Before I get into my fishing trip in June on Banks I need to tell you about a trip I did on the end of March. I went out and cranked for bass in the usual places I catch them this time of year and man, you Trout fisherman, would have gone NUTS!. I caught so many 3-6 lb trout, not even trying for them. The HOT cranks for them seemed to be with orange bellys. Anything with an orange belly worked. This lake has turned into a phenom type lake for slimeoids, as I call them! It's getting better EVERY year. So you slimeoid fisherman need to get out there early next spring and have a ball!
Now back to my June trip! It was a lot of fun! The largest fish I caught was 5 lbs. It was the largest smallmouth I've caught here in years. Jerk baits and cranks were my clients best tickets for the smallys and spinnerbaits for the largemouth. I wish I could have fished in the BASS Federation Tourney the following week but my 50th B-Day fell on that weekend and Momma had some surprises in store for me. Oh well, next year! As for larger fish, I spent a few days on Lk. Roosevelt and man, was it HOT a couple days. 6 Fish from 3-4 lb. range were caught in 1/2 hour over a couple spots using jerk baits and Senkos. Those along with the dinks in Roosevelt. I never thought I'd do this but I recommend this to all of us bass fisherman- Keep and Eat those legal sized Small Smallmouth both on Banks and Roosevelt. Banks Needs those dinks weeded out and Roosevelt, well, I'm not sure if we can ever weed out ALL those dinks there. They sure are tasty on the fryin pan! Never thought I'd say that but there it is.
I took a couple clients out for walleye at Banks. In the past 10 years, up until last year I had NO trouble whatsoever getting a nice limit of walleye. But starting last year and this year of course, IT IS TOUGH! If you remember 8 years ago our stupid state killed all the weeds by lowering down the lake. Well, after talking with Banks Biologist that's why we have so many dink walleye and not enough keepers. Oh sure, you can get lucky and run into some but believe me, fishing is NOTHING like it used to be here. Our Biologist said " give it 2-3 more years and it will start to get good again!" I miss our excellent crappy fishery we used to have here also. Wish that would come back. Anyway, I'm not taking clients here for walleye until it does come back. Go to Potholes for the "Eyes" Good Luck to all of you out there and come fish with me sometime! Mike Carney Mikey's Bassin Adventures

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