I arrived a couple of days prior to the club camp out at Kettle Falls. Tuesday was warm and windy. With gusts out of the southwest to 30 mph, I looked for manageable waters by launching at Snag Cove. I was able to control my boat in this narrow part of the reservior, but the bite was slow. I only got 3 walleyes in 6 hours of fishing. Wednesday through Friday, I fished closer to Kettle Falls and had good success. With Brian joining me, we caught 25 walleyes on Wednesday and 11 walleyes on Thursday. On Friday, my next door neighbor came up for the day, and we got 17 walleyes before the wind blew us off the lake early in the afternoon. The water temperature was 62 degrees. Water clarity very good. Lake level was full pool…1286 feet.

More info for club members: When I arrived Tuesday, I fished some of the same areas where Allan and I experienced success 10 days earlier…prior to the lake reaching full pool. I got zero bites and didn’t even mark any fish. I caught a couple small walleyes along a steep break near a grassy sand bar and a nice 20 incher by casting a crankbait into the grassy shoreline. These fish had empty bellies. With less wind and much cooler temperatures on Wednesday, I decided to target areas around Marcus and Singer Bay. I launched at the Marcus ramp. As I motored away from the ramp, I decided to scout the flat below Marcus Island by trolling crankbaits and watching sonar. Within 10 minutes, I nailed a 19 inch walleye on a Purple Bengal Flicker Shad and marked several more fish in 18 to 25 feet. For the remainder of the morning, I trolled crankbaits into the wind and trolled bottom bouncers with the wind over the Marcus flat in and near emerging weeds. When Brian joined me after lunch, the bite on the flat had slowed, so we moved to the break into deeper water. Walleyes were stacked in 25 to 35 feet of water, especially in the vicinity of the drop into the main channel. Trolling 2.5 to 3 ounce bouncers was the ticket for the next few days. Charteuse was the best producer. Boat control was very important. Maintaining the appropriate speed to avoid snags and keeping the bait between 25-35 feet was key to catching walleyes on the sharp break into the channel.

By Friday, my live well was full of bug larva puked up by walleyes. With the exception of one small baitfish and a crawdad, the food barfed up in my livewell were bugs. I believe that walleyes were difficult to find in many of our usual spots over the weekend because Roosevelt had rearched full pool within a week of our arrival. Walleyes were feeding very shallow on the most abundant food source available this early in the season, bug larva. Marcus has a large expanse of shallow water and an abundance of weeds. As young of the year bait fish grow bigger in the next few weeks, I expect walleyes will change their food preference to young of the year baitfish and stage in more traditional areas.

Greg: Roosevelt - 6/13-16/2023