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Potholes Reservoir Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The seep-lake sea: sand dunes drowned in irrigation water, walleye in the stumps and a desert fishery with Everglades looks.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
60 / 63 F
Wind
NNW 17 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Potholes Reservoir rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. Today brings clear skies, wind NNW around 17 mph, steady pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 63. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:35 AM-11:35 AM and 10:06 PM-12:06 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

White bassFair

The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

CrappieFair

Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

Tomorrow: Similar at 60 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Washington requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $39.95 for residents. What a Washington licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with WDFW before you keep anything. The season dates for Washington, read off the agency, are on the Washington seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp60 F
High / Low63 / 42 F
WindNNW 17-28 mph
Pressure1020.2 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 4%
Sunrise / Sunset07:27 / 17:55
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Potholes Reservoir this week

The best day on Potholes Reservoir this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:35 AM-11:35 AM and 10:06 PM-12:06 AM
Minor period
4:01 AM-5:01 AM
Sun
07:27 to 17:55
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 19 mph
Rain chance
4%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Potholes Reservoir: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

White bass illustration

White bass

Best: the spring run up the tributaries, then summer surface schools

A silvery temperate bass of rivers and large reservoirs, also called sand bass, that schools in open water after shad and runs up tributaries to spawn in early spring. The spring run happens in this band: tributaries, shoals and the upper ends of reservoirs as the water reaches about 55Β°F.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Pre-spawn fish move toward shallow coves, and Iowa DNR points to wading as an effective way to reach them in spring; minnows or small jigs under a float.

When to come: the Potholes Reservoir calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
White bass
Northern pike
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Potholes Reservoir today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Walleye led the card at excellent. High of 60 F, wind to 11 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 64 F, wind to 9 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 69 F, wind to 8 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Washington requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Washington license. Walleye: district rules with size structure: check WDFW. Drawdown shifts ramps late season.

Access

MarDon Resort, Potholes SP, Glen Williams ramps; dunes access by boat.

About this water

28,000 irrigation acres, Grant County, WA. The Columbia Basin's dune-maze fishery.

Fishing Potholes Reservoir: the full guide

The dune maze

Potholes floods the Columbia Basin's dunes: the north end braids into hundreds of sandy islands and channels (the famous 'dunes': a freshwater Everglades in desert Washington), while the open south basin runs deep and structured. Irrigation drawdown reshapes it yearly: the fishery thrives on the churn.

Walleye doctrine

The basin's walleye program ranks with Washington's best: spring jigs on the face of the dunes, summer bottom-bouncers along Crab Creek's channel and the Lind Coulee arm, fall blade baits on the rocky humps. Stained-enough water keeps daytime honest: limits of 15-19-inch fish anchor the year, with 10-pounders in the mix.

The everything else

Largemouth and smallmouth stack the dune pockets and riprap (a two-bass fishery of underrated quality), crappie school the flooded willows in spring (MarDon's docks glow at night for them), perch fill winter buckets, and the channel cats run the creek arms all summer. Few waters feed this many programs at once.

Basin practicalities

MarDon Resort anchors the south end (ramps, tackle, the honest board): the state park adds access: and the dunes demand navigation humility: sandbars move yearly and props find them. Wind owns afternoons: the dune channels shelter what the basin exposes.

Common questions

What are the dunes at Potholes?

The flooded sand hills of the north end: a maze of islands and channels holding bass, crappie and cruising walleye. Navigate slow: the sand moves every year.

When is walleye fishing best at Potholes?

April-May on the dune faces and September-October on the humps: summer trolling holds steady between. MarDon's board tells the week straight.

Is fishing good at Potholes Reservoir right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Moses Lake8 miYakima River52 miBanks Lake56 miIcicle Creek76 miRufus Woods Lake77 miLake Chelan78 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 47.0000, -119.3170 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.