish very hard and take swim breaks and generally just enjoy being together on one of our region’s most scenic fishing destinations. I hope all of you Dads have wonderful special day.
