Fishin' Magician - Dave Graybill

July 1

Good news anglers. Sockeye fishing is open July 1, along with the fishing for summer run Chinook.

I remember one year when we were fishing below Wanapum on the first and were releasing incidental sockeye that we caught. We didn't know that we could have kept them, the announcement came out so late. Nice to know well in advance.

The upper Columbia and even the Okanogan to the first bridge is open-except-from Wells Dam to the Highway 173 Bridge in Brewster. This area will open to sockeye and Chinook fishing on July 16. This allows for fish headed up the Methow

The limit this year is six salmon, two of which may be adult Chinook and two may be adult sockeye. Remember guys, use barbless hooks and bait is allowed.

I was very pleased to see this announcement. I figured I would see it after the Columbia below Priest Rapids opened to sockeye fishing. So when you go through all your gear to get set up for salmon fishing, drag out the sockeye gear, too!

I will be fishing with Shane Magnuson on July 1, as usual, and will be sure to let you know where we went and what kind of success we had.

July 3

I had a great start to the summer run salmon season. I spent Monday morning with Shane Magnuson, Upper Columbia Guide Service, along with Audrey Kelly and TJ Hester, fishing below Wanapum Dam. I have spent many an opening day with Shane fishing right here, and we always have a blast.

The first two hours were very busy. We boated four sockeye and lost twice that number during that time. We also had four good king strikes and I landed a 20-pounder. A Super Bait Plug Cut behind a Pro Troll flasher did the job.

People were boating sockeye all around us and we saw a few kings being netted, too.

We quit very early, anticipating the hot weather that was forecast and headed for home. We stopped at Hooked on Toys on the way and weighed my fish. It weighed 19 pounds, 2 ounces by then and was only fourth on the list of big kings weighed in that morning.

Looks like we're in for some great fishing this summer. Lots of big kings and some nice sockeye to boot! It is just going to get better and better as more fish move into our area.

July 5

Eric Granstrom and I ran up to Banks Lake on Tuesday, to shoot a new Fishing TV Show about the bass fishing on the big impoundment. The forecast indicated that it was going to hit a hundred and six that day, so we got there early, very early.

We met Keith Jensen, of the Banks Lake Bass Fishing, at the Northrup boat ramp at 5 a.m. It was a great day to be on Banks. There was very little boat traffic and it was flat calm.

We started off fishing for largemouth along the edges of the weed beds near the Steamboat Rock State Park. We got a couple of nice largemouth while we casting Senkos, and then we hit a couple of the sloughs, and saw largemouth, but they were very spooky.

I got a very big smallmouth near Coulee Playland, and when we switched to a split shot rig and put a small drop shot style worm on the hook we really got the smallmouth. We got a double in Devils Lake on our first casts!

We could have caught fish all day long, but quit at 2, when temperatures were hitting a hundred. Bass fishing at Banks Lake is hot right now.