Jim K: Banks Lake - 8/27-30

I camped at Steamboat Rock State Park from Sunday Aug 27 - Wednesday Aug 30, and got in some fishing.   Overall walleyes were spread out as also were the observations from the WDFW biologist I talked to at the boat ramp.  Ended up catching 8 walleye over about 5 hours of targeted walleye fishing at various depths.

More detail for SWC Members:   I fished for three hours on Sunday starting at 10AM, mainly was looking for SMB action for family arriving that afternoon.  Ended up finding no SMB action over several locations even when looking for small schoolie fish.  Fished for last 45 minutes for walleye and caught two off of poplar point (20 - 35 FOW) plus lost another. The fish kept were 16” & 18”.  Both caught on white / silver smile blade bottom bouncing.  I did see a few nets out during same time.  Next day at 10AM again I returned with my mother in law and her father… treated them to a nice experience under the shade of my bimini top and cushy seats while I braved the sun manning rods and operating boat.  They ended up reeling in five walleyes from 15-18” over three hours (Again 20- 35 FOW).  Started with four rods with four different colors.  All fish were caught on same rig as the day before:  bottom bouncing a white Smile Blade, three silver beads, a white 1/4” corkie, and three more silver beads.  Spinner harness were all tied with slow death hooks to which I used Gulp 4” worms.  (This white combination was same shown to club members when Gordon Steinmetz gave his last presentation to the club a few years ago.  Needless to say I had switched all rods to this white / silver combination before we ended our fishing that day.  The next day I only fished for an hour with my grandfather trolling rocky cliff bases for SMB… caught four up to 12”.

The final AM I took my 6 year old son out early.  Were on water at 6:15AM and fishing by 6:45.  He selected a lure out of his tackle box to begin casting with… it turned out to be a Rapala Shadow Rap Shad deep diver in silver color.  On his 2nd cast all by himself he reeled in a 22-1/2” walleye with much excitement to say the least.  He ended up also catching a 18” SMB and several smaller smallies that AM…. were casting over rockpiles I pinpoint with satellite maps I’ve imported onto my Lowrance HDS.  Since sun had brighten the sky I was fishing over deeper rock piles in 12 FOW.

This was the end of fishing for this trip.  However, with images of big / easy fish in my son’s mind it was easy to recruit both of my kids for another adventure Labor Day weekend.  We left Spokane at 2PM Sunday, slept on our boat in sleeping bags overnight and returned midday the next day.  Fished from 6:30 - 8:30PM on first evening, and caught several SMB and one 17” walleye well after dark on a silver flicker shad over rockpiles in the rosebush area under moonlight skies… this time with sun long gone I was in 6 FOW.  The next AM I began time on water at 4AM (with kids still sleeping in their bags).  Moon had set so it was extremely dark.  Fished a shallow rock pile / sandy area on West shore that’s SW of Steamboat Rock… could hear many splashing of trout being chased by walleye (my theory), but only had SMB bite my various lures…. caught about a dozen small SMB by time it was light enough to make move to Rosebush area… fastest action was on a 4” glow twister tail on white jig head at this first stop.   Later, Rosebush shallows were pretty slow this AM… only caught 4 SMB over two hours… largest was 14”.

So, fish can be found shallow during darker hours including walleyes, but SMB made for a great mixed bag experience.