My long anticipated trip to Banks Lake was great. After leaving rainy Seattle behind, my sons and I arrived to mild (70's) sunny weather. We set camp and hit the water in search of walleye and bass. We mainly used a bottom-bouncing walleye rig with a nightcrawler, my older son Matthew would cast out with a crank bait when bored with the slow trolling. James manned the third pole. We fished the punchbowl the first evening and the next day, with limited success. We fished in 12-20 feet of water and landed a couple keeper (18") walleye. No luck on bass. On Saturday PM I took two of my friends out to the north end of Steamboat Rock and fished a 24 foot deep ledge that extends out into the lake. We immediately connected with a couple walleye, one a nice 20" fish. Unfortunately, just as the bite came on the wind picked up and blew us off the honey spot. That was it for the evening. The next morning I got up early to give it a try, but the water level had gone up another 3-6 inches and the bite was not there.

I did talk to a bass angler who was fishing the northwest shoreline of the lake with plastics. He claimed to have caught and released 30-40 bass on Saturday. Next time I go I think I need to give that a try! He was casting right up against the rocky shore and slow retrieving back.

It was a wonderful weekend of fishing. Banks is a great place to go if you need to dry out from the Seattle "summer".

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