Every year I say I am going to get out of my rut. I want to get out on some lakes and rivers that I haven’t fished in years or haven’t been to at all. I got back out on Soda Lake last week and had a great time catching walleye. This week the same trio, James Lebow, Eric Harris and I traveled to Scooteney Reservoir, which is southeast of Othello. We started on the main lake, across from the boat ramp, but weren’t impressed. We knew there were several boats on the lake, but not where we were fishing. We ran through the channel that leads to another section of the reservoir. There was a boat that was making regular runs through the channel, so we fished beyond where it spilled into the lake. We immediately landed a double. We were marking fish and getting our baits stolen and landed a couple more fish. We had two fish that were 19 and 20 inches and two smaller fish, and then things changed. We were still getting our baits picked regularly, but they must have been all small perch. We never landed another walleye. It was fun while it lasted.
We got a couple of dandy walleye on Scooteney Reservoir, then the perch took over!