Is potholes too big and windy for a canoe\trolling motor? Would I be better off hitting Soda or another lake?

I've never fished for walleye, and I think a day fishing for bug-eyes, small mouth, perch, ect would be fun for my little bro and I to do this week.

What part of the lake should we focus on? Rebember that we can't cover the whole lake with just a little electric motor...

I plan on trying flies - wooly buggers mainly. And we'll also use nightcrawlers i'm sure. Any other suggestions? Trolling rapalas and flatfish? Double wammy\crawler?

Thanks for the ino!

-Chad

PP,

I used to fish the smaller lakes over there out of a canoe and finally got frustrated enough to quit. My canoe didn't have a hard keel on it and didn't track well in the wind.

Soda might even be too big for a canoe.

Maybe if you could get back in the dunes area of the rez then you'd have the shelter to use a canoe.

Thanks Bill. That's what I was afraid of. Don't want to wast my little bro's time fighting wind all day.

Is there a spot close enough to the dunes where I could launch my canoe? Don't need a boat launch, I can carry\wheel it 100 yards or so if needed (and I have a very capable 4X4).

I fished Potholes years ago in a 12' "rowboat" with a 9.9hp motor. I think it's more stable than our 16' canoe. Day started out dead calm so I went from the State Park on the SW side of the lake all the way across the giant lake to the dunes. After a few hours the waves got so big that I sort of "surfed" from one to the other. I headed back to the park (into the 35mph wind) and because the front end of my boat was so light I could only go maybe 2 mph safely. Took me about 1.5 hours to get back, and I was scared! In a canoe I would have been dead for sure (water temps then were maybe 47 degrees....hypothermia) probably having to attempt to swim half a mile to shore or so....probably wouldn't have made it.

If and only if you stay w/in a few hundred yards from shore would I recommend a canoe (we have 11 boats, one being a canoe.) I went there recently in April and I chose our 20' sea-worthy boat, by the way.

Listen to the weather forecast before you go out, or the wind might come up on you too.

One tip is to go over there when there's a high-pressure system, the day before, in the Seattle area (that high-pressure system usually would be at Potholes the next day...lower wind.)

But, the water temp will probably be in the 70's this time of year, so even if you dump the boat you'll just be going for a long swim to shore. Just don't go farther from shore than you know you can swim (but most people probably over-estimate how far they can swim.) Just don't go way out in the middle of the lake with a canoe.

I've been in lakes smaller than Soda and the wind came up to maybe 40mph and I would not have wanted to be in a canoe.

After owning our canoe for about 2 years or so we went out and bought a wider 12' "rowboat", which only cost us (used) about $500 I'm guessing....you might want to consider doing that.

Good luck.

I talked to the folks at Mardon Resort, and they seemed to think I could find my way to the sand dunes side and not have to deal with the wind as much - plus the fishing should be good in that area. He said there was a very rough boat launch in that area. Anyone have the directions for getting there?

Another option for you to consider would be to launch at the Lind Coulee boat launch on the south east side of the lake. You could take your canoe way up the coulee which is a pretty neat area. I don't know what the fishing would be like there but it was great in May (check out the article under the Potholes reports section).

No Thanks...thats a big lake and gets way to rough way to fast. I was there last year at this time,we were fishing the dunes for walleyes.In the span of 15 minutes it went from glass to whitecaps,and this was aways back in the dunes.

I'd try some of the smaller lakes back behind the dam,there's about 40 of em'. A sweet spot to try is the Hampton lakes,one has a nice launch,the other you can get into by packing your canoe over land at the far side of the lake.It's about a 25' carry.