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Camped at Steamboat Rock State Park from Mon-Fri.
On Monday, setup camp and had a late lunch. We hit the water and it is windy. Couldn't fish properly at all. No whitecaps but was getting blown all over the lake. Only fished for maybe 1 or 1.5hr and called it quits. No bites.
Tues, started off hot and stayed consistent. We fished the back of the PunchBowl. I got the first SMB on a crank off some rocks within 5 mins. The wife caught a nice 17" SMB about 5 mins later, weighing 2 lb 9 oz . Her biggest bass to date. I rotated in a wacky worm and dropshot. Wacky was the ticket. Soon after catching her big bass, I get one similar sized, but only weighed 2 lb 7 oz.
We ventured out the bowl. I was trolling up to some rocks and spooked a nice SMB. I pitched my wacky worm towards it. I get a nibble but didn't stick. I drop my dropshot straight down. BAM fish on! I get it halfway up and pops off. Booo. We boated to some weedy bay. I caught several along the reed lines and point.Anyways in short, caught a bunch of 1-1.5lbers. Should have went back out later in the evening because the wind was so nice and calm the entire day. But wife got sun-burned really bad. For some reason, she never learns....
Weds, the In-Laws are going to visit in the afternoon and stay overnight for 1 night. The wife and I headed out in the morning towards Barkers Flat. Got about 1.5hrs fishing there. Only got 1 bite each. Saw several small ~12" SMB though. Couldn't get them to bite. Late afternoon, In-law arrives. We go out and it's very windy on the lake now. We tried hitting the area where we lit them up on Tues. Only presentation that would really work for us was cranking. Nada. In-laws tried bait and some jigs. We boated across the lake and let the wind blow us back. Dragging everything across the bottom. Zero bites.
Thurs, we'll try trolling. I know the FIL would like a fish to take home. I found out, my boat isn't the greatest with 4 full grown adults, but it is manageable. Casting is a little tight, so I was hoping trolling would be a little bit better. Very little wind too, which was nice. We marked plenty of fish. Couldn't get a single nibble. We were trolling in the area north of the PunchBowl with the rocks. I'm thinking what we were marking were tons and tons of carp? The In-laws left in the late afternoon. In the late evening, I noticed the Punchbowl was still calm. The wife and I hate out. Definitely don't want to be skunked 2 days in a row. We decided to stay in the Bowl. I wanted to headed to our previous hot spot, but I noticed 5 boats in the area..... So we turned and went to the south end along the 1st set of camp sites with all the reeds and weeds. 1st time fishing this area. Didn't realize it was so weedy. But I realized this is the perfect excuse to use my topwater lures. I still haven't landed anything with them yet. So I start chunking a Sammy. I get a HUGE explosion. Feel weight and set hook. Fish on! I'm reeling it in and feel it's a nice quality fish. It makes a big jump and I see it's a nice fat football LMB. Looked to be about 16-17". Next thing I know, I see my lure come flying back at me. So close! Keep working that area with soft plastics and my topwater, nada. We go over to the highway side. I get a ~13" SMB off a crank. I get another explosion on my Sammy. But unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention. I made my cast and was working the lure. I hear the wife pulling her drag and turned to see what she was doing...line twist. That's when I hear the splash and felt the fish on my line, lol. Set the hook and a couple of rotates of the handle and fish was gone. Wasn't big though and didn't see anything. Then I caught a 2lb 2 oz on a weighted worm. Wife gave up, she got another skunk.
Friday, Wife wanted 1 more chance. We packed up our gear and gave the lake another 1-2 hours in the morning. The hotspot was filled up once again, so we went to a "canalish" that we didn't fish yet. I had 1 small SMB chase a crank. Numerous nibbles on my soft plastic. The wife did land a healthy ~10" perch. That was it. Windy for the most part.
On the drive back home, it was SUPER windy the entire way until we go ~Cle Elum or so I believe. All I know is, for the first 2 hours of driving, it was hard to stay on the road.
Even though the wife only caught 2 fish. She does have bragging rights to biggest bass and biggest perch.... even if it was the only landed perch, lol.
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Well the weather sure has changed in the coulee area. Not like a couple weeks ago when it was in the high 80s lower 90s for about a week. Not that many bass on there beds like there use to be since the water temp is back down. Decided to fish from shore for bass this time. I like fishing from shore at banks sometimes. Hit the spot just below Martin falls using a frog color spook and C&R a couple dink smallmouth. Fun little guys to catch. Otherwise the bass fishing has slowed down a bit. Can't wait for the coulee heat wave to kick in so they can really start spawning. Weather was cloudy and rain at times. Its suppose to get warmer this weekend so I'am sure the bass bite will pick up again.
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Fished Chelan in the morning for koks. At 930am loaded up the boat heading to banks for some smallies. 1230 in the afternoon pulled in to barker canyon boat launch. Boat in the water headed to the flats. Tubes and grubs we were pulling pre spawn hens off beds. They are up making beds but not spawnin yet. We left the flats didn't want to mess with them to much and went to fish deeper water. Banks is doing good fish till 4 with 22 bass caught and released
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Nice weekend at Banks lake for Smallies. Most Fish came on tubes, however we managed to get fish on just about everything that Smallmouth like. Stopped in at Blue Lake for some Trout on Sunday and did well. We got a 24" Brownie along with some nice Rainbows including an 18 and a 19 incher. Casting various lures.
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I fished the 3 species tournament both Saturday and Sunday. We had fished the previous weekend as well. All 4 days were very tough fishing. We would chart lots of fish but could not come up with any offers to make them bite.
The Tournament was called "are you Tough Enough" and the weathermade that true. We had 35 mph winds Saturday and then on Sunday a bit of wind along with 45 degree air and .60 inces of rain from launch to noon.
The Grand Coulee Chamber of Commerce sponsered the Tourney. A big Thank You to them. It was very well run. It will be the 3rd weekend in April in 2014. It is a good time, mark it on your calander, you won't be sad.
If I can post this picture this rainbow was 4.9 pounds. Caught on a small Rapala 10" behind a 000 bronze/Silver dodger pulled shallow and slow.
There were lots of fishermen out braving the weather along with the tournament boats, but they appeared to be there to pre fish for a bass tournament the 13th.
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Went over east of the mts. sunday night and came home today 3/20 for some hiking and trout fishing at banks lake like I do every time this year. March and april are pretty hot for trout fishing on banks. Didn't get to do as much fishing as I wanted to do but manage to put in about 2-4 hours each day I was over there. Very slow fishing and windy conditions at times. I fished from the bank out on the gravel road by the Coulee city marina. Used all sorts of power bait colors and scents with no bites each day. Then last night I fished for about 3 hours and finally got a bite. Then nothing. Then I got another bite and had a fish on with two pink power eggs. No fight at all and I was expecting it to be a little shaker. Now banks lake trout are always fighters and I have never caught a trout under 19 inches here. I finally got it in and the fish was a donkey! A 21 inch 5lb rainbow trout. 5lb right on the dot. This fish was chunky! Thats the only fish I caught but the size made up for the slow fishing. Great time. Will be back next month!
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After a drive through the Yakima River Canyon, which had many deer, eagles, and wild sheep, I headed to Banks Lake. When I got there I felt kind of odd, given that there were no other people out there, on a Sunday afternoon. My trepidation about the ice went up when I saw only a couple of holes at the South end park launch area, with about an inch of powdery snow on the surface. Usually it has more holes than a patient of a manic acupuncturist. So, I did the sensible thing, and while standing on the dock, drilled a hole. 9" of ice. Hmmm... Went out a ways, and drilled another hole. Same thing. Went further, and while it thinned a couple of inches near the channel, it was certainly safe-looking to me.
Anyway, tried for perch with nary a nibble, so switched to trout gear: Worms on one pole and test trial new lures on the other. 2 of the new lures and one of the new colors paid off, and while the action was slow (6 fish in 3 hours), it was still fun. I didn't get any hits on the worm rig, which is unusual, even switching back and forth on the 4 holes I drilled in the fishing area. The weird thing to me was the fact that I had the whole area to myself. Not complaining. It was nice and quiet. Trout went from 16-19", and pretty fat. Tried an open water spot on the way home and caught an entire sculpin, almost 3" long! Him I caught on a worm.
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My lady friend and I tried to connect with fish Friday at Rufus Woods at Chief Joe but nothing shakin there, but a different drive for both of us at Grand Coulee. A enjoyable day sight-seeing and fishing. We then got out on the bank fishing at Banks lake Saturday, and the solace and solitude was interrupted by a couple of fish on the stringer. A nice local triploid, and a possible steelhead or Redband tested my tackle. I think it was two fish in two hours, which was a decent bright, sunny afternoons worth of fishing. I keep my drag light, but needed to crank it down to slow these fish. I would recommend at least 8 lb. test on these bull-dogs, with a good partner on the long handled net. (Thank You, GF!) These fish are strong, and don't seem to realize that their hooked till thy see the bank, and then will give you a run for the money. They don't like seeing a net coming their direction either, and will make some long sprints. These fish are big and strong enough to bust 8 lb. test, so I try to give them a little time coming to the bank. We found that both fish were chock full of baby Walleye, and had no need to eat anything, or, they are trying to build their resrves for Winter. Totally fat with food. We used crawlers marshmallows and caught fish at 10 feet to 30 ft. from the bank. (estimate). A lot of fun to catch!
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My friend and fishing buddy, Connie, fished off the boat launch at Banks Lake for two days and caught 7 nice pigs about 5 to 6 lbs. These boys were fat, and really tested our 8 lb. test. Put about three to four hours in both days.These fish also measured about 20 to 22 inches long.
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Every year my extended family go fishing and jetboating at Steamboat Rock state park on Banks lake for 10 days so this is a report from 9/3 til 9/13.
After last years slug fest from the lake being 25 ft lower than usual we were very optimistic that it would be similar this year. We started with the base plan of trolling around in devils punch bowl out in front of the park because it always produces fish, from bass to perch and the occasional walleye. But after two days we didn't touch a single thing. So the 3rd day we decide to hit the rocks adjacent to and across from the Northup ramp... throwing ralapas all morning and were able to put 3 smallmouth in the live well. Our depth finder would go nuts sometimes as we cruised over random rock piles throughout the lake but the fish just would not bite. I mean we would find holes with fish everywhere and drop a whole worm down and run over it time and after time and couldn't catch a thing. We fished almost every morning from 6 - 10ish and for 3 of us fishing we took in 22 total is 10 days. The biggest being 17" but most were in the 10 - 12" range. And for the first time ever in our 8 years of fishing banks lake we failed to hook a single walleye or largemouth. I also may add that we set two lines out every night off the beach and were able to get a few catfish with a simple bobber and worm with a weight underneath to catch a weed and keep it stationary, I did catch my first ever catfish this way.
Saturday night a lightning storm roared thru right over the top of us as we were around the campfire, but the next morning we woke up and the place was completely smoked out. Listening to the radio we heard that almost 60 wildfires had sparked over night between Wenatchee and Coulee City. We drove up to the airport and I snapped a picture looking west over the north part of the lake close to electric city. The rest of the time there it was smokey but still very nice and I am glad to be able to enjoy this beatiful country year after year. It really is paradise in our state.
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