What a treat I had today, fishing with Big Bass Dez and Shelby Ross of Ross Outdoor Adventures. Shelby had called me to let me know that “the crank bait bite is hot right now”. Sign me up, I said. I then called Dez – “hey Dez, the crank bite is hot on Potholes – want to come check it out?”. “Cool beans” Dez replied.

So we met at Mar Don Resort and stayed in one of their comfortable cabins, and the next morning met up with Shelby at 7am. “Do you have a two pole endorsement?” Shelby asked me. “Why would I need that for casting crank baits?”. “Because we are trolling, that’s why” Opps! When a walleye guide says crank baits, I guess I should have known, target – walleye. But it all turned out OK as Dez was up for a different kind of fishing after having just completed a tournament. So he and I got treated to a day of “crank” bait fishing (i.e. trolling) that was as advertised “hot”.

We started across from Mar Don and worked our way toward Crab Creek, fishing in 6-15 feet of water. Shelby knows the Potholes like no one else and knows all the underwater ridges to hit. I lost track of him saying “coming off another ridge, get ready to be bit” and seeing one of our rods go off. We used smaller D7 sized shad raps and experimented until we found the color the walleye wanted, a green/brown top with red-tone belly.

Of most interest to me, I was introduced to planer boards. We ran two rods off either side using planer boards. These boards are designed to take your lure away and to the side of the boat, effectively covering more area and trolling a lure to fish without having the boat go over them. It turned out to be a deadly effective method on walleye and as a bonus it was pretty fun to watch the flag go down every time we had a fish (which was often). While our target was walleye, we also caught perch, crappie, and bass (smallmouth and largemouth). It was a stellar day, capped by a delicious “cast and blast” lunch of duck cabobs and a side of walleye. There is nothing like Shelby’s hot cooked boat lunches! He does this for all his full day trips. Incredibly good!

The morning we caught numbers, and in the afternoon we went after a quality walleye, which was not to be, as the wind started making it pretty hard to fish. Even so, we ended up with 19 nice walleye, perch, and a nice crappie to fillet. All bass were safely released. Dez had a great time doing a type of fishing he hadn’t experienced before. I got to learn a whole new technique, planer boards. Also, walleye fishing is totally different spring vrs. fall, with different locations and techniques.

Thanks Shelby for a fun day on the Potholes. If you’re interested, this is a great time to fish for fall walleye. Shelby also offers “Cast and Blast” trips combining fishing with duck hunting. Hmmm, maybe I need to take up another sport…

Shelby Ross can be reached at (509) 750-7763, http://potholesfishing.com/

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