Greg K and Gordon: Roosevelt - 6/28

My father-in-law and I took advantage of the beautiful cool weather and fished Roosevelt on Thursday. Fishing was slow, but steady. Most spots we tried held a few fish, but we had to work to get them. We fished from 11 am to 630 pm. We kept 17 walleyes, a couple bass, two rainbows, and a northern pike. Walleyes ranged from 13 inches to 19 inches. We were pleasantly surprised that several were in the 17-18 inch range.

More info for club members: We tried casting crankbaits into emerging weeds and rocky areas with limited success in the late morning. Gordon caught 3 small walleyes on a pearl Flicker Shad with a black back. I tried a fire tiger and a copper Flicker shad and caught nothing. Also tried a blade bait along the weed edge in deeper water and caught nothing. As soon as we switched to bouncers and spinners, we caught nice sized walleyes in 16 to 20 feet near the weeds at the lower end of the Narrows. We also caught walleyes and a pair of big smallmouth (16 and 19 inches) near weeds in the Buoy 7 area. We caught most of our walleyes on spinners in 25 to 30 feet in the narrow channel above Buoy 7 and in the upper Narrows above the brown pump house.

At the end of the day, we returned to the weed bed at the bottom of the Narrows. Within a couple casts, I caught a 25 inch northern pike on a crankbait. I kept the head of the pike and sent an email to the Spokane Tribe Fisheries. Within a half hour of sending the email, I received a phone call from a biologist. They want the pike head to analyze it to determine whether it came down from Long Lake, Lake CDA, or migrated up the Arm from Kettle Falls. According to their records, my pike is first reported catch in the Spokane Arm. A couple weeks ago, another pike showed up in a creel survey at Hawk Creek.