Fred Lillian has traveled with my wife Eileen and I as part of our group fishing adventures to Belize, Loreto and La Paz Mexico. On Monday he traveled over the mountains to fish Banks Lake with us. He had never caught a walleye or a smallmouth bass, and I knew he would enjoy a day on Banks. We tried for walleye in Devils Punchbowl, and we lost a few baits and landed a small walleye trolling Slow Death Hook rigs and Dutch Fork Lures blades. We then ran over to Barker Flats. Trolling the same rigs all I we got was nightcrawlers chomped off just below our hooks. We took a lunch break and I switched from walleye gear to smallmouth bass fishing set ups. To say that Fred took to smallmouth fishing like a veteran is an understatement. Casting a small cinnamon brown Senko with a small bullet weight and wide gap hook to the rocky shoreline, he was very busy. He was getting so many that Eileen decided to break out the counter to keep track. The first goal was to get his wedding anniversary number—38. He passed that so the next goal was his age, which was 57, and he easily hit that mark. Smallmouth fishing is nothing less than terrific at Banks right now.