Greg: Roosevelt - 5/26/23

Pastor and his wife jointed me for a beautiful Friday on the Spokane Arm. The water level had risen to 1275 feet which was at least 15 feet higher than my last trip to Roosevelt 2 weeks prior. Post-spawn walleyes are moving around a lot this time of year. Hitting a lot of spots and covering water is the name of the game until walleyes settle into early summer spots. We ended up keeping 15 walleyes and throwing lots of little ones back. There are MANY 11 to 13 inch walleyes in the system this year. So far this spring, consistently finding walleyes over 16 inches has been tough compared to the last few years. The water temperature was in the 60s and varied with time of day and how far up the Arm you went. Water clarity is good, but there is a lot of debris floating in the lake. Keep a close eye out for sticks, logs, and dead heads in the lake.

More info for club members: Two weeks prior, walleyes were stacked up at Blue Creek. Even though I didn’t think they would still be there, we made a quick pass because the fishing was so good last time. Pastor caught a 12 incher within 2 minutes of letting his line down, but that was it at Blue Creek. Our next spot was a pass along the channel edge at Buoy 1. I have had some great fishing at Buoy 1 on Memorial Weekend in the past, but we only got 2 throw-backs so it was time to move on. We tried a a flat a mile above Buoy 3 with a couple light bites and no fish. Ultimately, we ended up fishing above Buoy 7 with good success. Trolling bottom bouncers with the current in the channel in 25 to 35 feet of water provided consistent action. Orange was the most productive color, but we did pick up a few fish on chartreuse and green. The biggest walleyes were a pair of 20 inch males. We also got a 17 and 18 incher to go along with a bunch of 13 inchers. I don’t like cleaning 13 inchers, but that seems to be what we have an abundance of this year.