I fished Banks Lake on a beautiful October day, no wind or clouds and a sunny 75 degrees! The four of us rented a party barge from Coulee Playland Resort and headed out left from the marina towards Steamboat Rock. We trolled on the way there but the idle speed for the motor was too fast for flashers and weights strung from lightweight lake gear. I heard the the Walleye had been few and far between this season due to the amount of available bait fish. Hearing that we decided to hook into the prolific smallies on the western walls of the rocky areas north of Steamboat. We tossed crawlers on barbless treble hooks with small sliding weights behind swivels. If you cast your crawler and hit the rocks then let them drop to the bottom to around 15-25 feet, you are sure to nail smallies as soon as you set your line and start reeling in slowly. Our group was gone all day from 8 till 6 ish and hooked into maybe 35 to 50 mid sized small mouth. we kept the larger ones for dinner and released the rest. After a great day on Banks in the fall, I'll be setting up a trip there for years to come. Fly fishers- bring your rod and cast frog patters near the rocks away 20 to 30 feet for large evening bass.

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