We stayed at the state park at Steamboat Rock Sunday night through Wednesday morning. Spent Monday and Tuesday on Banks lake fishing. I would have to say that overall it was a 3. It was the first time that I have fished the lake so there was a lot of learning to do. If anyone is thinking of learning to fish this lake, let me first say that it is huge. I was on the water for about 10 hours each day and only fished 6 different spots. Most fish were caught on worm harnesses with two poles in the water

Before I get into the fishing, let me first say that the weather on Sunday night was crazy. It was 95 degrees when we got to the park and were setting up the tent. Then the thunder and lightning started at 900 pm. Then the wind came up. If I had to guess I would say that we got gust to 50 mph. Then a tent pole broke during a huge gust, which was followed by the rain.

We got up Monday morning and it was still raining, had breakfast and got to it. Launched the boat at the state park launch and on a tip started trolling the bay across from the launch. We picked up three fish right away, two dink walleye and a huge football shaped perch. Fish were caught with worm harnesses

After lunch we fished the north east side of Steamboat Rock. Picked up 4 more walleye, 3 dinks and 1 decent fish, and a dozen perch. We drifted micro jigs tipped with worm for the perch and pulled worm harnesses for the walleye, however one walleye was caught on the micro jig/worm combo.

Tusesday morning we were back at it, but fishing was slower than Monday. No walley or perch but a bunch of smallmouth. Nothing to brag about but enough to keep us interested. Tuesday was spent fishing the shoreline north of Steamboat Rock.

Some thing to know before you go to Banks for the first time. If you are going after the smallmouth you need to know how to fish a vertical drop, whether it is basalt wall that goes from the surface to 40 feet plus, of a rock that is 5 feet under the surface that drops off 30 or 40 feet. I have never fished anything like this so I am still trying to figure it out. Also most of the bottom that I found was sand/mud execp for one small spot of gently sloping larger sized rocks, caught a lot of smallmouth there.

Overall we had a good time and the camp ground was pretty nice. The mosquito control program that they have in place seemed to be working, not 100% by any means but better than nothing. I think next time I wil try the south end of the lake. Also, I picked up one of those underwater cameras in the bargin cave at cabelas in Boise for $35. It was kinda cool to look down there. Scuba is better but if you can't this will work, but I don't know that I would pay full price for it.