Looks like we are going to get a brief pause in the hot weather we’ve had lately, heading into next week. I enjoyed a great day of fishing for smallmouth bass on Banks Lake on a hot day last week. Smallmouth bass fishing is very good on many lakes in the region, and I had a particularly good time, as my daughter Whitney came over to join me on Fathers Day Weekend.

One of my daughter’s favorite places to fish with me is Banks Lake. She loves the dramatic scenery, with Steamboat Rock and the basalt columns on the hill sides, and catching smallmouth bass is a real thrill. I also make sure to take the time to let her cool off with a swim in one of the small protected bays down lake from Barker Flats.

I usually put the boat in at the launch at Northrup Creek, but I was in a hurry so we put the boat in at what I call the mid lake ramp, which is just down the hill from the Million Dollar Mile. There is no dock or concrete pad here, but I had no problem putting my Kingfisher 2025 Discovery in the water. The launch bay is shallow and narrow, so take it slow as you move out onto the main lake. I also wanted to use this launch as it put us near an area that I wanted to fish, which is a boulder field above the land mark known as “Rose Bush”.

We both started with the 4-inch chartreuse green pumpkin lizard, rigged Texas style, which means I placed a small bullet weight right on the head of the hook. ?These are rigged weedless, so they don’t hang up very often. We cast these into the boulders that are scattered along the shore here. We were getting bites right away, and each landed fish on these rigs. I decided to try a crank bait, although risky with all the rocks, and caught a nice fish on a perch pattern Shad Rap.

We then bounced across the lake to the Haystack rock and went to work again, Whitney casting the lizard and I switching from the lizard to a crank bait. We worked our way up the shore here, and I was catching fish regularly. It was getting very hot, with little wind, so I ran to our favorite “swimming hole” on Banks so Whitney could take a swim and cool off. While she was swimming, I used the bow mount to move around the small bay and caught fish on a lizard.

We worked our way back down the lake along the shore outside the bay. At one point Whitney had an issue with her reel, and asked me to check it out. The reel handle had worked loose, and after I tightened it down I made a cast with her rod just to see if everything was working right, and her lizard was inhaled as soon as it hit the water, and I reeled in a nice smallmouth. She couldn’t believe it. She had been casting the same lure for an hour without a bite. Go figure.

We were running short on time by now, and I wanted another shot at that boulder field. This time I set both of us up with crank baits and they worked great. Whitney caught her first smallmouth on a fire tiger pattern plug, and I got several on the green fire tiger and a crawdad pattern plug. I was a proud papa. Whitney did a great job fish that day. She rarely hung up, was casting like a pro, and truly enjoyed the day of fishing. I was so happy that she made the trip over from Seattle to spend the day with me.

The folks at Hooked on Toys have some big things planned for the coming weekend. They have made special arrangements with the Wenatchee Rifle and Revolver Club to have it open to the public on Saturday, June 22nd, so they can come out and test fire rifles from Savage Arms. The rifles will be fitted with optics from Nikon. Each shooter can choose from several calibers and styles of rifles and for a small fee for the ammo get to shoot them. They have also arranged to have Olympic Gold Medal winner Jamie Lynn Gray come to the store! People will get a chance to meet this outstanding shooter, actually see her medal, and maybe get some tips on how to improve their shooting. Stop by the store to learn more about all the special things they have planned for the weekend or give them a call at 509-663-0740.

I plan to be at Hooked on Toys myself this weekend, and if you spot me come up and say hi. I should have some good current information for you on a couple of different fisheries. Eric Granstrom will be bringing the video gear along for a trip I have set up for Thursday with Keith Jensen on Banks Lake. Jensen will be showing us the techniques he uses to catch largemouth bass and we will be capturing it all for an upcoming Fishing TV Show. On Friday Granstrom and I will be meeting Justin Moser to try fishing for sturgeon on the Columbia River. I have fished for sturgeon here and people don’t realize how good this catch and release fishery is, and so close to home. You’ll want to watch the finished TV Show on my web site to see how great it is!