Got to fish Banks on Saturday for trout and caught a couple. Stopped at Big Wally's to get some info and when we were trolling the lake, found out we'd forgotten to ask one key detail.

How deep (or shallow) of water is best to fish in? We weren't sure whether to stay in 25' or so, or hit the really deep water next to the cliffs.... or whether to crowd the shore on the flats.

We were trolling with no weight so we were on the surface.

Big Jon or Troutfisherman... what's the skinny?

Got an interesting story of how we locked the only set of keys in the truck, but I'll save that story for later. (No windows were broken in the making of this story)

BILL W: i sure don't pretend to have all or even most of the answers, but i can relate my 2002-2003 trouting experiences on banks lake.

in broad, general terms, most of the hookups i've had have been in approximately 25 feet of water, in water 50 degrees plus-or-minus a bit. north of the coulee city marina a little ways, along the face of the dam, and along the west wall. trolling in shallower water along the east side (north of coulee city) produced nothing for me.

here and there along the wall you will find wash-out areas that resulted in underwater alluvial fans. in other words, 20-25 or so feet of water bordered both to the north and to the south by deeper water. i've had some activity on top of the fans, but numerically more action either just north or just south of them, in the deeper "pockets," so to speak, very close to the shallower flats.

trolling depth: neither TROUTFISHERMAN nor i added any weight. i use spiderwire which has a diameter of 8# mono, and i don't know what strength of mono jim fishes with. but we both would have sworn that our lures weren't any deeper than maybe 3 feet, with 50 to 90 feet of line out. we WOULD have sworn to that, UNTIL we crossed a rocky mound that came up to within 6 or 7 feet of the surface, and we BOTH hung up on the up-slope of it!! talk about a surprise!

so . . . . . . since we snagged the up-slope, maybe our lures were at 8-9-10 feet. after that i've stayed closer to 50-60 feet of line out, since i WANT my attractor to be above the trout, reflecting down into the depths.

i hope this is of a little help to you, and perhaps jim will post a reply, giving you his views and also filling in gaps that i've left.

john

we started a bit north of where you fish. I think we were at Lewis Creek or whatever that one is just a bit east of the million dollar mile.

Thanks for the info. It was nice to know that the general depths we picked were the same ones you target.

Next trip over there for me may not be until 4th of July weekend. We're staying up at Steamboat state park.

Next fishing trip for me may not be until Memorial day and we're headed to Neah Bay.

Did you get to try for smallmouth down at the Potholes yet?

BILL W: i tried for smallmouth in banks, and plan to do so again this week, but at a different location. no bites where i fished, but then i have no clue about whether i was fishing in an area that held smallies.

gonna try a shallow weedy area next. i thought that would be largemouth country, but someone told me to fish along the outer edge of the weeds for smallies. i'll try floating a senko down along the weed beds and see what happens.

good luck to ya at neah bay toward the end of this month. and also on banks in early july.

back to banks lake… at coulee playland they sell a fairly decent topo/depth map of banks, for about $6. sort of a plasticized multiple-folded paper that looks like it will hold up for quite a while. published by "FISH-n-MAP CO." , with no address, phone, or web site mentioned on the map. it has LAT/LONG info in case you use a GPS, and indicates depth at 10 foot intervals. while i can see that it is not as precise as a coast-and-geodetic-survey navigational chart, nevertheless i am glad to have it and would recommend it to you or anyone interested in a general idea of the submerged structure on banks.

if you are interested in asking coulee playland if they would mail one to you, their phone is 888 633 2671. by the way, on the other side of the map is lake washington!

john

John,

I had a chance to buy a couple of those maps earlier this year and picked them up for Banks, Potholes, Lake WA and Lake Sammamish.

I drug the Banks Lake one along with me for the fishing trip..... and then forgot to break it out until we were done fishing... Dang.. well, guess that goes with the age.

One more thing. When we got back to the ramp and finished loading the boat, found out our only set of keys was locked in the truck. Had to get real creative with two coat hangars and a spotter over on the other window as we tried to noose the door handle. I was startin' to eyeball windows and figure out which one was the cheapest if I chose to use a "rock key" to get in.

Hey Zen, I'll be at Neah Memorial weekend[at Snow Creek] fishing Canadian Swiftsure--- we should communicate.

BILL W: i can't help wondering where you came up with two coat hangers!! glad ya got 'em to work, though.

john

Jerry,

Are you there for only the weekend? We're staying through the next Saturday. Also we'll be up at the Cape. If you look the same as your photo you'll be easy to spot.... especially if you're still playing dead. I won't be out at Swiftsure as our boat is an open bow Lund.

John, We got the coat hangers from a guy camped at the launch. I saved them to put them in the garage as a memento of our efforts. I may have to go the way of a hide-out key in the future in case this happens again.