photo says 2002? walleye derby in the spring on banks is coming soon check and see results from it at big wallys on south end.

I believe what dgs is saying is that he has caught big Wallys at Banks in the past, such as this bad boy, but here recently fishing has gone bad. I would have to agree with that statement with a footnote. I believe that with the added population and with it more pressure on the fish we will continue to see declines in most fisheries around the state and the world for that matter. Of course some years will be better then others but a overall decline in my opinion. We can all do our part by catching what we need to eat and releasing the rest. Packing out trash and keeping the waters clean etc...just my two cents. And who knows the state of our gov and where our sportsmen fees end up-

I'm afraid that very little of the fees collected from sportsmen in this state go back to enhancement,or habitat or anything else that would benefit the sportsmen.

The draw down did screw up the lake. In 2011 when the water was down we nailed fish left and right, I mean it wasn't even fair. But this past year it was dead, all we saw were schools of fry. So maybe in the years to come it'll get back to normal, nice fish!

Roosevelt and banks both suffered from the draw down but the repiars on the dam where needed it had been over forty years since maintenance on the turbins and the magnetos had been tru to center causeing massive failure if not had been trued up again!

Same thing happened to the bass in the early 70's. They drew it down and huge egg clusters were everywhere on the brush. The Lake never did recover the largemouth population it had before that. We used to pull many fish per day over 6lbs and it was considered a poor fishing day if you didn't get one over 7. I was amazed that the removal of one year class could pretty much nuke a fishery like that. I'm sure there were other factors, but that was the most observable one. They also removed a lot of spawning habitat about then as well, around Steamboat anyway. I've got old pix with unbelievable stringers from back then. More appropriate in the forum area though, I think??

Last year for bass on banks was horrible. I figured it was the draw down. I hope this year is better. Love banks. @fishinChristian Would love to see those pics! I wish I could find a pic of the 11lber state record large mouth bass caught on banks in 78 I believe.

Largemouth bass
Micropterus salmoides 11.57 lbs Carl Pruitt Banks Lake, Grant County April 9, 1977

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/records/search.php?View=fresh

"I'm afraid that very little of the fees collected from sportsmen in this state go back to enhancement,or habitat or anything else that would benefit the sportsmen." I would like to see the report where our money are going!

"I'm afraid that very little of the fees collected from sportsmen in this state go back to enhancement,or habitat or anything else that would benefit the sportsmen." I would like to see the report where our money are going!