Banks Lake Walleye

[aaron42ash]

Ok so I'm a Wisconsin native and love to fish for walleye, but I am yet to catch a walleye with any size in Washington. I have never been to Banks Lake, however Roosevelt has been my favorite lake in the state so far. Does anyone have any suggestions to areas of Banks Lake to commit Memorial Day weekend to? I don't really care about size, but I am taking my roommates and I want to show them up in every way possible. ;) Also, since we are staying the entire weekend, does anyone have any information about the surrounding area for camping? We have always just found a spot on the bank at Roosevelt...can I do the same here? We prefer to rough it out... Thanks to anyone who helps.

[G-Man]

Banks Lake has become my favorite lake for walleye. You can catch them in many places and the lake has a bunch of launch sites and several camp sites as well. The WDFW has a neat tool that allows you to search for water access and camping sites that they manage. The WDFW camping sites typically have nothing other than an outhouse near by.

here is the link for Banks Lake WDFW Banks Lake Access

I normally fish the North end of the lake, across from Sun Banks Resort, and troll a bottom walker with a worm harness when the fish are more than 15' - 20' deep. When they are shallow you can pull deep diving plugs and you can most certainly jig for them in the many holes and rock outcroppings you will find. Many folks hit up the South end of the lake right up against the dam, but I've only fished there once and the wind was blowing and making life difficult. I'm assuming that you have a boat, if you don't, fishing the lake for walleye will be tough. I have a good fishfinder with contour maps loaded onto a chip but I still find myself using my Fish-n-Map contour map when I'm out there looking for a good spot. If you haven't seen or used one, they are great. Waterproof, tearproof and very large with contours every 5'! The bonus for me was that with the Banks Lake map you get the Lake Washington map on the opposite side! They have one for Roosevelt Lake and Moses Lake/Potholes, which should cover your more popular walleye lakes quite nicely.

The super bonus when fishing Banks are the smallies! They are all over the lake and will hit whatever you use for walleye so get out there and have some fun.

[aaron42ash]

Thanks for the quick reply... The only thing I didn't see on the link was whether the ramps had overnight parking? I'm assuming that's what it means by "gated." We just like to get away from most people when we camp too, so I will look into places along the bank we can camp. Thanks again

[Bodofish]

You can do a little damage on RW too. Between Coulee and the pens from what I've been told by the locals that don't fish trout. Lots of big rocks and structure.

[fishingboy]

if you go fish banks go to coulee resort!

[aaron42ash]

So I'm heading to Cabela's this weekend...I thought I would stock-up for the spring already. What kinds of colors work the best? In the past at Roosevelt, I have done the most damage with Pumpkin and Crawfish with green flake tubes. I have some worm harnesses, but I am unsure if the colors will be as effective here as in Wisconsin. Also jig colors... marabou, fish imitators, curly tails? Any suggestions?

[sharpshooter223]

all the walleye i have caught have been on chartreues or bright green/orange worm harnesses.

[G-Man]

Good point on the colors Sharpshooter223. When I first fished the lake for Walleyes I went through many different colors of spinners and found that chartreuse caught fish, the rest did not. When I got back to the resort and talked with our camp host he said; "I could have told you that, if you aren't using chartreuse or lime green you ain't gonna catch no walleye". I also found that a brass "rooster tail spinner" blade worked best with my custom crawler harness.

[wmaxwell48]

It is true the North end of Banks is fairly good for the Wiley Wally. However in Late MAY there are several areas that startup.
The South end around Coulee City straight west of Big Wallys is very good between the 2 north south ridges at 25 - 35 feet depth. Fish the edges of these as deep as 60 feet. I usually do a east west S pattern until I find the critters. I prefer a high contrast worm harness on Lindy Rig. Colors can be Green Chartruse in the morning and the dang Wallys will start taking Black or Purlple with Yellow spinner at noon. just remember the Crawler Candy on the end.

Second area is Barker Flats on the West side of the lake across from Steamboat Rock. The flats will find the buggers around the sunken island at 25-40 ft.

Next is evenings in the Devils Punch Bowl crusing the sunken railroad bed or old higway average 24 ft. They run north south just east of the Rock from one end to the other. Again Lindy rig a worm harness or bottom bouncer with high contrast color spinner.

If you night fish the north zone around the intake usually produces good Eyes. Same is true south around the spillway to the canal system or around Twin islands.

That is one big water and there are many really good locations. Particularly in MAY. Banks has consistantly producded the most consistant Walleye. I have chased Carp in rut...spawn several times before figuring out they were not the targeted spieces in late May so don't get fooled. Good fishing and keep the big net handy.

[Rozman]

Maxwell or anybody that may know, are any boat launches open now or are they all froze up? Any oppurtunity to get 'eyes or perch thru the ice? Thanks much!!

[wmaxwell48]

I would have you go to Northwestwalleye.com and PM or open a forum thread to MAJOR. He lives right in Coulee City and is active with NWW. Also Larry Goetz is in Eletric City for north end information. Fishon20002000 is there often and Terry Connelleye is always in the know. Last I heard Both the north and south ends were iced up. There was some question whether the ice was good enough for ice fishing. Seems the ice has not been of the quality it was last year which was very good.

Good Luck, see you on the water

Wmaxwell48

[Lotech Joe]

Best luck I ever had for walleye was 1 mile downstream from Grand Coulee Dam, under the power lines. I was using a 1/4 ounce chartreuse eyeball jig with a trailer hook and a big night crawler strung between the two hooks. Spin casting, I would cast out and let the jig go to the bottom. Then retrieve it slowly until I felt it snag on a rock. At that point I would set the hook for all I was worth and reel fast. 9 times out of 10, I made a fool of myself, but 1 time out of 10, I brought a nice 26" - 30" walleye to net. I do have to say that was in February and I caught 3. Wife made me give one of them away. Pssssssssssst!

[wmaxwell48]

Lotech,

That is how I fish the upper end of the Roof (Rufus Woods) also. Most of those successful for Eyes do the same. The only difference may be the use of Bladebaits as the prefered startup bait then go tho Jigs sweetened with a worm. The colder the slower. There are a couple of lush holes up from Seton Groves. I also like down stream from Seton Groves to the Island.

[aaron42ash]

I think I will give the ice a go on our next 3-day weekend...it's a bit of a drive from EWU. Also, I am still having issues locating on a map some of these areas discussed. For example: "Devil's Punch Bowl" "Barker Flats" and "Jones Bay". I have been using Google Earth a bunch trying to put a picture and a place to the names, with no luck. I'm not asking for Long. and Lat. of your spots, but maybe a just a hint ;)

[G-Man]

Aaron,

I really suggest the Fish-n-Map product for Banks Lake, you can even order it on line directly from the company for $8.00 which includes shipping. To view small but detailed sections of the lake try the following link. Banks Lake topo

Play around with this to find the areas you are most interested in and then zoom in.

I the mean time, I'll see if I can't scratch up a crude map without violating any copyright laws.

[wmaxwell48]

OH YES Fish-n-Maps outstanding product. You can do one better though. Go see Rosey at Big Wally's and buy her modified Fish-n-Maps. She marks the hot spots really well and includes the local names like you were saying you could not find on Google or other sources. For an additional couple of dollars she provides an indispensable resource.

[aaron42ash]

Alright I will make a point of stopping in. I was unaware all of the names were right on that map. way helpful...Thanks a bunch!:cheers:

[Anonymous]

OK, this is the best I could come up with and know I'm not breaking any laws. The map is from the US Geological Survey sight and you can get even better detailed maps but they only show a small section at a time due to the size of the lake. If the lake has any ice that is fishable it will most likely be in the shallower bays. If you find water about 17' deep you should find that the weeds start to thin out a bit. If I'm boat fishing I'll hit up the submerged island if no one else is out there otherwise I'll give the deep rocky slot just North of Steamboat Rock a shot. I've trolled the area but it has some huge boulders in it and lends itself better to jig fishing. Once you get your customized Fish-n-Map you'll want to stake out a few areas and work them over. Don't feel you have to run all over the lake to find fish, they are almost everywhere, you just need to figure out what they want.

[pkelly31]

g man do you fish banks alot ...if so when do you start in the spring..thanks in advance

[G-Man]

Banks Lake is one of our family Summer destinations so I fish it then. I may give it a go this May for a day and include it in our annual trip out to Blue Lake.