Tom Verschueren loves to fish Banks Lake with me. It’s such a scenic place and if often provides us with a memorable day of fishing. He loves to fish for smallmouth bass on Banks, but we wanted to dedicate some time to walleye fishing. I fished here with my daughter on Monday, and we only got three small keepers. Thursday was different. We drove the Smoker Craft to the Clay Banks or sand flats just below Steamboat Rock, deployed the Minn Kota and soon had a couple of the “just legal” walleye that have been common this season. Then we got a surprise. Tom landed a walleye that was 22 inches. Not long after we got a 19-incher. We couldn’t believe our luck—and then it got better. I landed a 25-inch walleye! We released this one and after a no-fish loop through the area, went smallmouth bass fishing. We started directly across the lake from the Million Dollar Mile boat launch and started casting Baby Brush Hogs to the sunken rock along the shore. We proceeded to catch and release over 30 smallmouth, including several 2- to 3-pounders. It was a great finish to our day.