Banks Trip

[Blacklab]

Hey guys, Dana an I are taking our first trip to Banks. Staying at Steamboat just 3 nights the third week of June. Would like to get some in site on the eyes and maybe crappie. Not wanting any honey holes ok maybe one  From the reading I've done trolling bottom walkers is a good start water 20ft or less. It's such a huge res need a little direction so I don't act like a one eyed fish, doing circles. BTW are there any crawdads there? Thank you 

[LabChamp]

Fish the west side if steamboat rock and you'll do fine. Last year during this time we went over and pulled flicker shad around 100 ft behind the boat and killed em. Our best colors were anything blue and purple. Barker flats had fish too

[Skyvalhunter]

Best bet is to touch bases with the locals/other fishermen at Wally's when you get over there

[Bill W]

I was going to mention jointed shad raps also.  We trolled SR5's and SR7's last summer in crawdad colors and caught enough walleye to keep us going back.

You need to run the boat faster for plugs than what you do for spinner rigs.  Plugs usually troll in the 1.8 to 2.5 mph range.  We almost exclusively did the 1.8 mph and fished them 90 feet behind the boat.  Pay attention to the dive recommendations on the boxes as those are the depths we fished in.  A SR7 will be approximately 13 to 15 feet deep at 1.8 mph.  You want to be close to the bottom, but not necessarily dragging on the bottom.   The red crawdad is the color we preferred but the other crawdad colors worked for us.

We did not fish the Flicker Shads.  Those are reputed to be equally good for walleye and are a tad cheaper.

Big Wally's or the marina/fishing lure shop in Electric City could give you pointers on the what and where info when you are there.  The Electric City shop had a good selection of Flicker Shads when I was last there.

[groundhog]

I was there for ten days in May. Barker flats was fishing well but a lot of boats. We actually did better around steamboat with fewer boats. Bottom walkers with spinners and worm harness were working well as were Blade baits. Cast the blade baits and work them back slow along the bottom. I have seen some trophy Crawdads but we have never had much success with traps. Good luck, have fun and be safe!!

[LabChamp]

We threw traps around steamboat but never got anything

[Machias]

There is some pretty big smallies there that hammer crawdads!!

[Blacklab]

Thank you so much guys  This helps a lot