This was a really fun week. A while back I told you about a guy finding the fly rod I lost while fishing the Deschutes River a couple of years ago. Well, he and his Dad traveled up here to meet up with me and go fishing for a couple of days.

Some of you have heard that Kevin Brown returned to me one of my most prized possessions—a fly rod made for me by the late Bill McGuire, a dear friend. I had left the rod at the takeout on the Deschutes River while fly fishing for steelhead a couple of seasons ago. All Kevin wanted, for the rod he found at the Goodwill Store in The Dalles, Oregon, was the fifty dollars he paid for it, and a chance to go fishing with me sometime. My wife and I visited him last month, got the rod, and gave him the money he paid for a rod that was priceless to me. Earlier this week I made good on my promise to take him fishing. He and his father Dan met me in Coulee Dam and we spent two days on the water. They are both avid anglers and it was fun showing off what our area has to offer. Neither of them had done any walleye fishing, so I took them to Banks Lake.

We trolled bottom bouncers for a couple of hours and caught a few fish. This was slow fishing and wanted to get more action. I decided to change tactics at about noon. Digging through my many plug boxes I picked out some of my favorite patterns of Flicker Shads and Rapalas and I went heavy on the crawfish models. This did the trick and our luck improved. We landed a total of a dozen nice walleye. We got a couple of small ones but most of them were from 16 to 20 inches. We talked about ways to prepare walleye for dinner and Kevin was even going to make walleye ceviche.

That was day one of a two-day trip. We had a good day catching walleye, and now for the second day of their visit I was going to take them to the net pens on Rufus Woods Reservoir. I had told them stories of big triploids and the possibility of catching some more walleye while we were at it. Of course, I was nervous. Whenever you tell people about how well you did when fishing anywhere on your last trip, Lady Luck will find a way to make you look bad.

However, my claims of great fishing on Rufus Woods proved to be true. I would have them drop their lines just below the pens and we would troll our walleye bottom bouncers baited with nightcrawlers downstream. We made maybe four passes and had our six triploids and two walleye in the cooler. They were very impressed with the fighting ability of the triploids and the size of the fish we caught. The smallest was over 4 pounds and the largest was over 6 pounds. This week’s photo is of Kevin and Dan Brown with our catch on Rufus Woods.

They loved the boat ride on Rufus Woods. We saw lots of deer coming down to the water, and plenty of eagles. We saw a big golden eagle up near the pens and on the way back saw a tree with five bald eagles watching us run by in the boat.

We were so excited that we ran back down to Banks and tried for more walleye. I took us to the same spot and ran the same plugs that had worked so well the day before. We trolled and trolled and tried different plugs without getting more than one walleye. That was a bust, but overall, the two days were a success.

Both Kevin and his Dad, Dan, were very experienced anglers and had great stories of fishing near Maupin, Oregon, where they lived for many years. It always amazes me that you can get together with strangers, and if fishing is part of your mutual experience, it is like getting together with old friends. We had a great time and I am invited to come down and have them show off the good fishing they have in their area. I plan to do so.

I am getting great reports of limits of sockeye being caught on the Brewster Pool and some summer run kings as well. The water over the dams isn’t coming in the fierce flows that made fishing difficult for anglers below Rocky Reach and Wells dams. Fishing is still good in these areas, but most anglers are heading up to Brewster. The recent hot weather has the thermal barrier in place off the mouth of the Okanogan River, so fishing is considered good to excellent.

I am one of many that are watching the counts over the Tumwater Dam on the Wenatchee River. As of last Friday, according to the reports you can see on DART (Data Access in Real Time) there were already 21,000 sockeye moving up the river toward Lake Wenatchee. That is really good news. We need 23,000 for escapement needs and if we get 25,000 or so we will have a season. That could happen this week. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement from the WDFW.

If you haven’t done so already, and have an interest in sockeye fishing, you should get my free E-Letter for Summer. It is dedicated to fishing for sockeye on the upper Columbia River and Lake Wenatchee. It has lots of tips on how to rig and maps of the areas that you can fish for sockeye. Like I say, it’s free. Just go to my website at www.fishingmagician.com and click on the banner at the top left hand side of the page. Add your name and e-mail address to the form and I will make sure you get a copy.

This is turning out to be a great summer. Not only are we getting a big return of sockeye, the summer runs are coming back in numbers much greater than forecasted. Add to that the good fishing for walleye on Banks Lake and the terrific fishing for triploids plus walleye on Rufus Woods and we have a summer to remember.

I hope you can get out and enjoy it, and I will look for you on the water!