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.

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!

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!

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.

Fished Banks the last 2 days. 8/20 and 8/21. Used top water frogs mostly through the slop and senkos, worms around the edges of the slop. Had only one big hit on top water frog right when it was almost at the boat reeling in and lifting my bait up he hit. He was a pretty nice size bass. Other than that nothing. Fished Jones bay and osbourne bay. I also tried along hwy 155 for smallmouth. I fish banks many times a year but this year seems to be the worst for me with bass. Its almost always great bass fishing. There was nobody else I saw out on the water fishing for bass the whole 2 days I fished it. I have heard rumors that the bass fishing has been tough lately because they keep pumping cooler water into banks but who really knows. I figure its been so hot over there they have moved to deeper water or hiding in the most thickest slop. I hit really hard to get spots also with no luck. I will be back over in about 2 1/2 weeks to try it again and hopefully not get skunked!! Anybody got any clues where the bass are?!