I enjoyed a couple of days of fun of Banks Lake earlier this week. This is such a great place to spend a day on the water. The basalt cliffs of the Moses Coulee offer great views. It’s a big lake, about 26 miles long, so there’s room for a lot of boats. I have several favorite spots, but there are many more that I need to explore for both walleye, bass and whitefish.
Tom Verschueren loves to fish Banks Lake with me. It’s such a scenic place and if often provides us with a memorable day of fishing. He loves to fish for smallmouth bass on Banks, but we wanted to dedicate some time to walleye fishing. I fished here with my daughter on Monday, and we only got three small keepers. Thursday was different. We drove the Smoker Craft to the Clay Banks or sand flats just below Steamboat Rock, deployed the Minn Kota and soon had a couple of the “just legal” walleye that have been common this season. Then we got a surprise. Tom landed a walleye that was 22 inches. Not long after that we got a 19 incher! We couldn’t believe our luck—and then it got better. I landed a 25 inch walleye! We released this one and after a no-fish loop through the area, went smallmouth bass fishing. We started directly across the lake from the Million Dollar Mile boat launch and started casting Baby Brush Hogs to the sunken rock along the shore. We proceeded to catch and release over 30 smallmouth, including several 2- to 3 pounders. It was a great finish to our day. This week’s photo is of me with the 25-incher we released.
When my daughter Whitney comes to visit, one of our favorite things to do is go fishing at Banks Lake. She caught onto catching smallmouth bass many years ago and followed that with having very good luck catching big walleye. So, when she came over from Seattle for Father’s Day, we already knew we would be on Banks the following day. This year we launched the Bob Feil Boats and Motors Smoker Craft at Steamboat Rock State Park instead of Northrup, so she could try outdo her catch of a whopper walleye in Devils Punchbowl. We had a bunch of bites in the Punchbowl, but didn’t hook anything, so we ran around Steamboat to the sand flats above The Poplars. Just a couple of bites here, too, so off we went to Barker Flats. Whitney landed a nice smallmouth bass, and we also got a small walleye here. We both like to fish the Million Dollar Mile stretch below Rosebush, and that was our next destination. As soon as we arrived, we were into walleye. We landed a few small fish and got a lot of bites here. We finished our day across the lake having fun catching smallmouth. We had a great time!
Walleye fishing can be good one day and poor the next. That’s not unusual. I remember many years ago my brother Rick calling me saying that we needed to get up to Banks the next day. Our cousin Greg and he had a terrific day catching walleye and we needed to get in on the action. So, my wife Eileen and I got up early, picked him up and headed for the spot on Banks that had been super productive the day before. Guess what. We caught two smallmouth bass and one perch! Talk about “you should have been there yesterday.” Being the eternal optimist that I am, and many anglers are, I am going back to Banks to give it another try. The great thing about Banks is that if the walleye aren’t biting you can always have a blast catching smallmouth bass.
Fans of fishing for Lahontan cutthroat trout mark their calendars for June 1st, when Grimes Lake opens to fishing. Grimes has a short season, closing at the end of August. Anglers reach Grimes from the town of Mansfield. It is known to produce some very large Lahontan cutts and is one of several selective gear-rule lakes in the state that has this special species. Many anglers are aware of the good Lahontan fishing at Lake Lenore, which is the most easily accessed of these lakes. The east shore is bordered by Highway 17, just up the road from Soap Lake. There are two Lahontan cutthroat lakes in Okanogan County. Blue Lake, which is a 120 acre lake, northeast of Wanacut Lake outside of Tonasket. The other is Albright Lake, which is just 21 acres in size. Albright is accessed from the Lime Lakes road. Anglers should be aware of winterkills that have impacted Albright, and that a fire burned the surrounding area in 2014. Sprague Lake, which straddles Adams and Lincoln counties, is popular for several species including Lahontan cutthroat. Selective gear rules do not apply at Sprague. My favorite is Omak Lake, on the Colville Indian Reservation. In spite of the launching issues, the number and size of the cutthroat we get on Omak Lake makes it worth it.
I have mentioned before that Bob Feil Boats and Motors is sponsoring several events this summer, and I have taken the Smoker Craft along to show it off. I have already been to the Classy Chassis in East Wenatchee, the Manson Apple Blossom Parade, the Quincy Chamber of Commerce Trout Derby, the Touch a Truck in Wenatchee, and the Quincy Pike Minnow Derby at Crescent Bar. I recently returned to Crescent Bar for the second annual Celebration of the Opening Day of Boating Season and Boat Parade. This year’s theme was “Pirates”, and participants were encouraged to decorate their boats and dress accordingly. The boats lined up in the channel near the Marina and then proceeded by the judges and under the bridge, which was packed with a crowd that shouted and waved as they passed through to the Columbia River. The participants went all out this year with some amazing decorations and costumes. The crew from Bob Feil Boats and Motors got into the swing of things and mine was one of their three boats in the parade. Terrific fun! The Crescent Bar Association did a great job hosting the event and have big plans for next year.
Next week I will be traveling to northern Okanogan County to continue my video project. It will be great capturing some of the terrific lakes in this region. I hope you enjoy learning about them.
