Eastern Washington Trip (Pic Heavy)

[WaYoop]

Camped and fished in Eastern Washington this past week.
Arriving at Banks Lake.

Steamboat Rock from on the water at Banks Lake.

Storm brewing over Banks Lake.

And I thought I had the state record smallie on, and it turned out to be this It did put up a heck of a fight, two laps around the boat, lots of drag pulling, and buried itself in weeds.




Had a great time, caught lots of smallies.

Rob

[Lpolk]

What is the name of that fish? Looks like a carp, we don't see fish like that in my neck of the woods, at least that I can remember. Once again lovely seanery.

[WaYoop]

Yea it is a carp Larry

[steamfitter]

looks like a good time wish i could have made it.

[steamfitter]

did you fish the rock slide on the west side of steamboat rock, i never got around to it when i was there but it looked good?

[WaYoop]

I did on the last afternoon for a bit, kind of got blown off of it...Got some fish but didn't really fish it that long. We will work out a trip next summer - I need someone to show me how to catch some big fish at Roosevelt

[HaulinBass]

Bugle mouth bass.

[jkainoa]

WaYoop,
Man I just happened to be over there the same time you were. I went over on Thursday the 9th and got back yesterday (the 13th). I was with my friend fishing out of his Triton 21X with a Mercury 250 PRO XS . I love my 191 Champ but his boat flat out hauls! He said he saw a Champion when we were in town. It probably was you!
We planned on fishing Banks the first day and then Roosevelt but decieded to hit Roosevelt first since as you said, has the bigger fish in it. We did so well on Roosevelt that we ended fishing it for 4 days and never made it over to Banks. The top water bite was definately on!! We didn't catch anything over 3 1/2 pounds but we SAW some huge fish. We were actually on a houseboat up by Seven Bays with some other guys. What a blast!

My friend Mark with a nice smallie


Another nice smallie



Me with a smallie


Houseboat we were on


Black bear that must have smelled our cooking!


Picture showing how close he got to us!

[BassnCop]

wow..beautiful place!!

[WaYoop]

Great pics John I thought about shooting you a message, but then thought what are the odds you would be over there.

I will definitely pick your brain before my next trip over that way, probably next spring/summer. I caught a ton of fish at Banks and Roosevelt, not a lot of big fish, but fun.

Take care - Rob

[jkainoa]

Rob,
Glad to hear that you caught fish on both lakes! I plan on going back over this weekend and later in October if I get a chance. I was there last year with a buddy of mine that lives in Spokane and although the bass fishing was pretty dismal for us, (we caught one bass all day long) we killed the trout!
This past weekend we did find a couple of spots that were holding mostly smaller fish (up around Keller's Ferry) but when we did catch bigger fish, they seemed to be in groups. Several times we would hook a fish and see others swimming along with it, kind of like what you see fish do in the spring. There was really one common pattern that was working for us. I'll try to mail you to send you more info.

[WaYoop]

Appreciate any knowledge you can send my way