Banks Lake Camping

[tvh1882]

Planning a fishing trip to Banks Lake on the 24,25, 26,. I was planning to stay at the city park in Coulee City. Has anyone stayed there before? How was it? Would you recomend it or somewhere else on the South end? Never been there before so am open to suggestions.
Tom

[racfish]

There are good and better campgrounds on Banks. My favorite is Steamboat Rock. Showers.clean Bathrooms. fire pits and well maintained area. Just down the road to the left or right are two other campgrounds. I forget the names. My less expensive and You can drink, smoke, play music whatever. There are boat launches at both. Steamboat is a great launch. The other two are a bit more primitive launches.

[capnhook]

The advice given above is pretty right on. City Park in Coulee City is nice and clean but definitely open to the wind. Has a great launch facility and docks but the campsites aren't real close to the water. Steamboat Rock is very nice. Doubt you would get in there now without a reservation but maybe you would. I think traffic is low because of fuel prices. There are some primitive sites just down (up actually, north) the road from Steamboat that are nice. There is another primitive site with pit toilets and picnic tables and firepits just past the golf course. It has a launch with a dock. If you want more of a resort setting with sites right on the water, try Coulee Playland in Electric City. Great people there with a nice store and clean facilities.

[tvh1882]

Thanks for the advice guys. I made a trip over to Spokane last weekend and came back on HWY 2 just so I could get a look at the Coulee City Park. Looks adequate but as you said the campsites are not set up very well and not very close to the water. Also checked out the primitive sites over on the SW corner and found them lacking a little.I did check into Steamboat Rock and all sites were taken. Since I want to fish the South end of the lake I guess I'll camp at Coulee city at least the first night and see how it goes. I'll report on my weekend when I get home.
Tom

[capnhook]

tvh1882, just saw another post on here from someone who stayed at the Coulee City Park and their boat got robbed during the night. Took fishing poles and a tool box so be careful. I suggest you take a couple big rat traps with you and put them in places where a thief might stick his "sticky" fingers in your boat. If they get them broke a few times maybe they'll choose a different occupation! You gotta be a real low-life to steal period, but to steal a mans tools or fishing gear? Wow, thats really low....

[racfish]

With the economy as it is and jobs and work are still a lil scarce ,I'd put caution to the wind and not leave any gear including downriggers on a boat overnite anywhere.I usually take everything of value out of the boat while at campsites or hotel/motel parking lots. The primitive sites arent all that bad. The thing I didnt like were what was already stated about the pit toilets. Those were gross. One I went into had a wasp nest and it scared the bejeezus out of me. Im looking through my reciepts and paperwork looking for the name of the campsite right off that golfcourse. Other then the toilets it was nice.

[Gringo Pescador]

I suggest you take a couple big rat traps with you and put them in places where a thief might stick his "sticky" fingers in your boat.

Capn' I like the way you think!

[racfish]

Actually I think you can get in trouble for doing that. If someone got hurt trying to steal stuff from your boat I believe they can turnaround and sue you.Ridiculous as it seems. Remember this is Wa State where anything can happen.That is a good idea capn.

[capnhook]

racfish, this is one of those instances where I would have to just laugh and say "go right ahead and sue me". I can see and hear it now! " Please tell the court how you got your fingers broken." (Thief)"Well your honor, I was down on the docks around 2 in the morning, you know, just looking around, minding my own business when I spied a really nice looking tackle box in this boat." (Defender) "Was it your boat?" (Thief) "Well,,,, not exactly, but I thought I knew the person who owned it,,,, so I was gonna help myself to some tackle when all of sudden, SNAP, I got caught in a rat trap and broke my fingers." (Defender) "capnhook, you have anything you'd like to say in your defense?" (me)"Yes, your honor, hundreds of Norway rats at my house, HUNDREDS of them." "I got tired of them chewing the cork butts off my fishing rods so I put rat traps in there." "Guess they work real good for all kinds of rodent problems."
Lots of "occupations" carry some sort of hazard. If you choose to be a thief you have to expect to suffer any consequences that go along with the job. Broken fingers would be a small price to pay if you got caught in the wrong boat by the wrong person!

[racfish]

Capn ,You cracked me up. I do similar things. I have trip wires throughout my property.If you think youre gonna run through my yard at night better think twice.Hahaha. I put up "Posted No Tresspassing signs which makes me not respondsible for others injuring themselves. Good luck everyone. Have a good safe happy fourth.

[tvh1882]

Once again "Thanks All" for the good advise. I got home late last night from a good weekend.
The Campground turned out to be acceptable. We were tenting and the tent sites were in nice grassy areas with tables and fire pits and not crowded. I am used to sleeping on a sand dune on Potholes with no facilities at all so this was good.
The boat launch was very nice and protected from the wind which was blowing pretty good out on the lake. There was overnite moorage available on a first-come first-serve basis so we elected to leave the boat in the water each night. We had heard about the thievery problem so removed everything of value to the campsite or vehicle.
Didn't hear of anyone haveing anything stolen while we were there.
The campground was crowded on the weekend and emptied out pretty good on Sunday evening.
There was no sign of any camp employees around during the weekend. Bathrooms got real messy and all the garbage cans were full to overflowing, until the gulls got into them and spread the garbage around. I think with one employee working on the weekend to keep things a little cleaner Coulee City Park could be real nice.
I guess no report would be complete without a little fishing report so I'll include that. We fished Friday evening, almost all day Sat. and Sun. and 3 hours on Monday morning for Walleyes and only caught 2. We talked to other people who were catching more fish than we were but most said it was pretty slow. I think our main problem was not haveing been on the lake before and not knowing what methods to use and where exactly to fish. We met people who were very helpful with advise but we just didn't seem to be able to put it together. We decided to look at this trip as a learning experience and look forward to doing better next time.
One thing we did learn and would like to pass on the any newbies on this lake. It is a very uneven bottom, there are underwater hazards in the form on rock islands all over the place so go easy and watch your depth very carefully.

[racfish]

I busted a blade off my prop there. It wasnt damaged beyond use but its easy to hit stuff there like most dam resovoir lake. Lake kaceless is the same and so is Baker. Stump heaven.Banks lake is most areas used to be huge forests that were filled in with water. I carry extra prop ,extra plug,and pins. I know it sounds over paranoid ,but better safe then sorry.
Osbourne Campground is the name of the campsite I use. The bathrooms can be a tad scarey.

[tvh1882]

Scary bathrooms are pretty much the norm in any rough campsites. I think I'll give Osbourne a look next time I get over there. Thanks.

[racfish]

Hehehehe... When you gotto go even a dirty head is better then no head. Just dont drop your glasses or belongings in the pit.

[CanoeingIt]

I will be staying at the Sun Banks Resort this weekend. Can anyone tell me about
the fishing up at the north end of the lake. We will most likely be limited to fishing from shore.

Thnx

[fishingboy]

I'm headed to banks on Sunday and were staying at Coulee Playland Resort on the north end. I say its good fishing there..... but with the draw down of the lake happening somewhat now..... I believe the North end is best if your fishing, at the end of the month. Coulee Playland has a resort store for fishing, camping, food clothes and such. And clean bathrooms!

[CanoeingIt]

Sun Banks Resort- Our "premium" tent sight was suppose to be water front. Was more like mud front...the mosquitoes were so bad. I had never experienced anything like it. To top it off I had to get up and midnight and ask my neighbors to stop yelling profanities at the top of there lungs. Was big disappoinment. Ended up not dropping a line in banks lake. Along the highway there were some tempting spots but we bailed and headed to Moses Lake for the rest of the weekend. Stayed a nice hotel and took the kids to the water park. Before we left we did find a dock to fish from. One of the boys on out trip caught a perch and we saw some big carp but they were not interested in soft plastics