Jack and Dianne: Roosevelt - 8/23-27
We arrived on Monday afternoon Aug. 23. After setting up camp we slow trolled our way out to the river's confluence with the Columbia. Wind had kicked the waves up to 2-3 ft rollers and was increasing. So. We decided to run up the Spokane to see if the wind was any kinder in that drainage. It was. We fished bottom bouncers on a couple likely spots without luck and then banged the shoreline with wacky worms to see if the bass were home. No players. We went back to camp around 5-5:50 and rested up for the next day.
Tuesday, we ran up to Porcupine Bay and fished the shelf and drop off just up stream and across from the Porcupine Road Slide. Jack boated a nice 20in. walleye trolling crawler harness with a silver smiley blade and red and orange beads. Repeated passes through that area did not yield another bite, although we spotted fish on the depth finder. Something I noticed in that area, there must be an underwater current. Without changing speeds our lines seemed to drag back from an approximate 45 degree angle to nearly 60 degrees. So we had to let out as significant amount of line to stay in contact with the bottom. I'm thinking a food conveyor of some sort. After having no other hits the rest of the morning, we ran downriver and banged the shore again for bass without success, and called it a day around 1p.m.
Thursday, one of Jack's, sister's grandsons, Brayden, came up to fish with him. The boys spent considerable time up in the same Porcupine area where we had boated the first walleye. Brayden does not know much about fishing so the net result was that he drug a 'dink' size walleye around for they don't know how long before calling it a day. The guys used crawler harnesses with bottom bouncers again. Brayden had to return to Spokane to work that next day. So fishing ended around noon again.
Around dusk, Jack wandered down to the water's edge and hooked a couple nice size smallmouth that rewarded him with jumping the hook right at the shoreline. Bummer!
Friday, Jack and Dianne ran down to Hawk Bay, where we had marked a large number of fish 3 years ago, but had not bites. So we called it a day around 2 p.m. and headed in. A neighboring camper reported fishing most of the day and caught 5 walleye up by Porcupine where we had gone. 12 hrs. for 5 fish is hardly a 'good' day.
I did note that my best bass fishing occurred right around dusk, or say 8 p.m. Otherwise I had no takers.
Typically, I can catch bass most any time of day. On this basis, I'd have to say that my observation for the past week would be: when the moon is as bright as it had been all this past week, go prepared to fish at night or forget it.
We're hoping the night moon isn't so bright during our fall campout.
End of report.