bapabear Loc: Blaine, Washington

Having been disappointed at our last stop, we decided on Banks Lake because we had been there before and we were pretty sure we could get a spot. We were right. Our site was right on the lake with just a very short walk to the dock. We had outstanding fishing and weather. We caught lots of smallmouth bass, good sized yellow perch, giant crappie and a few walleye. Again trolling was our main way of fishing, we did spend one day casting small jigs with paddle tail soft swimbaits to shallow water and worked them very, very slowly out to 30 feet deep. I have no idea how many smallmouth we caught (A bunch), but several were well above the slot limit. Just an FYI, 30 feet is about half of a normal cast going from 1 foot of water to 30 feet of water. We fished a very steep bank. We caught filet size perch and very big crappie while trolling flicker shad near our bass location. We switched to trolling when we caught a perch and crappie casting. We also switched baits to beetle spin type rigs with the soft bait changed to small tubes.
It was still tough to get past the bass to the better, though not much better food fish (smallmouth out of clear water is great). There was a fair number of people fishing our favorite lake whitefish hole, so I expect the fishing for them was good. I plan to go back next fall in hopes of loading up on whitefish to smoke.
All in all, I really like Banks Lake. The fishing has always been great and and the scenery is tough to beat if you can appreciate desert like buttes and plant life (the natural world is not only about big green trees). We stayed at Coulee Playland Resort. It is a 20 minute boat run to our fishing spots, but to stay at Steamboat Rock State Park, reservations must be made 9 months in advance according to the ranger at the park entrance.

Getting ready to clean fish


Castle Rock


Double on combo bass crappie rig


How is that for a beautifully collored fish?


I am not the only one with a double.

Jarheadfishnfool Loc: Woodlake/Tulare ,Ca.

Great narrative Bapa ! Beautiful pics & good looking variety of Fish ,Congrats ! My Step-Dad took us there when he worked at Coulee Dam , youre right though , Beautiful landscape, Thank You for sharing your vacation with us Sir !👍🤙

FishermanLeeSonoma

Very nice and your right, there a more to see in nature than tree but they're nice too. I head out to the desert every so often, down to Borrego Springs but no fishing there, well not really! LOL!

Ridleyblake2017 Loc: Honesdale Pennsylvania

Wow nice fish and photos, thanks for sharing.

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

Glad to see your third stop was so successful Bapa. It looks like you made out very well, even getting past the Smallmouth (I should have such problems) . Thanks for sharing the adventure and the beautiful pictures. The landscape is breathtaking.

bapabear Loc: Blaine, Washington

I am glad and appreciate your understand and condolences regarding the great pressure on us to avoid the smallmouth. Fishing can really stress a man.

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

NJ219bands Loc: New Jersey

Nice 👍

Mooseman65 Loc: Seattle

Wow. Those bronze back’s were very nice. I would say an excellent day of fishing 👍

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

I enjoyed the story/trip summaries from your recent extended vacationing! Overall, it sounds like you had a fantastic time and did get into some quality fishing too! Thank you for posting your adventure!

OldBassGuy Loc: Temecula, CA

Great report and pics Bapa, thanks for sharing your trip with us!!