pdxfisher

The bass I was catching on my last trip were puking up shad fry and perch. What I think happens in the Columbia is that the bass sit in deeper water and when schools of shad fry go by (usually about 10' deep) they come up and eat a few. I usually don't see them chasing bait this time of year. I see them chasing bait all summer but I see fewer fish pinning bait against the surface once fall hits and the shad fry are migrating. That is my guess/observation for the Columbia. You have a lot of lakes up your way to fish. I have never been on any of them so I can't comment on what to expect there.

I am a bit biased but I recommend getting a kayak and sending him pictures of all the nice fish you catch out of it

I have not fished for bass in a three weeks but my last trip I was catching bass in the Columbia in 15-30' of water on a drop shot. Fish were coming off humps and points. There did not seem to be a preference for upstream vs downstream side.

I hit Merwin on Friday the 10th. I got there at 7am and the gate was already open. The first boat was just launching so I think the gate had only opened shortly before that. I have to say, the water at Merwin is just so beautiful and gin clear. I think in terms of beauty it may be my favorite location to fish. It just feels like such a magical place. Anyway, the fish was really good once I found them. I actually started fishing around 7:30am and caught my first fish at 8:15am. I filled my limit (C&R) by 11:15am. For my best success was on a homemade pink spinner fly that I tie up. I caught 8 of the 10 kokanee (and one what looked like a baby chinook) on that setup. The other 2 kokanee came on a very simple homemade spinner. Both lures were baited with tuna-soaked shoepeg corn. Both lures were fished behind Arrow flashers. I was letting out 70' or 80' of line and using 2 ounces of lead. I varied my speed all over the map from .7mph to 1.4mph and caught fish at every speed. If I saw a school that was deeper (around 50') I would slow way down to let my lures get down to them. If I saw schools that were around 25' I would vary my speed between 1.1 and 1.4mph. Regardless of speed I always zig zag back and forth to further vary the speeds and depths. Just the standard stuff that everyone does. After I caught my limit I could no longer legally use corn since WA does not allow even C&R beyond catching your limit (even though I was just letting them go). I did try trolling with no corn for a bit but could not get a bait on an unbaited lure. I was hoping to find out that the corn was not necessary but my first experiment showed that it looks like it is. I will continue that experiment in the future. Anyway, here is an action shot from the day in the heat of battle Here is a video of the day. I did miss one of the kokanee when I stopped the video while I ate my lunch. I always feel like there is something so compelling about watching a rod go off when trolling!

Out here there are a few limited seasons in certain waters. Biologists sample the fish and set a quota based on what they feel is sustainable. There is one place that is always open for sturgeon (2 fish per year limit). It is the Willamette River above the falls. Those fish are remnants of a stocking program from 40 or so years ago and not considered native to that section of the river. There are not many sturgeon in that section of the river compared to the lower Willamette or Columbia.

Sturgeon are very good eating and have a lot of meat. A lot of folks smoke them (when there is an open season). The bad news is that they have integrated a lot of toxins by the time they reach the slot limit size. I have no interest in keeping one but the open seasons are wildly popular out here.

Thanks everyone! That was such a fun trip. I went into it with a lot of trepidation but it turns out I was worrying about nothing. Of course if I hook an 8 footer I may change my mind about just how much strength I have back If all goes well my son is going to go with me on my next trip. I am hoping to get him his first sturgeon. I used to take him a lot when he was younger but then he got to that age where he wanted to hang with his friends. However, this year he has started to get an interest in fishing again. I am excited to get out there fishing with him again!! Plus he can carry all the heavy stuff

After reading a post by @uplandsandpiper on another site I could not stop thinking about sturgeon fishing. I have not caught a sturgeon in a few years. I was hit with stage 5 kidney failure and have lost a lot of strength as a result. I was not sure I should go after those beasts but night after night I dreamt of mighty battles with those prehistoric throwbacks. I finally decided I would go and if during a fight I decided could not take it I could, regretfully, cut the line. With that plan in place I decided to give it a go. Turns out I was being overly cautious and maybe I have regained more strength than I realized because I had a BLAST!! I got to the ramp a bit after sunrise, in no huge rush. I got unloaded and launched and started pedaling around looking for sturgeon. I found some likely looking marks on the old FF and decided to hook up to a barge with the clamp that is right there beside me. That was supposed to be right there beside me. Doh! I left it in the truck so back to the ramp I went, grabbed my clamp and pedaled back to the spot that looked promising. I baited up a 5/0 Gamakatsu circle octopus with my normal sturgeon bait (1/2 anchovy). I cast out wondering if I was marking carp or sturgeon (I have been fooled before). I cast out and in short order I could feel some line rubs. You feel that plink, plink, plink as the line slides over their scutes. I knew I was in the right spot. It still took a while for that first bite but I was so excited when I reeled down on that fish and felt some decent weight. That first fish put up a nice tussle and would have been in the keeper range if there were a season. In the 50+ degree water those sturgeon can really pull! The bite was red hot at first and stayed pretty good for most of the day. My strategy is that after I cast out I slowly count to 300 and if I have not had any bites or line rubs then I reel in and recast. There were only a few times I reeled in without a fish. I ended up with 18 on the day with my best being a nice, thick 6 footer. Unfortunately my gopro was glitching during that part of the day I missed getting that fish and 4 or 5 others on video. There were a handful of tiny shakers but most of the fish were in the 3 to 4 and half foot range, which is about my favorite size to catch. My arms are still a little sore. I also broke off 2 big fish and pulled the hook on a third. I am confused by the line breaks. I think maybe the braid was wrapping around the sinker or something weird because there is no way I should be able to pop 50lb braid. I was not wrapped around anything either time just leaning on a big fish in the middle of fight and POP. I am thinking about switching to 30lb mono. I am wondering if that might hold up better. I will have to think some more about that. Overall, I am just so excited that I was able to once again do battle with those beasts. The weather ended up being much better than forecast. The wind seemed lighter and the rain did not start up until I was back at the ramp! The fish were cooperative and let me win most of the time. It could not have been a better day. Here is an action shot from the day: Here is a short of an exciting moment: Here is a (way too long) video of the day:

I see the same behavior in the rivers out here in the PNW. I have caught several doubles this year alone and very often there are smallmouth chasing a hooked fish right up to the kayak (often biting at the lure if it is outside the mouth). I am not sure about the follows in general but I do see it a lot of follows on spy baits for some reason. A lot of times a smallmouth will follow a spy bait all the way to the kayak but it is hard to get them to commit. I will say that I almost never use a straight retrieve when smallmouth fishing with a moving bait. My normal retrieve with a swim bait, rattletrap or spy bait is stop and go. Jerk baits are of course jerk baits

I think that fishing for smallmouth out here is just very different from all the fall advice I see both on this video in pretty much everywhere else. I speed/power fish all summer long but come fall I need to slow way down to catch smallmouth. In the fall the only reliable smallmouth catchers for me are things like drop shots, Ned rigs, swinghead jigs and a blade bait (that is a new one for me so the jury is still a bit out on it). I try topwater and usually catch on fish per trip. The smallmouth out here are not shallow in the fall. There are schools of shad fry heading down the river but they are everywhere, and I am more likely to find them over deeper water than shallow. I think the normal behavior out here is for the fish to sit in 15-30' of water eating crayfish and when a school of bait comes by maybe they come up and eat some. The fish I do catch will sometimes puke up some shad fry but I am catching them out of deeper water and the balls of shad fry are usually suspended 5-10' deep. I try throwing medium running baits through the shad balls but I never seem to have much success with that. I keep thinking I should try an A-rig but that is a bit of nightmare in a kayak

Pikieminnows are a native species. The dams give them a predatory advantage so the power companies fund a bounty on them as part of a mitigation of the impact of dams on salmon. The guys who make serious money go through a grueling effort to do so. I don't participate since I am not in support of killing a native species but I don't begrudge those who try to make some money.

Wow!

I miss that strong pre-frontal bite. I used to love that in PA and NC. We don't get those strong fronts out here in the PNW (we don't get those huge barometric swings). We do get a lot of hail storms in the spring and fall and I have been anchored up (winter sturgeon fishing) in my kayak in the middle of some pretty serious hail storms out here but I just hunker down and say ouch until they pass.

Wow! Now that is a day and half!! You always say it is beautiful out here but you always have a pretty amazing backdrop where you fish as well!! Great pictures.

I caught several carp twitching a rapala topwater in NC. It was in a pond where people used to throw bread in to feed ducks. I think the carp would see something white floating and think food. First time it was about a 20lber right at dusk. My buddy and I thought I had a new state record bass on for a good 5-10 minutes.

I played hooky on Friday the 20th and hit the Columbia. You have to take advantage of those wind windows!! I was really excited to be out on the water on a weekday. I started throwing a topwater and within a couple of casts I had what looked to be a pretty big fish boil at it (but not strike it). I threw the kitchen sink in that area but could not get that fish to come back. Still, I was really pumped to see some interest right off the bat. That excitement was starting to wear pretty thin over the next fishless hour. However, I eventually got a violent strike on my topwater and landed a very athletic 2lb 8oz smallmouth that really liked to jump. I worked the area where I picked up that fish with a variety of baits but could not find a second taker. I moved upstream and fished a couple of spots without getting a sniff. I was starting to wonder if the smallmouth took Friday's off. I finally got to a spot (tiny rock island) where I had caught a couple of small fish the week before. I probed the downstream side without any luck. I moved to the upstream side and started looking around with my sonar to see if I could mark some fish but my screen was clean. I figured they could be tight to the bottom so I picked up a drop shot and started probing around. In short order I hooked a nice 2+lb fish! As soon as I hooked that fish and started fighting it the screen of my sonar lit up like a Christmas tree. There were a LOT of bass down there. I spent the next hour or so pounding that spot and picked up 8 bass on the drop shot including a beautiful 18.5" 3lb 2oz chunk. During the best action I had 4 consecutive fish. Of course, after a while the bite slowed down and rather than trying to scrape a few more bass of that spot I headed further upstream hitting every likely looking spot with the drop shot. Along the way I found a new spot where I caught back to back bass of 18.5" (another 3lb 2oz fish) and the skinniest 17" bass I have ever seen. Here is my second 3lb 2oz fish. I was now feeling really good about the day and I had not even got to the spots that had been best on my last trip, 2 weeks earlier. However, I kept fishing every good looking hump and point. Some of them held fish and others were completely barren. The interesting thing is that some of spots that were on fire on my previous trip were dead and some of the spots that were dead head a decent number of fish. The spot that was completely loaded on my last trip had some fish but I had to work hard for them. My best fish off that spot was a 17.5" 3lb 0oz fish. That fish was so muscular. Definitely my best fight of the day! I ended the day with a total of 28 smallmouth. My best 5 weighed a decent 13lb 15oz and totaled 88.25". Not a monster day in terms of size but a lot of fun and plenty of action. 26 of the 28 smallmouth came on the drop shot. I did try throwing the wobblehead (no bites) and Ned rig (no bites) a fair amount. I did catch one and lose one on a blade bait. I definitely need to fish that lure more. I like that not many folks use one around here and I think it does get some of the pressured fish to bite. Most of the fish came from 18-30' of water and were associated with rocks. Last trip I did well on a couple of bare spots between weedbeds but those spots did not produce anything on this trip. I had several occasions where I caught back to back fish (even 4 in a row at one point) but I also had lulls where I would realize I had been fishing a spot for 20 minutes without a bite. Sometimes I just stop paying attention and let time pass me by. I have become better at avoiding that but it still creeps in now and again. Here is my video from the day. The only real downside to the day is that 3 of my files got corrupted and I lost that footage but otherwise it was just a fantastic day to be fishing in Oregon.

I have caught the same bass on back to back casts two times (one had a big scar on the side and the other was missing 1/2 a lip) but the best was a pickerel that I lost right at the boat. It was just sitting there so I dragged my spinnerbait in front of it and it bit it again and I landed it. I laughed with my friend that the pickerel "didn't hear no bell". I think it was PO'ed that it had come unhooked and it wanted to finish the fight.

My personal belief is that temperature is less important than length of day and angle of the sun. I believe those are really the thing that the bass are reacting to and is what is driving their behavior. It happens that as the days get shorter the water gets colder. The reason I believe this is that I seem to find that in warm years or cold years the bass are reacting about the same at the same time of year. I think fisherman change more based on weather and water temperature than the fish themselves. The only real thing that water temperature affects is how fast a fish digests food and how often they need to feed. I think fish put on weight in the fall because they keep feeding at about the same rate as in the summer but they are burning less calories because the colder water is slowing their metabolism. I could be 100% wrong but that is what I read in the tea leaves.

Man, those smallies are so FAT!!! Looks like it was an awesome day out on the water. Those pics look amazing.

Ha ha, I assumed you meant water spider. 45.6 degrees North here so I got you by a little bit. I am lucky to get to live and fish for smallmouth in such a beautiful area. To make up for it I often sturgeon fish in the industrial part of Portland which is about as unattractive as you can get I think changing up presentations can really help keep the bite going. I think I am often fishing around a decent sized school of fish (loosely grouped). Some percentage of those fish will only bite something that triggers them (reaction bite) others in that group will only bite something slow moving, etc. I am a big fan of straining the water with multiple presentations and then moving on if I don't get bit or stop getting bit.

Thanks everyone. Nothing better than a trip where the bite gets better as the day goes on! I am just extremely impatient! Plus, I have to use all those rods or I will look stupid for bringing them It is beautiful out here and I agree with @galyonj that the majesty of the view is not even all that well captured by the gopro. However, I would guess that Maine is pretty scenic as well. I wonder if you are North or South of me. I know I am a fair bit North of Portland Maine.

Thanks! I still have not caught a 20lb bag of smallmouth though. One of these days though I will break through and get to join your "club"

This is a great thread. It is heartening to read everyone's stories. I am not as old as a lot of you (62) but being at stage 5 kidney failure, torn labrum in both shoulders and having a misshapen disc in my lower back makes it hard to get out in the kayak some days. Fortunately the rest of my health is really good and a lifetime of exercise (highly recommend to young folks) has left me with enough strength to still get out most weekends and as long as I can still fish I am not going to complain.

Wow, I got a cramp in my finger scrolling through so many pictures of big fish!! That is an incredible season. I think you had several trips this year where you caught more that the weight of the your canoe You also get great pictures of your fish. They all look so strong, fat and healthy. I can't even be jealous because your success is just beyond my ability to comprehend days like yours. I can't wait to see what you pull in next year.

I have a Hobie Outback and I like it for me. I thought about a PA 12 but did not want to have to haul the extra weight up the boat ramps. The nice thing about a Hobie is that in thick weeds I can pedal with tiny strokes with the pedals near full extension. That keeps the fins against the hull and I can slide over a lot of weeds. I have never been in lily pads so I am not sure if that would work in that situation but it works really well if there is even a couple of inches of water over the weeds. I will admit I am jealous of the instant reverse on my friends Old Town Pedal kayak. For open water I think it is probably superior mechanism but in the weeds or really shallow water the Hobie performs much better.