pdxfisher

Some wind definitely helps the bite. The 5lb smallie I caught the week before bit after the wind came up to a brisk 15mph or so. It is just challenging to be fishing in waves that are several feet high when the fish are in 20-25' of water and in the river current.

I have seen videos of folks bank fishing around cascade locks. Lots of deep rip rap. I have not fished there but I think it solves the weed problem. The weeds are definitely super thick right now! She is harsh and fickle! At least she gave me a push back to the ramp this last trip Ha ha, I actually have to pay you to join my fan club. There is something exhilarating about being out there in the middle of that mess and actually catching some bass!

There is a saying "There are liars, d**n liars and statisticians". Well way below that are the folks predicting the wind I was really stoked to fish on the Sunday (the 1st) because the wind forecast looked good and had been looking good for several days. That is just the thing they do to lure you into the gorge and like a dumb monkey I can't resist that juicy banana and I fall right into their trap. I got to the water around first light and was surprised that there was an East wind to start the day. Everything I had seen for days was indicating next to no wind until late in the afternoon. I was not too concerned since sometimes there is an East wind first thing in the morning that quickly dies off. Well, this one had a little bit of legs to it. It was not a fierce wind but even a 10mph East wind starts to create pretty good sized waves around Stevenson. So that is how the day started. Fishing in rolling East wind driven waves. The wind would die briefly before picking up and becoming greater than 20mph by the afternoon. Some of the gusts that hit me broadside definitely had me feeling that if I did not lean into them I was going to be tipping over. Just got kind of brutal. I think it really came down to the wind gods being angry that I teased @ol'crickety about not fishing in 10mph winds. I formally apologize from the bottom of my kayak Well enough of my whining, lets get to the fishing report. It was a tough day for me. I ended up only catching 14 bass while probably pedaling close to 10 miles during the day. My best fish were a few 2+lb fish and nothing was even close to scaring 3lbs. I can't report any lengths since I did not my measuring board over the side while untangling my spinning rod from my camera battery wire. I watched it gracefully sink to oblivion while I had both hands full and was turned around backwards in my kayak. Yes, quite a day I started out throwing topwater and had a series of blowups that I missed before finally getting one to stick on the walking bait. I was almost relieved once they stopped biting that thing since I could put it down and stop missing fish. After that I headed East since I like to go in the direction of the wind. That way if things get worse the wind and waves are pushing me back to the ramp. I mostly focused on fishing rock in 10-25' of water since that had ended up being the ticket the previous week. There were fish to be caught but I had a hard time finding quality. The wobblehead with Zoom speed craw was what I threw the most during the course of the day. When there are good sized waves it is the easiest deepwater bait to keep contact with. I did switch from a 1/4oz to 1/2oz part way through the morning and that helped a lot. I like the 1/4oz when I can get away with it but man that extra weight is really necessary on the days the wind is constantly spinning me around. Eventually when I was on a spot about 1.5 miles East of the ramp the wind shifted around (pretty quickly) and started blowing out of the West. i decided at that point that I did not want to have another really long slog into the wind late in the day so I bailed on fishing East and headed back past the ramp and further West. Just to be spiteful as soon as I got past the ramp the wind just completely died. I think it was just trying to lure me back East but at least this time I was smart enough not to take the bait I spend the rest of the day working further and further West. So many of the spots that normally hold at least some fish (and often a lot of fish) seemed barren. I struggled with controlling the the kayak in the wind and current and I don't think I was being as effective as I usually am. I think that was part of it but I also think the bite was just rather tough. For most of the day I was scratching out a fish here and a fish there on the wobblehead but eventually I did manage to catch some fish on a drop shot, including 3 on back-to-back-to-back casts. That was really shocking since most of the day was so incredibly slow. I thought I was finally going to really rack up some good numbers but just as quickly as it started the bite on that spot stopped. I eventually worked myself about 2.5 miles West of the ramp. By then the wind was truly blasting. I still manged 3 or 4 bass on the wobblehead from that last area in those conditions. I was actually amazed I was able to catch anything sine most of my concentration was focused on staying upright in the wind. That area has a fair bit more current since the river narrows down there but even with the faster current the wind would blow me upstream at 2mph if I did not fight against it. So, in the end I just looked at the day as being a heck of workout. It was fun pedaling back to the ramp at the end with the wind at my back. The wind was blowing waves upstream way faster than I could pedal and they would pick me up and jet me forware. I would watch my speed go from 3.5mph to 4.5mph each time it happened. Way better than pedaling into the teeth of that stuff! Anyway here are a few pics and some video from the day. (The final annoyance was all the bouncing around disconnected my camera from the battery multiple times during the day so I ended up missing a handful of fish on video). Still, even with all the challenges I was thankful and happy that I could be out on the water! My one spinnerbait fish! Action shot, you can see the wobblehead hanging out of its mouth

Alewife sound like an awesome prey base. I can't wait for that next report!

Great report and pictures! I love a walking bait except that I miss so many fish with it. Probably if they had mouths the size of the ones you caught I wouldn't have that problem!

Thanks! I really appreciate your kind words! I feel that same way about you and your reports. You always figure them out and you fish a lot! The photos you post are always so serene and beautiful. Always excited when I see you have posted a new report.

The kayak definitely benefits from the low sides and with the rudder and the fins from the drive has pretty good bite in the water. I have fished out of a canoe some in my younger days and even a light wind is tough to manage! Plus my kayak being a sit-on-top is basically a sealed float so when water breaks over the bow it just drains through the drive hole and the scuppers. I see a few canoes out here on the Willamette (where wind is not nearly as bad). I don't think I have ever seen a canoe on the Columbia (for good reason). When I was first deciding on what kind of fishing boat to get I was torn between a pontoon (1-person) or the kayak. Those pontoons are super sails in the wind. They can go down whitewater which is something I can't do in my kayak but they are almost useless on a windy day. I am really glad every trip out I made the right decision way back then

That is true forward facing sonar! Beautiful pictures!!

10mph is a good day out here but when it is in the 20s I start to doubt my life choices I liked your analogy of having to constantly re-crack the code of a changing combination!

I hate that feeling of racing against the clock while fishing. That always makes it hard for me to enjoy my time on the water. Glad you were able to make a good trip out of it with that limited amount of time! I hope your family realizes the sacrifice you were making to be with them

I agree with @A-Jay and @TnRiver46 that wind prediction is not super accurate. Still, what else can you do but check a bunch of sites and try and form an opinion. Here is my list: https://www.windy.com: In the bottom right of the page you can pick from different weather models. I look at them all. I don't think the default is the most accurate for the gorge. I think that often HRRR 3km and HRDPS 2.5km are more accurate. Both of those models only predict a few days out. https://www.windfinder.com/weatherforecast/columbia_river_stevenson: I don't trust the regular wind forecast but there is a superforecast button (link should take you right there). Clicking that gives a different (seemingly much more accurate) forecast. It is only goes 2 days out but seems relatively accurate. The best site is https://thegorgeismygym.com/forecast/ : This person looks at all the wind forecasts and makes an assessment based on those and the pressure differentials at the ends of the gorge. I subscribe to their daily forecast and even shoot them a donation each year because I appreciate their efforts so much! Then of course I always sacrifice a live goat to the wind gods before I go out

There is good fishing close to the ramp, but I usually end up a mile or two (but occasionally as much as 5 miles) from the ramp by the end of the day. Normal summer wind pattern is calm in the morning and then a rising crescendo of West wind as the day goes on. Not every day is like that but that is most common. I do check every wind app known to man before I head out

Thanks! I also like reading everyone's reports but there are some folks (like you) whose reports are always near and dear to my heart. I think I spent all my luck on that fish, I guess I won't be getting a kidney any time soon I am really fortunate to get to live near such a bountiful and lightly used fishery. I remember how incredibly busy the lakes were on the weekend in NC. When I am fishing out here I can often see miles up and down the river without seeing another boat - although once the wind kicks up I do see a zillion kite surfers

I was really surprised and excited by that fish. Hopefully some day I can catch one of those 7s I see you post on here. If that ever happens I will be insufferable

For a summer fish that is about what I would expect. My PB in weight (caught in the spring) was 1/2" shorter but 14oz heavier. Overall the fish out here have two shapes. A stickier shape and a thinner shape. The 19.25" that only weighed 3lb 1oz was definitely of the skinnier shape. Not even exactly fatness but rather how tall they are belly to back and tail size.

Hit the Columbia on Sunday the 25th and I caught a beast of a smallmouth. At 21.75" it was the longest smallmouth I have caught and it tipped the scales at 5lbs even (well short of my heaviest which was a 5lb 14oz bass from 2023). That was definitely the best summertime smallmouth I have ever caught. It really turned a somewhat mediocre day into a great one!! I got the the river around daybreak and the wind was calm and forecast to be light out of the West all day long (that turned out to be a lie) so I decided to head East for the first time this year. I was a little nervous about that decision since I don't know that part of the river very well since it is not often that it is fun to fish from the kayak. The other things that gave me were different for this trip is that the shad smolt are out-migrating and it looked like it was raining there were so many dimpling and the river was probably up a foot or two from anything I had seen this summer. I thought the shad smolt would be there but I was surprised by the water height. I dd hit the point by the ramp to start the day and promptly missed a couple of topwater bites and caught a smallish fish. I then headed East and picked up a small smallmouth just upstream from the ramp. I was starting to feel like this was not going to be the greatest of days. I headed upstream to a point I have done well on in the past but only managed two bass off of it. One was decent (2lb 4oz) and the other was a little over a pound. After fishing that point I gave serious consideration to turning around and heading West but for whatever reason I decided to keep going East. The next couple of spots each produced a handful of fish. Mostly dinks but with a couple of decent ones thrown in. Overall it was a grind with a lot of work going into every fish I was catching. The fish were in 15-25' of water and it was a lot of slow and tedious probing for each bite that I got. I was rotating between a Ned rig, drop shot and wobblehead jig and each produced some fish. By noon I only had 11 bass, about one every half hour. Definitely not lighting it up. I had two bass that were over 16" and a lot of the rest were dinks. Several spots that normally produce were completely empty and I kept thinking I had made a mistake in heading East. I had not given up hope completely since I had not yet reached my favorite spot but I definitely was just hoping to catch at least a few fish off my favorite spot. By the time I made it to the spot the wind was starting to pick up which I was hoping would stimulate the bite. I started carefully probing the spot and it was crickets. I was starting to really feel bad about the day at that point. I stopped to eat my cherries and think. I said to myself, "There have to be fish on this spot". I realized that the wind was making it hard to control my kayak so all my fishing a bit haphazard. I decided to extremely carefully re-probe the spot making sure every cast had a purpose in sifting the water. Since the wind was making it hard to fish I decided to make the wobblehead+Zoom speed craw my primary weapon. It gets to the bottom quickly and is pretty easy to fish effectively with even in the wind. After a bit of careful probing I found a section of that spot that was holding fish and quickly caught a few nice bass and big (3lb) pikieminnow on the wobblehead. I switched to the drop shot for a bit but realized I was having a hard time keeping contact with the bottom. After a bit I realized I should mostly keep the wobblehead in my hand. Three casts later I felt a thump and then no weight at all. I reeled in quickly and when I caught up to the fish I slammed the hook home. It was one of those beautiful moments where you rear back on the hookset and it feels like the tip of the rod does not move an inch - oh yeah, this is a big one! The fish fought hard but I was able to get it to the surface pretty quickly. When I saw that fish I almost lost my mind. Fortuneately I was able to keep my wits about me and keep good pressure on that fish. I was not going to make a stupid mistake on this one! As I went to scoop it with the net it made a thrashing jump and sort of bounced off the side of the kayak. I was able to scoop it up on the rebound and the beast was mine!! Just a beautifully healthy 5lb 0oz, 21.17" piggy. I stopped fishing for a few minutes after this and texted that picture on the board to a handful of friends and my family. A somewhat mediocre day just became epic! When I got back to fishing the bit just kept getting better and better. To try to keep them biting I switched up to a Ned rig for a bit and picked up a 19.25" 3lb 1oz bass. Then it was back to the wobblehead and I picked up a couple more decent ones and then a 17.5" 2lb 13oz fish. For most of the day I could not find a decent fish and now the small ones I was cathing were as nice as my best fish from earlier. I am not sure if the bite just turned on or if my careful probing is what made the difference and I don't care I ended the day with 20 bass and the 1 pikieminnow. My best 5 went 91.25" (21.75, 19.25, 17.5, 16.5, 16.26) and weighed 15lb 1oz (5lb, 3lb 1oz, 2lb 13oz, 2lb 4oz, 1lb 15oz). They were still biting good when I left but the wind was becoming ferocious (turns out the light winds turned into a 20mph blow). It took my 55 minutes to slog back to the ramp through the wind and the waves and I did not regret a single second of that ride Here are some other pics from the day and my video.

Looks like those bass are never safe from you! I bet they usually enjoy their afternoons but now they will be scared all the time What is breaking on the spinnerbaits? I think the only time I broke a spinnerbait was when I caught a huge channel cat on one at night. That catfish wadded it up like a piece of paper

Another great report with great pics! Always feels good when you see a video or read an article and it makes you try something new that works out lime they say!

I can always make another son but those Jack hammers are expensive

Great pics. Loved the lovely picture! So sad that you now have to make two casts to catch a bass instead of catching them on every cast I love my old lure that have show the scars of many battles. I swear they just become more and more magical with every fish they catch.

I just love those pictures. Out here I am fishing big rivers but when I lived in PA and NC I used to fish small bodies of water like you show from a small boat I built myself while I was in grad school. Launching at ponds in the woods with that thing was always such a blast. I don't get to experience that out here but your photos really trigger some great memories.

It's funny how we mirrored each other, but I really want to mirror you on one of your monster days: )

I took off this week from work and ended up going fishing on Wednesday due to the nice wind forecast for the gorge. Man, what a difference a week and a half makes. Last trip out the bass were chasing bait (smolts) until noon. The bass were schooling and busting bait until at least noon. The river felt alive and thick with life. Gulls and osprey everywhere. This week the river was dead quiet. I guess the smolt have out-migrated and nary a ripple disturbed the surface for most of the day. After an early flurry of topwater action that only resulted in two bass the rest of the day was quite a grind for me. I threw my usual favorite spybait quit a bit but only caught one fish on it all day long. I switched techniques constantly throughout the day and would have a sudden flurry when I changed things up and then things would just go dead again. I only caught 18 bass with the biggest probably going 16" or so (did not bother measuring). I had three times during the day when I caught fish on back-to-back casts and one of those times it ended up being 4 bass in 6 casts. Those three flurries accounted for 8 of the 18 bass I caught on the day. Thus, you can tell that otherwise it was a slow grind of an occasional fish here or there. I think the fish are just set up really differently compared to all my other recent trips. Spots that have been consistently loaded where ghost towns. I would have to say that I never really figured out a solid pattern. Every time I though I had something going for a few minutes the bite would turn off and I would not be able to repeat that short success. Very frustrating on both size and numbers. I finally decided at noon to go back to the ramp to grab my drift sock to try and stop the breeze from pushing me around. That ended up not working out very well since there was not really enough current to counteract the wind. Once I got that drift sock I decided to head East even though the wind was out of the West. That was big mistake. The wind seemed to pick up as I headed East and the conditions were too tough to fish since the fish were not very active. It was really hard to keep touch with my Ned rig and drop show while bouncing around like crazy. That ended up just being a bunch of pedaling exercise. I spent probably an hour and half of pedaling without a single bite. I did talk to one guy how had done better than me on size. He had two 19s and an 18 (which he caught in short order off one spots_ but otherwise he said the bite was really show for him as well. Anyway, I will have to make sure I bring my thinking cap on my next trip I was not ready for that kind of a day and it really through me for a loop. I look forward to figuring them out next time. Here are some pics and my video from the day:

Great report again. So great that you have your own slice if paradise!

That looks like an awesome path down to the water! Great pics once again!!