Fishing Report: Snake River - Little Goose Dam 8-18 and 8-19

I left Spokane later than I had planned to on Friday and didn't get to the KOA Campground until about 5 PM that evening. Also, after launching my boat and mooring it in one of their slips, I also had to set up my camp, as I didn't want to have to set up my tent in the dark, so that took up some valuable fishing time.

I finally got on the water about 6:30 which would give me a little over an hour to fish. Not wanting to go all of the way up to the Dam, I focused on the reef across from the Grain Elevator where I had good luck at dusk, two weeks before.

The sunset was gorgeous, but I only caught one 16 inch walleye. I was trolling cranks up and down that shelf, but couldn't get any more than one of them to bite. I headed back to the campground right at dark.

I had planned on getting up at 5:30 the next morning. However, Gale-Force winds and an extremely rude family, kept me awake until past 2AM, so I changed my fishing time to whenever I woke up which ended up being right at 8AM.

I went back to the Grain Elevator and trolled through it a couple of times using Size 11 Flicker Minnows, which seem to be the hottest ticket in my tackle box at the moment. I did lose two Rapala Tail-Dancers to rocks in this area. So after 3 up and down trips over this shelf, I scooted upriver to the flats across from Texas Rapids. I had a bottom bouncer and worm harness combo on for three seconds before I gave up on this approach and moved up to the damn. (If I want to fish spinners, I can go to Roosevelt)

Up at Little Goose Dam, I was trolling for maybe 10 minutes before I had my first Walleye in the boat. Boat control was difficult, due to the wind gusting toward the dam, producing big waves, and the current moving swiftly away from the dam, as they had four of the seven chutes, open. I didn't want to risk fishing closer than the large eddy on the North side of the river just passed the power lines. The wind was the larger factor, so I continued to troll against the current, but with the wind for the first half of the day. I picked up another 4 fish that way. It would seem that a majority of my fish were caught right around the Green #43 Sign on the north side. I'm not certain if I was interrupting a "Crankbait's Anonymous" Meeting or found their "Golden Corral Buffet" but I kept pulling Walleyes around that sign in 16-22 feet of water.

Around 5PM, the wind had sufficiently died down, so I started going closer up to the dam and trolling WITH the current. I kind of interrupted the flow, with two other boats, but I was also the only one who was catching fish. The other two boats were vertical jigging and pulling spinners. I switched from a size 11 flicker Minnow to a size 11 Deep Diving Rapala with a Gold/Black Flash. I picked up another fish almost immediately, but didn't get another hit on it after that. When I switched back to the Flicker Minnow I picked up my final two fish. The Flicker Minnow just has a tighter/cleaner wobble to it.

Trolling with the fast moving current is tricky, as it does allow the crankbait to dive deep, but you have to troll just a bit faster than the swift moving current to allow enough drag for the bait to wobble and to maintain boat control. This is effective, but you cover territory really, really fast which means firing up the main motor to get you back into position, a lot. It's a lot like downhill skiing in Minnesota. You spend most of your day on a 15 minute chairlift to ski down a 5 minute hill. When trolling with the current, I could bounce em' off of rocks in 18-19 feet of water and that is what the walleyes really liked. Every single fish and missed strike happened when the crank was bouncing off of rocks. The walleyes would hammer em' hard and the smallmouth seemed to like em' too.

I've tried a bunch of different colors down there, but found that purple and it's variants were most successful by far. My two best are the Purple Alewife and the Purple Flash. Of the two, I like the Purple Alewife the best. I used to be a loyal Rapala guy, until Greg got me hooked on Berkeley's Cranks..... In my opinion, they have better action than the Rapalas and are significantly cheaper. Purple is hot this year, and I am hearing that from the sales people at Cabela's and Black Sheep in CdA in addition to my own experience.

I trailered my boat with about 45 minutes of light left, and headed back to Spokane. It was a great day with 8 eaters in the live well. My biggest was just under 18 and the other two coming in at just under 17". The other 5, were simply solid eater fish. The picture below doesn't do them justice, but Snake River Walleyes are chunky, which makes them great eaters. All fish were caught with size 11 crankbaits and seven of em' with the Purple Alewife Flicker Minnow.

Travis S: Snake River - 8/18-19