Rufus Woods

[clawman]

I would like to fish Rufus Woods for walleye for the first time. I have been watching to levels of Roosevelt and it appears they have stabilized the level as of 5/5 so I would expect Roosevelt to begin filling in the near future.
What will the decrease in flow do to the fishing on Rufus Woods?

[clawman]

Any reports from Rufus Woods? Now that the flows out of Grand Coulee are dropping is it fishable?

[Bodofish]

I'm not a wally guy, well not yet anyways..... I've fished Rufus quite a bit and all the wally action I've witnessed was between the Elmer launch off the Spirit Ridge Road and Grand Coulee. I've seen them fishing when the dam was just gushing water! It takes a bow mount with a lot of power to drift past the rock piles they hide behind. Most of the guys were using bass or small open boats with very high power bow mounts (80-100ish pound), and the guy's we ended up lunching with were using the minnkota gps steered one, I-Pilot I think. I guess the walleye's like the fast water, I know they live in still water too but I've never seen them fished for in the slack on Rufus. I've also seen people fishing for them off the rock walls and basalt spires out in the middle on the way to the upper pens. Seen them fished for, never seen any caught there.
Nope that helps some. Have you fished for Wally's there?

[eat-sleep-fish]

I have fished for them at Rufus and occasionally have done well. Best producer was a spinner/worm harness fished just of the bottom hitting current seams trolling with the current. We also would troll upstream in the larger eddies. Dad and I hit it this last Saturday and only found one walleye, about a 4 pounder. He was subdued by a 4" jointed perch Rapala in about 20 feet of water. We were downstream from the island that is downriver of the Seaton Grove launch. Hope you find them! Smoked up the trout we caught and they were excellent!

[Bodofish]

Hahahaha, I know the spot, Goose Island. There are some rather large basalt spires around there, under water. It's fun when there's just enough water to run the back side. It's a very good game spotting area early in the AM.

[eat-sleep-fish]

Funny you mention rocks Bodofish. We were above the island trolling downstream when we came to an abrupt stop. I look over the side and we are high centered on a rock, scared the heck out of me. Not sure how it missed the bow mount electric but it did. Dad and I walked to the bow and rocked back and forth and drifted free in a short time. The depth went from 40 feet to 1-1/2 feet and back to 40 in a span of 5 feet. I knew the rock was in the area but thought we outside of it. Lots of Bambi's also, nice area with the exception of the boulders.

[Bodofish]

Yep, lots of those basalt spires just under the surface