I’m headed over to Banks Lake for a weekend of fishing and I wanted to know if anyone has had any success this year? I'll be fishing for Walleye, Bass and Triploids, and the occasional buzz.

ROB: haven't heard a thing about walleye yet. a fish warden told me that a bass tourney a couple of weeks ago was slow.

but the water continues to gradually warm. about 10 days ago the surface temp over deep water was in the mid to upper 40's, and a few degrees cooler at 30 feet deep. no doubt the shallow bays like osborne and jones are warmer.

while trolling for rainbow, i've picked up a few. one was a 20-incher, but the others were in the 14 to 15 range, definitely smaller than the typical rainbow last year. the biting trout have all hit in different locations compared to last year; perhaps this year-class prefers different places or has not yet found the locations that the larger trout preferred last year.

good luck, and let us all know how you do.

john

Cool, Thanks for the update John. Ill let you know how we did when I get back.

Happy Fishing everyone!!! I hear its going to be a wet one on the west cost this weekend.

Banks is on my fish list in early May, Potsholes in late May. I'd appreciate any report too.

Personally, I love walleye, small mouth bass to eat over trout, I fish for trout only because my kids love to catch them.

Well I would have to say that my trip out to Banks Lake was pretty successful overall. We got there Friday night and did a little night fishing, We only managed to catch a 6lb carp.

On Saturday we got out on the water about 5:00 am and started trolling, around 6:00 an we picked up our first triploid that weighed in at 2 lbs even. We proceeded to catch 5 more 2 of them being rainbows that were all over 2lbs, around 8 am the trout fishing seemed to die off. My father was able to grab 1 rainbow and 1 Triploid both over 2 lbs off of the rocks in the afternoon and one 3lbs smallmouth, from the boat we caught another trip that was over 2 lbs and one that was small. In the afternoon we tried fishing the rock walls for bass across from steamboat but only got one good hit that got off. That night we got 1 more triploid off the rocks. At the store we noticed that a kid landed a 10lbs triploid that day.

On Sunday we went out at 6am and trolled for a few hours got a few strikes but nothing stayed on. We then went over to the spillway and caught another trip and a 2lbs smallmouth.

I have to tell you it was cold out there, everyone we seen were in campers or in the yurt. We stayed in tents. Just make sure you have a good sleeping bag if you plan to do the same soon. The water temp was around 40 to 53 degrees.

I will be looking forward to my next trip out there on Memorial Day weekend.

ROB: glad to hear the fishing in the north end was productive for you. other areas of the lake are changing; we recently located rainbow in a place they liked last summer but until now didn't like this year. perhaps the slowly warming water is changing their patterns.

you mentioned water temps from 40 to 53 degrees: where was that 53 degree water?

john

We noticed that the water temp was 53 deg when we were fishing the rocks across from steamboat.

Thks for the update! I may try to squeeze in a trip over there before our May 22nd trip to the Potholes.