I live in Coulee City on the south end of Banks Lake. Welcome to the area boogerman.

I have seen smallmouth bass caught along the shallow bays and shorelines on the south end of the lake. I don't fish the north end of Banks so I can't be of any help to you up there. With gas prices last year or so I couldn't see a good reason to fish the north end when all the same kinds of fish are in the south end of the lake too.

My brother and I have hooked several smallmouth while fishing for walleye around some of the islands around the south end of the lake on worms while we were bottom bouncing for walleye.

I was there a couple of weeks ago and we caught ALOT of smb. We were fishing the northwest part of the lake, and were catching them on pretty much everything we used. During mid day when the wind died and the water was glassy we switched to 3" weightless senko's(earthworm brown worked well), whacky rigged, and flipped them at the cracks and crevices where we knew they were hiding, and let them slowly sink down to where they were. Other than that, they were hitting crankbaits(crawdad pattern seemed to be the best), spinnerbaits(chartruse and white with a white split tail trailer worked well), rattletraps, jig and grub, and pretty much any senko in a darker color. And in the evening we went up into the shallower parts of the bays and threw buzzbaits right up at the shore, and caught alot of nice fish. When we were there it looked as though the spawn was just about over. We only saw a few beds left, and most of the fish were holding on submerged rock piles and ledges. That was my first time fishing Banks, and I came away thinking that it was the best lake in Washington. However, I read a report from someone else that was there that same weekend and had about the same results as you did. I think the key is identitying where the structure is that smb like(places they can hide and ambush prey), and working that.

fishinfool and Major, nice posts. I read both and think that I learned a little myself. Keep up the good work, lol.

BG8 - My advice would be to keep it somewhat simple at 1st. If you find any areas where the shore is lined with rocks for a good stretch focus on those areas. They tend to hold good populations of smallmouth year round for a lot of reasons such as warmth, cover, and prey. I would use a football jig head tipped with a twin tail grub for a bottom presentation. The football shape is good for rocks as you can drag it along the bottom with fewer hang ups. You can jig it, drag it, or swim it just above the bottom. 2nd I would work a rip bait like a Rapala XRap (minnow imitation). Vary your retrieves such as slow with pauses, and faster with twitches. Just fan cast the area and cover as much water as possible. If you don't have an electric figure out what direction the boat will drift, cast to the bank, and work the lure back to the boat. You can also use your depth finder to locate additional areas such as secondary banks and extended points where the fish have quick access to deeper water. The smallmouth fishing should be really good right now. I would like to make the trip, but my favorite lake (Long) is just around the corner. The bonus for me at Banks is that it has a good population of Walleye, the best eating fresh water fish IMO. They may be little harder to get into right now as they are likely starting to scatter a bit after the post spawn feed. Good luck and post some pics of the fish after your next trip.

Head for banks north end .Will be there this next monday what the fishing like and what we use .Don t care what we hook like fish let me know.Thanks
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