A slice of Paradise that hardly anyone is fishing…

I know, it’s salmon time and everyone is jamming the rivers, fishing the salt, looking for chrome. Gringo Pescador, his brother Gene, and myself instead decided to go in search of bronze, and we found it in abundance.

We arrived at Mar Don Resort, 800-416-2736, Friday afternoon. Mar Don is a great place to stay and if you haven't been there you really should check it out. We were on the water by 5pm for our first day in pursuit of walleye, the best white fleshed fresh water fish in the Northwest. We had worms and Gene had worm harnesses so decided to troll those for a couple of hours along the sand dunes. Within a few minutes Gene had caught two 20” walleye. Wow! It was the start of a great weekend.

Saturday morning we got a lazy start and had lines in the water at 8am. Fishing out of Gringo’s Most Excellent Boat, we ran six rods, two on planer boards and four off the back of the boat. Gringo did a superb job all weekend of keeping the boat tracking right, and we had few line tangles. We used small plugs, Berkley Flicker Shads and Rapala shads. Troll speed of 2.2-2.5, lines back 90-120 feet. Working the dunes again yielded a nice catch, seven walleyes for the morning, not to mention some truly huge large and smallmouth bass. The bass all were all safely released. Any other trip I would be thrilled to catch 3-5 pound bass, but our species target were walleye, so the bass almost became (sorry bass anglers) a nuisance. I will say, the Potholes has a very healthy population of BIG bass! As to the walleye, wow, they are running big! Our smallest was 17”, and all the others were 19-21”, plus a huge over-size Gringo caught, 26.5”! Last year the fish were running 12-15” long. What a healthy change a year makes.

Back to the walleye… . We fished until noon and took a lunch break, venturing back on the water looking for some afternoon fish. It was pretty slow so we decided as it got toward dinner time to switch up and again fish night crawlers on worm harnesses. We began immediately catching fish, unfortunately not walleye. We did catch catfish, perch, crappie and bass, but no walleye. Calling it a day at 7pm we returned to camp to a delicious beef stew Gene had slow cooking in a crook pot.

Sunday morning, 5:30am, off to the boat. The plan – troll again until around 11am, and our weekend would be done. Gear deployed, and the fish started in right where yesterday morning left off. Steady action, nice fish, and the lake practically to ourselves. We ended up with another nine nice fish, giving us a total of eighteen big walleye for the weekend. Plus Gringo caught a couple huge, steelhead-sized rainbow trout.

To sum up, yes, I know,there are lot’s of chrome bright salmon all over the place. But don’t forget the bronze! The kids are back in school, the lake is beautiful this time of year, and there are very few anglers taking advantage of it. You’ll catch a bunch of delicious walleye, perch, etc. You’ll enjoy peace and quiet, beautiful sunrises and sunsets. No shoulder to shoulder combat fishing, no lines at the boat launches. OK, the secret is out…

If you’d like to experience this fishery with a guide, give Shelby Ross a call at 509-750-7763.

Ross Outdoor Adventures He knows the lake and how to catch these fish! And thanks Shelby, for your tips this weekend, it really helped us!

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