Greg, Bob and Ryan: Rufus Woods/Banks - 5/1

I took my coworkers walleye fishing on the nicest day of the spring so far. Afternoon temperatures were in the low 80s with no wind. We arrived at Rufus Woods about 9 AM and fished until 2 PM. There were only 5 trailers in the parking lot when we arrived. Week-old reports had been good at Rufus, so I was expecting a lot of boats. Well, there was a reason for the lack of boats. The walleye were no where to be found...at least for us. We fished all of the popular current breaks, humps and sandbars between the launch and Buckley Bar. We put 10 nice trout into the boat, but no walleyes. We didn't see any other boat catch anything.

At 2 PM, we put the boat on the trailer and headed to Banks Lake. We fished from 3 PM to 7 PM and got 12 sub-legal walleye (released) and 2 nice burbot (retained). Two spots produced fish. The first spot was the flat behind Steamboat Rock. The second spot was the first point across the lake from Coulee Playland. This point is probably a mile and a half from the dam on the opposite shore from the Playland. All fish were caught in 40-44 feet pulling smile blades around 1 mph. Motor oil, chrome and gold spinners produced. Ryan caught his first walleye ever and also hooked his first elusive burbot. Bob is quite the trout slayer.