I had heard some good reports on fishing on Banks Lake, so I talked my two long-time fishing buddies, Brian Nielson and James Lebow, into giving it a try last Tuesday. We put the Smoker Craft in the water at Northrup, where the docks are already installed. We fired over to the big rock island just past Steamboat and tried out luck fishing in 50 feet and even deeper water. We did mark some fish but no takers. We gave up on the deep idea and ran over to Barker Flats and trolled our bottom bouncers with a variety of attractors in 30 feet of water. We were marking a bunch of fish and finally landed a 16-ncher—just right for the pan. We pounded this area with a few more passes before fishing the far side, without success. The water temperature is hovering just over 40 degrees and we know fishing will get much better when the water warms a bit. I learned that the water was warm enough for some anglers to have success on Moses Lake at a recent bass tournament. It took 18 pounds of bass to take first place. Sounds like it’s game on for bass fishing on Moses Lake!