“Dekes” Attract Walleye at Potholes Leave a reply
I'll keep this short and sweet folks. There's a net pen full of walleye decoys right next to the fishing pier at Mar Don Resort on Potholes Reservoir in Eastern Washington. Big walleye come to the pen every
night to make googly-eyes at the pen full of decoys, which are actually bonker-sized rainbows, in hopes that they can get their toothy lips around one of the tastey morsels. Moooohaha!
The Tractor Beam! When the net pens were constructed next to Mar Don Resort a few years back they had no idea just how well they would work to attract one of the Potholes top predators, the walleye. Or maybe they did, in which case we all owe them a debt of gratitude.
When I spoke to Levi Meseberg of Mar Don Resort back in January anglers had been busy catching walleye to well over ten pounds sitting in their lawn chairs on the resort pier casting rainbow pattern swim jigs around the net pens. I spoke with him again today and the pattern was much the same. The decoys seem to be working just fine.
"Some anglers over the weekend had several fish from 25 to 27 inches using the rainbow swim jigs off the resort pier at night. 27 inches put's that fish right around 7 1/2 pounds and we've been seeing fish somewhere around that range just about every night," says Meseberg.
Levi also reported limits of walleye coming out of the main part of the reservoir on the sand dune points near Crab Creek. "Some friends banged out limits of walleye over the weekend casting 1/2 ounce silver blade baits onto the sand flats in 25 to 30 feet of water in the Potholes. I also poked around a little and found some nice largemouth bass over the weekend, which is super early for the lake. The water temperature is at 44 degrees right now and I'd expect to see some walleye starting to move towards Crab Creek and Lind Coulee if this warm weather continues," explained Levi.
Walleye fishing has been excellent on the lake since ice-off and things will really heat up when the fish move into the creeks for pre-spawn sometime in March. When water temperatures get into the high-40's, generally sometime in mide to late March, it's go time for walleye. That could happen early this year, however, with the El Nino weather we've been experiencing here in Washington.
The next two months will generally provide the best walleye fishing of the year on Potholes Reservoir.
Anglers can retain 8 walleye per day over 12 inches on the lake and one walleye over 22 inches. Mar Don Resort charges $5 a night to fish off the resort pier (decoys included) or anglers can purchase a yearly pass for $100. Guests of the resort fish off the pier for free. For more information about fishing Potholes Reservoir contact Mar Don Resort at 800-416-2736 or log onto www.mardonresort.com.
Bruce Feagon with a fat walleye he nailed off the fishing pier at Mar Don.
