Travis S: Snake River - 8/5

I launched out of the KOA at approx. 8:30 AM on Saturday.  The winds were light and variable coming out of the East.  With the smoke, it looked like a spring overcast day and the temps were cool.  (low 70's)

I started trolling cranks in 18-25 feet of water across from the Tucannon River.  I fished most of the morning in that area and also across the river from the Texas Rapids Campground.  I pulled a combination of crankbaits and bottom bouncers with worm harnesses.  I caught a couple of smallmouth, but no walleye.  

Finally, (with some hesitation, I don't like fishing alone, below dams) made my way up to Little Goose Dam.  Upon arrival, I pulled cranks in 15-25 feet of water around the Powerlines.  Within 10 minutes, I put my first walleye in the boat.  It was a nice 20 inch fatty, weighing in at 3 lbs.  I tried to get closer than the triple set of power lines, but found that the current just became too much for my trolling motor.  Additionally, the wind was gusting at a good clip towards the dam, which when going over the current caused, the waves to be a bit larger than they should've been for that amount of wind.  I lost another decent fish somewhere around 2PM  I tried a variety of different cranks in this area, but to no avail.  The size 11 Purple, Flicker Minnow was the only thing that had produced up to this point. 

I put my second walleye in the boat around 3 PM, weighing in at about a pound.  I picked up another one an hour later and broke off a monster in a back eddy, which stole my only purple Flicker Shad off of my casting pole. 

At around 4, I headed back to the Texas Rapids spot and tried pulling spinners for a while, with not even a bump.  I also tried at the mouth of the Tucannon River and nothing there either.  At around 6PM, I was pulling a crank through the "bumps" across from the Granary when another fatty around 3 lbs.  slammed my size 11, Purple Flicker Minnow.  It hit almost immediately after I bumped up the speed, trolling with the current.  I don't know how fast I was going , but it was a good deal faster than the moving current.  I put another walleye in the boat, (putting the day's tally at 5) soon after that and decided to call it good for the day.  I am certain that I could've caught a few more, before dark in that spot.  I was fishing in 15-20 foot, in that particular location.

All of my fish on Sat. came out of 15-20 foot of water and every single one of them hit when the bill of my crankbait was bouncing off of rocks.  All fish hit hard and were well hooked.

Special Thanks to Greg for getting me started.  This was my first time fishing the Snake and I am definitely going back!  It's beautiful down there, the fish fight hard and are nice and fat and there was almost nobody down there!  I saw maybe a total of ten boats all day. - Travis

Travis's two best of his five walleyes.  They were almost twins, one at 3 lbs. and the other, just under.