Walleye right now?

[deerhuntr4885]

 My wife loves walleye and wants me go up to Banks and try to catch some.  I have never fished in this heat for them before.   Any tips?  Would it be worth the drive right now?   Anyone want to go?  I know they kill them somewhere down by Patterson on the Columbia too, but I know absolutely nothing about that area.

[plugger]

There are fish to be caught. Did decent the other morning. First fish was my biggest out of a lake, got bigger ones on the river. it was somewhere between 31, 32 inches. My board only goes to 30 and it was well past that. Wanted to get her back in the water so didn't get exact measurements. ended up hooking 8 landed 6 in 5 hrs.

[GASoline71]

Do you have a boat?  We do very well during the heat of summer over on Lake Roosevelt for Walleye.

Gary

[brokentrail]

Do you have a boat?  We do very well during the heat of summer over on Lake Roosevelt for Walleye.

Gary

Any insight into how deep you are usually fishing?  I have never been over there in the summer but we are thinking about a house boat next year for a small family reunion.

[deerhuntr4885]

I have a Bayliner I am setting up for fishing.  I have a bow mount Minn Kota, pole holders and a Helix on it.   But no down riggers.  I know I don’t need them for walleye but no idea where to fish for them on Roosevelt.  Been considering Crow Butte. Never been there either but I could figure that out. 

[plugger]

That stretch of river gets fished hard, all the way up stream to the dam. go on a weekend and look for boats, you will find plenty of areas to fish. If you have mapping, look for humps, flats, pretty much anywhere there is some kind of current break will hold fish at some point.

[WALLEYEGUY]

Lake Roosevelt is a world class walleye fishery, can be tuff as 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. That being said the Ft Spokane area gives you tons of options.  The Spokane Walleye Club has a few videos on you tube, look at the one about trolling. Greg did a nice job on these.  Find the flats and start shallow (10 Feet) and work deeper (100 plus) till you are getting bit.  If you are fishing on weekends I love trolling the mud lines that develop during the day.  The walleye clubs have fishing days all over the state, and have several people that can steer you in the right direction. Right now I am on the water by 4:15 and off by 10 or fish evenings to avoid fishing extra deep. (but I am old and Whimpey) and I live close to where I fish. Tight lines

[deerhuntr4885]

Thanks everyone.   I really appreciate the tips.

[GASoline71]

Do you have a boat?  We do very well during the heat of summer over on Lake Roosevelt for Walleye.

Gary

Any insight into how deep you are usually fishing?  I have never been over there in the summer but we are thinking about a house boat next year for a small family reunion.

We usually target rocky areas that you can see slide into the water from shore.  All along the banks of Roosevelt is a lot of sand.  But jutting out from the sand will be some rock formations that lead down into the water.  The Walleye will post up on these along with Smallmouth bass as well.  We'll fish all around these rock formations.  We usually find the Walleye from 60 feet and deeper.  We use Blade baits, Jigs with plastic crawfish imitations, and jigs with nightcrawlers.  You can cast toward the rocks or just jig straight off the bottom near the rocks.  Like said above, there are a lot of big Walleye in Roosevelt, as well as a lot of good "eater" size as well.  Roosevelt is large so once you find a school, you're in like Flynn.  Also, the limit for Walleye on Roosevelt is 16 fish and no size limit!  They are considered invasive, so the WDFW and NPS have the generous limits set to help manage them.

We'll be over there this weekend.

Gary