We finally got out last weekend and man what a ordeal this was.
Had to work Saterday morning and had plans to head out around noon.
The boat was ready and hooked up and we left the house around 2:00 pm.
Got half way over to the lake and bam! a tire blew out on the trailer.
No spare, no jack so unhooked the boat and left Deb there to keep a eye on things.
Headed to the house for the other truck and tools and a tire.
No spare that would fit this trailer so had to make a run into town and get a new one.
By the time it was all done we just went back to the house.
Figured we would try again Sunday.
Got up and headed out again, as we got to the spot were the tire blew I discovered we did not have our parking permit.
So back to the house we went.
Grabed the permit and off we went.
Got over to the lake and all was good.
Calm day with blue skies and no people.
We hit all of our regular spots but not much action.
Stopped by the spawning beds and saw a few beds but no Bass on any of them.
Tried to scare up some panfish but nothing so we  tried to find some Walleye.
All we could find was little 10 to 12 inchers so back after the Smallmouth.
We ended the day with 3 good Smallmouth and some of those little eyes.
All were set free this time, lol.
It was great to get back on the lake.

Sounds somewhat like a nightmare. But atleast you cought some fish. By the way what lake were you headed to? I sure hope I don't have your luck on my way over to Banks Lake in a week. Gonna be over there for 10 days, sure hope the smallies are on the bite.

Hello hhardy.
It was just one of those days, lol.
I am going to keep the lake to myself for now, lol.

I look forward to hearing about Banks, 10 days up there would be nice.
We are starting to get into them a bit here.
Some of my buds have been doin pretty good.
I am heading out tomorrow with high hopes for a good day.
Hope you had a great time at Banks and stuck a bunch.

Hi yellowbear I was goig to go up to Whatcom Lake tomarrow for some smallie action BUT the weather is going to be nasty so I think Ill just stay home and have a beer.
Are you from the west side? if so where. I live on Whaidey Island ( Oak Harbor). I fish all the lakes around here Campbell, Big Lake, Whatcom and any lake I can get mt 20 foot Triton on.
I'll give you an up date on banks when I get back. I will leave there on the 9th and go down to Tri-cities for a tournament on the 10th. Damn I hope I get a paycheck from that one. I also fish the NW Bass Pro circut.

Back on the water yesterday and did much better.
We found some nice Smallmouth on split tail beavers and picked up some big Crappie, 3 inch Mr Twister curly tails.
Still can't seem to find any Walleye of decent size.

hhardy, I wish you good luck at the Tri cities tourny, should be a good one.
I was a tournament guy in the 70s and 80s,now I am a self proclaimed reaserch angler, lol.
I have been working on some of our local lakes for 12 years now.
I am on the east side just down the road from Potholes.

Glad to hear you got some fish. I wasn't able to get out this weekend bad weather. I will be on Pot Holes July 9th and 10th for the NW Bass tourny I'll be staying at the free launch come by if you can and I'll buy you a beer.
My wife is retiring next March and we are thinking about moving to Soap Lake area. I jsut need to get away from this side of the state. 30 years of fighting seattle people.
Yea I miss my fun fishin' I have one more year after this cuz I made a 2 year contract with my fishig partner and I'm done with tournaments. I want to be a reaserch angler also. LOL
Harry

There are two free launch sites at Potholes.
Are you going to be at the west end State Park, or the east end, Lind coulle?
I should have a few tied up by then.
Have you ever fished Potholes in October?
If your answer is no then you need to plan for it.
I will be heading up to the Pend Orellie the end of july for Northerns but will make it a point to stop in for that beer and a few fish stories.

I'll be at the one by the State Park. I will be in a Lance camper on top of a red dodge. Friday would be the best time to come by, as I will be on the water from safe light until around 3 or 3:30 Hope to see ya there. And I've never told a fish story in my life LOL
No I have not fished it in Oct. I'm headed to Clear Lake Ca. in Oct for the Triton Owners tournament. It's a good time and huge bass.
wish you luck up on Pend Orellie never fished it I have fished Lake Couer d'Alene for pike what a kick. Oh are you fishing the river or the lake?

We fish the river between Ione and newport.
Just found out that the WDFW and the tribe has killed 755 northerns for one of there studies.
They are trying to figure out what they are feeding on.
The Pend Orellie is plum full of sunfish and little perch so my guess would be.... sunfish and perch but I am sure they will find a few trout as well.
It seem's kind of funny that they can study the muskie without killing them but the northerns and walleye have to die in order to get the same info.

Well just look at what the idots did to Sprague Lake. One of the best walleye lakes in the state and they killed them ALL because there were to many in the lake. they restocked it but no walleye were put back in.
I have never fish the river but I hear it has good largemouth in it.

LMAO!
You have hit on a sore subject there Harry.
I am not a big fan of our WDFW and the feelings are not about to change anytime soon.
Sprague was the last straw.
When I heard that Sprague was going to be rehabed I decided to go see the results for myself.
When I got down there I stopped by one of the launch sites and talked with the WDFW and asked how the kill went.
To my surprise they told me that the rehab crew was down at Cow lake and that Sprague would be done in a few days.
I headed out to Cow and the WDFW was just getting started so I hung around. It did not take long and fish started to show up.
There were some small Largemouth, lots of little Crappie and Perch,Bullheads and grass Pike,Walleyes and Carp.
I headed back to Sprague the day after they killed it and the first thing I saw was all access points to the lake were roped off.
I have been to a lot of lake rehabs and had never seen this before.
All of the launch sites and resorts had been blocked so I got permission from some land owners to walk the bank.
I saw thousands of small Crappie. There were good numbers of small Perch and some Bluegill and Bullheads. The Carp were everywhere.
I never did find a single Walleye, not one.
A few weeks later I went up to banks to help with the FWIN study and I asked the WDFW about the lack of dead Walleye in Sprague.
There answer to me was, all of the Walleye were in the middle of the lake and sank. I asked why would they sink in Sprague and drift to shore in Cow?
Then I was asked well were you there? I replied yes I was there. That's when the discussion stopped.
The large numbers of Carp needed to be killed off but the story we were told about the Walleye had eaten everything was false.
When they started the Fall Walleye Index Netting is when Sprague headed downhill. I believe this study has been going on for 8 years now.
As you know Sprague has been rehabed into a Trout lake and is being considered for Tiger Muskie's.
The FWIN study is still being done at Banks, Moses, Potholes and Scootney. The Moses lake kill a couple of years ago was sinful, They netted and killed several fish over 10 pounds.

The Largemouth population in the Pend Oreille has taken a hit. The fish are still there but nothing like it was.
The Smallmouth on the other hand are doing just fine. If you decide to fish the Pend Oreille I suggest you go with someone that has spent some time up there.
The river can be a bit unforgiving in places.

I am heading to the lake, hope to have a good report this evening.

Well how did your trip to the lake go? I didn't get out I'm getting everything ready for my Banks trip on Tuesday. I did hear that the bite is on.

The Smallmouth are on the bite.
Split tail beavers are working here.
Still have not found the Walleye.
Rain expected this week, should help.

Brad, if you ever get to Michigan, I'll get you on Lake St Clair for all of the above. 'cept tiger muskies, we have real ones here

yellowbear I just got back from Banks and man what a trip. The weather was nasty for most of it and the smallmouth bite was not very good. Lots of beads but no fish on em. How ever the largemouth bite was on fire. I got over 60 in the punch bowl. The first time I caught more largies than smallies on that lake. I fished the Columbia on Saturday and it was tough rageing warter, down south the water was chocolate milk and north sagebrush in 5 feet of water. Only managed to get 5 small fish for 3.24 lbs. Needless to say no paycheck. But Banks WOW and if the weather stays good the smallies will be on the bite.

Harry

PS We did get 11 walleyes on Barker flats on thursday

Hit the lake Sat and things were not what I expected.
Air temp was in the low 80s with little to no wind.
Water temp NA.
We got only 5 Smallmouth and none of them seemed to be eating very well.
Set two traps out for Crawdads and both came up blank after soaking for 8 hours.
One was at 30 feet and the other was set at 10.
I did see two schools of fry over deep water about an inch long, species unknown.
The lake seems to be on a downhill slide. fewer and smaller fish over the past few years. 
No Walleye or Crappie seen.
The grass beds in the lake are starting to spred out quite a bit and there are getting to be more of them.



Harry, thanks for the report. Sorry to hear you did not get paid but that is the way it goes, you can't win them all.

Pillman, how the heck you been?
If I ever do get back that way again I will take you up on the offer.
I have heard a lot about St Clair, woulden't mind catching a real Musky.

Brad I have a tournament on Pot Holes in 3 weeks any good reports on the largemouth fishing there. Gonna try to prefish it on Sunday the 27th.
Oh yea your still invited to come down on the 9th and have a beer with me. I'll be at the launch between the state park and Mar Don's.

Harry

Good morning Harry!
Have not heard much about the LM except that a fish over 9 pounds was caught a few weeks ago.
I have a friend that was fishing the Walleye tourny at Moses.
He and his partner were not doing very well, had only put 3 small fish in the boat on day one.
They decided to bail on day 2 and opted for lm at Potholes.
Fished all day and never took a fish.
I am going to the boat race's Sat but will hit Potholes Sunday and take a look around.
Will let you know what we find.

Man I could use a couple of 9er's to weigh in.
I met a guy up at Banks that was fishing Pot Holes prior to Banks and I told me he got his limit of walleye every day at the mouth of Crab Creek and I believe him because I saw him get a limit every day at Banks and the fishing was tough. So if your going for eye's you might give that a try.
Any info I can get will help Thanks

Harry

Brad were you able to get out on Pot Holes this past weekend and how were the boat races. Plan on fishing it on Sunday

Harry

Good morning Harry,
We found some good fish back in the dunes and a few at the mouth of Winchester waistway.
 They seemed to be holding in the deeper channels.
Picked up some big Smallmouth along the dam between the two big points.
Did not get back into the lind coulle.
We will try and check it out this week if we get time.
Caught the largemouth on 6 inch purple worms and black jig and split tail eels.
Smallmouth hit the sweet beavers.

The boat race's were a kick in the butt.
Most of the boats are powerd by big block chevy engines and produce over 800 hp.
They go from 0 to 80 mph in 80 feet, now thats a hole shot, lol.

Good afternoon Brad. Sounds like you had a good fishing trip and thanks for the info pard. I'll be fishing it on Sunday. Went to Whatcom Lake this morning not too good. Only got 6 small fish.
man I wish I had a hole shot like that. I can go 0 to 72 in 1000 yards LOL

We fished the lake yesterday and had a good time.
Found good numbers of Smallmouth but no size.
Finally found some Walleye.
We will be having fish & chips for dinner, lol.
Fish were caught on curly tail grubs and ice jigs.
Water temp N/A.
Depth was 12 to 15 feet.

Hey Brad
I fished Pot Holes yeaterday the 27th got a few smallies in Lind Coulee no size
Headed to the Dunes and got some nice largemouth on lizzards and sinko's. Found a good pattern and I think it will work during the tournament.

Harry

Thanks for the info Harry, hope you tied a few up. lol.

I didn't tie any up cuz I figured the might die so I put em in a pen LOL. Will be there next Friday hope we can hook up and chew the fat.

Harry

Good morning Harry.
Looking forward to this weekend.
I have to work tomorrow but should be done by 4:00 pm.
Thought I would take a drive over and meet up with you.
Tell me again what type of rig you have, I will be driving a little white Ford Tarus.

Hey Brad. I wll be in a red dodge with a lance camper on it and there will be a yellow triton parked beside me that belongs to my fishing partner. We should be there around 9 or 10 am tomarrow. The beer is cold and the BS is hot LOL. Come on by.

Harry

Brad just in case I didn't mension it I will be at the launch between Mar Don and the state park.

We had a bit of free time so we hit the lake yesterday around 1:30 pm.
Started catching Smallmouth right off with curly tail grubs on a 1/8th oz jighead.
Made a move to another spot and hit some fine Walleyes, same baits.
Working down the west bank we ran into some Crappie and bluegill.
We ended the day with around 40 to 50 Bass, kept 10.
Also kept 3 eyes and a couple of nice 13-14 inch slabs.
The weather was perfect, clear and warm with a slight breeze.
Fish were all in 15 to 20 feet of water tight to the bottom.

Brad it seems you had a great day on the water. It feels good for a change doesn't it. I fished a small open tourny on Banks Sunday and man I caught some pig's on lipless crankbaits. Finished 6th an it felt great. And if I didn't tell you I got a good pay check from the Jack and Jill tourny last month.

I also caught 3 eyes Sunday one around 7# and two about 5# gave one away and releised the other two.

Harry

Harry.
We did have a good time last week and caught a bunch.
Water temps are dropping and we are hoping for some time off this fall to fish.
Potholes in October can be killer.
Glad to hear you did okay at the J&J tourny,its always nice to get paid to fish,lol.

Deb and I fished Potholes Saterday and found a bunch of small Bass.
We also found,
1 Two pound LM
1 threepound LM
2 four pound LM
2 two pound SM
1 three pound SM
And deb had the biggie of the day a Five pound SM.
All of the fish hit a 2 inch Kalin grub on our custom 1/8th oz jigheads.
Ultralite rods and 6# Trilene.
The bigger fish were caught between 4:30 pm to 6:20 pm.

Fished Potholes yesterday and caught several Smallmouth in the 2 & 3 pound range.
Had 7 in the take home size and a nice 3 pound Walleye.
Same baits as last week.
Water temp had come up to 68 69.
Lots of algae making the water a bit murky.

Brad sounds like your kicking but on Pot Holes.
I'm on my way to Clear Lake in the morning for the Triton Owners Tournament out of Lakeport,Ca

Harry