The Packernut and I decided to give the pike a weekend off while we went to chase a few walleyes at Banks Lake.

We were on the water around 7:15 am and had out first fish in the boat by about 7:30. The first fish was a beautiful 12-13" Jumbo Perch. A few minutes later we made contact with our first walleye, and the day was off to a great start. The smoke was very thick as you looked across the lake. Kind of an eerie sight. We couldn't see anyone else on the lake and we were happy to be fishing alone in this area. About an hour later the smoke got a little thinner and we could see 4-5 other boats off in the distance. They were either successful, or just plain persistent. We caught fish steadily for the next 3 hours or so, and those boats continued to fish their same area as well.
We managed 13 walleyes and one perch in our first spot, then moved on to try a few others. With no luck in a couple of locations we normally fish, we moved on the search for some new fishing grounds. A friend had mentioned a general area that he has had success before, so we headed to that section of the lake and started looking over the Navionics map for what we thought was good bottom contour for walleyes. What an amazing tool that mapping system is. We were able to locate some drop offs, and flats that looked good and were on the fish in no time.
We finished the day with a total of 26 walleyes and 2 perch, keeping 2 limits for eating. Our biggest three walleyes were 18, 19, and 22". The packernut was the day's big winner with the 2 biggest fish of the day. We caught fish from 16-35 feet of water, pulling bottom walkers and smile blades, of course with slow death hooks and crawlers. .8 - 1.1 mph seemed to be the speed they wanted.
I sure wish I had remembered to plug in my boat after last weeks trip. We had located some nice fat fish and were catching them consistently when the batteries finally pooped out. I guess two fairly lengthy days of fishing on one charge is pretty good.
Truth be known, the two fish in this photo were caught by the Packernut. I didn't mind holding his fish for a photo since I provided him with such an excellent guide service. I can normally top him in numbers when we're pike fishing but he's a fish catching fool when it comes to walleyes. It must be that Wisconsin blood in him.

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