Club Fish Day: Fort Spokane - 3/25

We had 4 or 5 boats for our first Club Fish Day of the year. I imagine some folks stayed home to watch the Zags play Xavier. The weather was beautiful in the morning with sunshine and light winds. By mid afternoon, we had a few light rain showers. The showers didn't get us wet, but produced gusty 15 to 20 mph winds from various directions. The lake level was about 1252 ft. Launching out of Ft Spokane was no problem, but the ramp will be high and dry within the next couple of weeks as the seasonal draw down continues.

Fishing was slow, but steady. Allan W and Bruce W struggled with a trolling motor failure, but still put 5 keeper walleye in the boat. Greg K and new member Vince W caught 17 walleyes ranging from 12 inches to 18.5 inches. New member Bob from Kooskia Idaho brought his son-in-law and grandson for the weekend. They got several keepers. And new members Randy and Vicki H caught their first walleyes ever.

More info for club members: The water in the Spokane Arm was as dirty as I had ever seen it. There was some debris with a visibility of less than 2 feet. Greg and Vince as well as Randy and Vickie tried across from Seven Bays where the water was stained. Randy got a walleye within the first 30 minutes, but the rest of us got nothing. Greg and Vince went north to Outhouse Flats where the water was much clearer. There were 15-20 boats on Outhouse Flats, and for good reason. We caught fish in 50 to 60 feet of water trolling 0.5 to 1.0 mph. We used Smile Blades and Slow Death hooks with small cork floats baited with half a crawler. The most productive color was chartreuse. We also slow trolled in 50 to 60 feet at Nayborly Cove with a slow and steady catch rate. Greg caught a couple smalleyes on a blade bait, but it was difficult to fish it deep with the swirling winds. At the launch we talked with a pair of fishermen who spent the day in the dirtier water of the Spokane Arm. They caught nothing.