The weather was perfect for a day on Lake Roosevelt. New member Larry and I got on the water around 930 AM and fished until 5 PM. It had been almost a month since fishing on Roosevelt. Wow! What a difference. The lake is up 30 feet and near summer pool. Fishing was steady for small fish. We caught 18 walleyes (12 to 16 inch range) and a 17 inch rainbow trout.

For most of the day, it was just the two of us on the boat. However, an unwelcome guest climbed aboard for a short time. We noticed a snake crossing the channel while trolling, so we reeled up our lines to go take a closer look. Sure enough, it was a two foot rattlesnake. As we turned around to resume fishing, the darn thing followed the boat. I kicked up the speed of the trolling motor, but it wasn't soon enough. The snake had reached the outboard. I thought that there was no way a snake could crawl up the back of my boat, but I was WRONG! A couple minutes later, it was in my splash well. When I exclaimed, "the snake is in the boat", Larry jumped onto the front deck and yelled "where?". We managed to poke the snake with fishing rods and pull him out of the steering cables. The snake was back in the lake! But..no. The snake climbed back up the motor two more times! It finally took getting the boat on plane, and dragging the snake for 30 yards before it finally let go.

More info for club members: Most of our fish were caught in the channel about 4 miles above Buoy 5. Most of our bites came in the deepest part of the channel, between 30 and 35 feet. Orange spinners worked best with half a crawler. We also caught a couple fish around Buoy 7, in the Narrows, and at Blue Creek around 35 feet.

Greg and Larry: Roosevelt - 6/23