Sam H: Banks Lake - 5/15 through 5/20

Banks is hot, not red hot, but hot. Started on the south end and kept 5 walleye for a fish fry. Nothing big, but one was over 22 inches for sure. I threw back a couple dozen that looked to be in the 12 to 14 inch range. Should be a bunch of fish hitting legal size by summers end. All sizes looked to be in good shape with good girth for their length. Concentrated most time in 30 FOW between the east side islands and over towards the old road bed.

I ran into Bob P at the launch as he had been tourney pre-fishing mid to north end with similar results. Tourney set up just about completed at that time. I expect some pretty good tourney catches from what I experienced.

After two days on the south end, I spent one day around Northrup  that wasn't as productive. Devils Punch Bowl showed a few small fish, and the mouth of Kruks and Jones Bays was not much better, but was able to catch a nice lake whitefish on a blade bait in 20 FOW and a couple of smallies on big white bucktail jig.  Kruks was sure getting hit by tournament anglers ( 6-10 boats at a time) on the northern edge. Saw a few small fish coming aboard, but by the crowd there must have been something better down there. I didn't join the crowd. Ran the back side of Steamboat and a few other spots but couldn't find enough on sonar to make dropping a line imperative.

There was an occasional boat trolling mid lake, but nobody stayed there and never heard of any fish.  Poplar bay was very attractive to tournament and rec. fishermen, but didn't see much on sonar and didn't fish it.

To the north, spent a few hours trolling the far side of the inlet from the buoy line down to about parallel with the concert stage at the north side of Osborn.  Caught some nice 18-20s in between small fish.

Last run out included the area around the old Devils Lake.  Found nice fish there along with the obligatory smaller ones.  Everywhere on the lake it was common to catch several 14s for every 18 or better.  Didn't run into much in the 15-17 inch range.

Can't say that any particular color vastly out-fished any other.  Used blue/chrome, yellow/black, and white smile blades as well as a hammered brass Colorado blade and they all caught fish. Water temp varied from high 50s to mid 60s from north to south respectively. Days were mostly sunny with cumulus clouds around and a couple of little rain/hail squalls that didn't last long.  Tons of bait balls on the south end of the lake where weeds were just starting and there was some kind of bug hatch.