pdxfisher

I realize something terrible about myself. I have let myself become a lazy fisherman. Laziness is the number one killer of fishing success. It is the silent killer. It starts small, not re-tying when I should, spending too much time on a spot rather than move, not paying attention to exactly how I am lined up with respect to the structure I am fishing, etc In thinking back on my last trip I realize that laziness and carelessness (and often accompanying affliction) have settled deep into my bones. I did not have a horrible day of fishing on the 2nd - I did catch 47 smallmouth - but the "big" fish of the day was only 1lb 11oz. Probably a dozen of so were in the pound and a quarter to pound a half range, but no big fish, and the rest were dinks. I thought back on the day and I am a bit embarrassed with the effort I put in. I would pull into a spot but not fish it carefully. If you want to catch big fish you need to be willing to put in that concentration to details and mental effort to carefully dissect each structure you fish. I did not. I realize now how careless I was with the positioning of my kayak, covering all the depths, straining the water with my lures. The only reason I caught any fish at all is because the Willamette is chock full of hungry smallmouth. There was very little skill involved on my behalf. Easy fishing is definitely a major contributor to the issue. You don't realize how poor of an effort you are putting forth because, hey, you are catching fish. With the conditions in the morning of the 2nd I should have easily caught multiple 2-3lb smallmouth. I am sure of that. I realize how random my casting was, how haphazardly I covered the big flat that is usually holding plenty of big fish. Later in the day I found some deep rock with current on it but decided after a couple of casts that it was too hard to fish that spot. It would have taken effort. Instead I went to a different, easy to fish spot and caught more dinks. I have to believe that if I had spent the time to carefully (and tediously) fished that deeper rock that I would have caught some quality fish. Hopefully the first step in healing is admitting that I have the problem. Here are a couple of pics from the day and some video: "Big" fish for the day: Action shot

I will throw Oregon into the mix. The Willamette and Columbia rivers have fantastic smallmouth fishing and longer seasons than the northern states mentioned. Oregon bass season is open year round and the fishing is really good for most of the year. When the bite slows in the winter I fish for sturgeon and measure my fish in terms of feet rather than pounds.

Thanks guys! We have all had those turn around days and they always hold a special place in my memory. Close @Keeper , I am an engineer - at least the first 3 letters are the same

I took off work on Friday the 11th to fish the Columbia out of Stevenson, WA. I did so because the weather report indicate little to no wind all day long. To say that I was upset when I got the ramp and saw white caps and rollers would be quite the understatement. I almost did not even launch. I decided that since I had driven an hour to get there I should at least get the kayak wet. The wind had me in a foul mood as I launched. When I reached for a rod I noticed that I had forgotten to leash my rods (I keep the rods I am not fishing with leashed to the kayak in case I tip). As I was reaching around to hook the rod leashes up I caught the sleeve of my raincoat on a treble hook. I grabbed my pliers and tried to back out the hook while on my knees in the kayak which was rocking around like crazy due to the waves. I created about a foot long tear in the sleeve of my rain jacket when I pulled on the hook just as a bigger roller hit the kayak. Just perfect. By this point I am out and out seething about the weather and my sleeve. Once again, I almost pack it up and even started to pedal back to the ramp but I decided to stay at least for a little bit. I started fishing and in a bit caught a small bass. I kept fishing a caught a few more dinks (which is unusual for the Columbia, usually good-sized fish abound). I am just getting angrier and angrier by the minute. To add to my good mood I snap off my favorite spinnerbait on a cast. I must have had a bad nick in the line. Grrrr. I finally catch a decent sized bass (2 1/2lbs) and that cheered me up some but it was a stray fish. In the wind and the rain (which is nicely soaking through my torn sleeve) I could not put together a working pattern. Every fish I caught seemed random and unrelated in its behavior and location to any previous fish. Further down after another lull I hook a second nice fish and lose it right at the kayak. "You have got to be kidding me" I said to myself. Crank and wind, crank and wind, feel the chill as my sleeve and arm just get wetter and wetter. I fished one of my favorite spots and did not get a sniff, but it was just so hard to fish in the wind and the waves. I went and fished some other known good spots and caught a couple of more fish, but nothing notable. I could barely concentrate on fishing as I just kept thinking that I burned a day off from work for this and the anger would boil inside me. Late in the morning (I am still not sure why I stayed) the wind died down and so I went back to my favorite spot. With the calmer wind I could actually fish it effectively. It was as if a switch was flipped. The bite turned on hard. The fish were deeper than I expected with the overcast conditions (10-15') and would not consistently hit a moving bait but they could not lay off the Ned rig. I ended up with 33 smallmouth on the day, mostly on the Ned rig. I had a 3lb, 3lb 2oz and 3lb 6oz fish and lots of fish over 2 lbs. I still occasionally caught a dink but they became the exception rather than the rule. A morning that was close to one of my worst ever turned into and afternoon that was good as they get! The fish never got super active and I would periodically waste time throwing an active bait. Occasionally I would catch a small fish doing that but then I would go back to the Ned rig and start catching quality fish again. That had to be the biggest 180 of a day I have ever had. By the end the water was like glass and the bass kept biting all afternoon and were still biting well when I left. I am so glad that I just sucked it up and hung in there. I almost rage quit so many times during the day. Some days you just have to be relentless. 3lbs 3lbs 2oz 3lbs 6oz Some video from the day:

I have Garmin 106SV with an NMEA2000 network connected to Garmin Steadycast on my Hobie Outback. I love this setup. I think that having maps, 2D and SV on the screen at same time is realky useful. The heading sensor really helps when I am fishing far from shore to help keep me lined up with the structure I am fishing. Counter to some others I recommend the through hull mount, at least on the Hobie. A sidearm mount adds drag to pulls you to that side. I bought a 2nd used xducer for the rare occasions I am not fising out of my primary kayak.

Good one @Tsunekich! Yep, I am down here in Portland. You need to set your brother straight

Thanks guys! @desmobob , you hit the nail on the head. I have had days where I worked hard all day and caught one fish and felt like it was a huge success. In retrospect the day I had was not terrible, but man it just felt wrong the whole time I was out there. Fishing is definitely a mental game and some days I just feel like I am playing short-handed

I had Friday off so I decided that the wind forecast looked pretty nice for fishing Hagg lake. I really wanted to focus on bass so I left my trout gear and panfish gear at home. I got to the lake at day break and fished hard all day long. I did see that the lake had dropped 2' since my last trip here with my son. I started out fishing moving baits along the emergent weed edges but I think the 2' drop in the water combined with the clear water made that a no-go, at least for me. I did not even have a bite for the first 3 hours (which I thought would be the most prime hours of the day). With a surface temp of 67 I figured the largemouth had to be up shallow and I did not spend much time probing deeper waters. At some point I figured a stealthier approach might be in order and I switched to a 4" weightless wacky rigged senko. Eventually I had a bass grab it. I set the hook and the line broke, easily, right at the knot. I was so mad!!!!! I had just retied my fluorocarbon leader the night before and apparently I had done a poor job. I got out my spool of leader material and tied on a new leader. I checked the know about 10 times and then tied on a new senko. I went back to where I broke off that fish and cast back out. I had another pick up. I set the hook and it was a good fish. I got it all the way to the kayak and was doing a terrible job of trying to grab the fish when my lure popped out. However, the battle was not over yet! There was a long leader still attached to the fish. I grabbed it and started pulling the fish in when that hooked popped out. It was my first senko that I had broken off. That was a really nice fish (pushing 4lbs). I just want to point out the extreme skill it takes to lose the same fish twice (really three times). Not many people have achieved that level of skill. I ended up losing my first 4 bass. I was feeling completely cursed. I finally got one to bite and was able to land it. It was a nice 3lb 4oz largemouth, but man what a brutal ride to get to that fish. The rest of the day was fairly slow fishing enhanced with continued poor execution on my part. I ended up landing 6 largemouth on the day (including the 3lb 4oz above which was the big one for the day). I lost a total of 6 bass as well and missed multiple other bites where I happened to twitch the lure just as a bass grabbed it. I never really felt like I was fishing well or had them figured out. Each time I caught one it felt more like luck than any application of skill. I hate days like that. It just felt wrong all day long. Anyway, here is some video from the day: The two fish not captured on video were in the pound to pound a half range. The crazy thing was how many trout I saw feeding on the surface. They were everywhere chasing insects and perhaps some type of fry. I could sit really still and they would start coming up within 10' of the kayak. It was pretty cool to watch. I had trout following and nipping at my bass lures (swimbait, etc) many times during the day. They would follow stuff all the way to the kayak. I spent a lot of the day regretting not having brought any trout gear. The other thing that was interesting was the number of dead and/or dying perch that were floating around the lake. Crows were picking them off all day long. Maybe part of the toughness of the day was having such an easy food source. I am not sure what caused that die off. Perhaps just normal stress of spawning, but that is a wild guess.

I mostly use a Ned rig but i don't think there is much difference in it versus a tube as a tool. I think of lures as tools to cover a certain depth with a certain speed of presentation. They both do the same job. My main reason for using a Ned is that the TRDs take up less room in the kayak than tubes and their durability is outstanding. I always fish the weedless Ned heads. They seem to work pretty well for me at avoiding getting hung up. I will say that i use them more as rockless than weedless.

There is no bad soft plastic bait for smallmouth! As many others have said just try to match the presentation to the conditions. That could be weightless wacky, shaky-head, Ned rig, drop shot,... They all work great in the proper/matching conditions.

Thanks everyone! That was a really fun day on the water. I love when we get those ideal conditions that allow the topwater bite to last most of the day. The smallmouth around here really love that stickbait on a calm day. I throw a Sammy in American Shad since it imitates the smolt (baby salmonids heading out to sea) that are in the river right now. Match the hatch!

I hit the upper Willamette on Saturday. I was a little worried since the water temp had dropped from 68 to 61 over the course of the previous week. I was not sure what kind of mood the bass would be in and even what stage they would be in (spawn, post-spawn, summer). To make a long story short it ended up being an amazing day. The topwater bite was on fire through lunch time and the fish kept biting well all day long. All my topwater fish came on a Sammy (stick bait). I through a plopper style for a brief period when the wind picked back up but the Sammy was the deal for me. I caught 57 smallmouth on the day with a 3lb 0z being my largest. One of the many things that made the day special was the huge number of pound and a half to pound and three quarters sized bass. There were certainly plenty of dinks but I think this may have been a record number of fish over a pound and a half in a day on the Willamette for me. The day was pretty magical from the get go - nature activity was firing on all cylinders. Early in the day, right after I watched a beaver swim by I got to watch two otters climb up on a dock and frolic around. There is a little footage of that in the video. Multiple times during the day an osprey came swooping down for my topwater. You know you are doing something right when that happens! In addition to seeing bass chasing bait all over the river I saw several carp jump and I believe I even saw one sturgeon jump (which is rare in the upper river). The bass never stopped biting all day long. When the topwater bite would slow for a bit I would start catching them on the 3" white swimbait or a Ned rig. Just crazy good fishing all day long. Here is a picture of my first fish of the day: Here are a couple of pics of the 3lber: You can see the double I had on right before I lost one of them: Here is a jumper near the end of the day: Here is some video from the day. On it you can see that it was not all rainbows and unicorns. Plenty of missed bites and I lost a really big fish.

Same here. I cut off a little piece of surgical tubing and slide that on needle nose pliers. I open the pliers and the hole is big enough to pull the senko through. I then hook up by hooking through the tubing, through the worm and then back out through the tubing on the other side. All day flavor

Sounds like a magical day!

I hit the Columbia out of Stevenson, WA with a friend on Saturday. The forecast was for brisk winds by lunchtime and the forecast did not disappoint. The day started out nice but the wind quickly picked up and made it tough to fish out of a plastic sail commonly known as a kayak. To make things even a bit tougher, there was a bass tournament (maybe launched at Cascade Locks?) and there were often bass boats on spots that we were hoping to fish. The thing that worked in our favor though is that the Columbia is such a big river and there are definitely more good places to fish than there are bass boats in in the PNW The water temp was 55 (the Willamette was about 60 when I fished it the previous week). With that water temp and the wind we figured that the bass would be super active and feeding like crazy. I started the day fishing moving baits, mostly throwing my favorite 3" swimbait but mixing in a crankbait, spinnerbait, chatterbait and jerkbait. I was catching fish here and there on the swimbait but there was not much size. More like Willamette-sized fish than Columbia-sized fish, many fish under a pound and the "good ones" were up around a pound and a half or a little bigger. The problem in that situation is of course that are having some success (not great success but some success) so it is hard to give other approaches a real fair shot. That was the case for me for the first 3 or 4 hours. I would occasionally make a cast or two with a Ned rig or a drop shot, but for the most part I did not give them much of a shot. Partly due to the success on the moving baits and party because the wind made fishing soft plastics kind of tough. As the morning wore on I found myself on a sweet little spot that was both somewhat protected from the wind and seemed to have a lot of smallmouth on it. I hammered the area with the swimbait and was steadily catching fish, but once again nothing really close to 2lbs. At some point the swimbait bite slowed so I decided to give the Ned rig a shot. I started catching nicer fish, including a 2lb 10oz bass. The hard thing was keeping contact with the bait as the kayak moving around the wind blowing slack in my line. The result was that the bass kept taking the Ned rig really deep by the time I could detect a bite. I decided after a bit that perhaps a drop shot with a decent amount of lead might be easier to fish and easier on the fish. That ended up being a fortunate call. I kept catching mostly nicer fish and it was a lot easier to maintain good contact with the lure. The result was that I was hooking fish in the lips instead of deep in the mouth. I stayed on that spot for several hours. Partly because it was out of the wind and partly because it kept replenishing with fish. When the drop shot bite would stop I would throw something else for a bit. Eventually, I found that a Rapala DT10 made a good alternate presentation. The crankbait fish were never as big but it was fun (and a nice break) to throw something active where I did not have to be so fussy about controlling the kayak. Eventually, I got tired of fishing that spot and left it when some bass boat guys came over and chatted for a bit. I had worked the spot over pretty but I figured it would replenish for them if they fished it for a bit. I don't know if they did any good there or not. After that I fished a variety of spots and hooked and lost a handful of fish, but I did not land a fish for the last several hours of the day. I will say that I did not throw a drop shot much after I left that spot. At that point I was hoping to find fish feeding on bait pushed against rocks by the wind. That did not really happen for me but my friend did pretty well with that pattern throughout the day. Overall it was a good day of fishing in some tough conditions. I ended up with 26 smallmouth with the biggest being a 2lb 12oz on the drop shot. Another handful were over 2lbs. Not a great day of fishing on the Columbia, especially for size, but a good day nonetheless in the somewhat challenging conditions. Here is some video from the day.

April 25th was a bit of a strange day on the Willamette out of 10th street. The water looked great but I had a hard time finding fish at first. I finally found fish chasing bait on mid-river humps when the wind suddenly picked up and that bite died. The wind was pretty brisk from that point on and I felt like I was back on square one. I finally made my way up a slough and found a slew of fish From that point on it was really fun day. I ended up with 38 smallmouth but a lot of them were dinks (as is common on the Willamette). Still a fun day on light tackle. The lure that turned the tide in the slough was a weightless, wacky-rigged 3" Senko. (Video at bottom) On May 2nd I hit the Willamette river out of Newberg with a couple of friends. The bite was pretty slow all day long. Occasional flurries, mostly dinks with a couple of decent fish thrown in. After 10 1/2 hours on the water I was almost ready to quit. A smart man would have quit at that point. Both my friends had already called it a day. Instead I went full Galaxy Quest, "Never give up, never surrender" I finally stumbled on a spot that must have had thousands of bass and pikieminnow on it. I was getting bit on almost every cast. Occasionally I would make a couple of casts without a bite and that would feel really wrong and weird. I lost a fair number of fish and I am sure I did not tally every fish on my clicker but I ended up with at least 34 smallmouth and 10 pikieminnows. My camera died part way through the action but I have some of the incredible action recorded. They were still biting like crazy when I left. I was on the water for 12 hours, but some days you just have to outlast them Killer bait at the end was a 3" swimbait in kind of a grayish-pink color (smolt-like). I think anything would have worked but that is what I had in my hand.

In my kayak I wear a dry top when the water is cold. A key feature is that the wrists have a latex gasket. That is such a great feature because water can not run down my sleeve. I can submerse my arm and stay dry. I am not sure if I have seen any rain gear has those but I would buy it if I could. If you want rain gear for cooler weather then consider wearing a dry top and waders. I can jump in the water and stay dry. Thisis likely too hot for really warm and humid days. It works well out here in the Northwest.

I bought a housing with a waterproof connector from 3BRpowersports. It replaces the battery with a thing that plugs into the USB terminal of the gopro. A plate screws down over the the part that plugs into the gopro and makes it watertight (if you go to their website you will see). The thing also has a long (you can buy different lengths) cable with a standard USB connector on the end. I plug that into a small (10AH) LiON battery pack that folks buy to charge cell phones and put the battery in a dry bag. This gives me all day battery life and a weatherproof (waterproof enough) connection to a battery that lasts all day long. This works well in my kayak. I have not had any overheating issues (yet).

This is old-fashioned (but hey I am old): A Johnson silver minnow. I like the silver spoon with an Uncle Josh frog color (white with green polka dot) pork frog, black spoon with black culprit trailer (usually 7.5" with most of the head bit off) or a gold spoon with chartreuse twin tail. I really like them because you can skate them and even frog fish them on top of scum but then jiggle them and get them to drop into holes in the scum (if there are any).

Thanks everyone! That was just an incredibly lucky and fun day. Nothing like fishing new water and having an awesome day. Reminds me of one of my favorite Satchel Paige quotes: "It is better to be lucky than good on any given day" Thanks Fish, Pray, Love! I never thought too much about how I am fighting the fish but I guess I am doing it right!

I had one of, if not the best fishing days of my life on Saturday. I met up with a friend to hit the big C for the first time this year and fished the Dalles for the first time ever. The forecast was for pretty light winds picking up a little in the afternoon. The reality was light winds in the morning fading to dead calm in the afternoon. Dead calm in the gorge, you already know it is going to be a magical day. So, never having fished that location before I started the day just trying to cover water with a variety of techniques and a variety of depths. The water temp was around 47.5F (about 4 to 5 degrees cooler than the Willamette). I was a little nervous about whether they smallmouth would be aggressive and if I could find them. I just kept the kayak moving along and rotating through my rods. For the first hour or so I did not have much luck in figuring out what was going on. I had only one "liar" bite in about 20' of water on a drop shot. Those smallmouth were doing their best to deceive - and it worked for a while. However, after spending about 20 minutes probing various deep rocky structures without another bite I went back into search and destroy mode. Part of the problem with that area of the Columbia is that everything looks good and it is hard to narrow the search. However, like so often in fishing, persistence paid off. I was fishing yet another rocky structure (this time with my trusty white 3" swimbait) when I felt a solid smack. I set the hook and was into a solid fish, I was so stoked to get the skunk off with that first fish. Not a monster but a solid fish. After that the bites came pretty fast and furious for a while. I just kept working my way along a rocky reef and picking up fish every couple of casts. In less than 10 minutes I was up to 4 fish. The best part was the size. My first fish weighed 1lb 12oz and the next bunch all weighed over 2lbs. Now these are not giants but they are good sized fish and the fight really hard, even in the cold water. The only thing I could really notice was that when I got them next to the kayak they did seem give up and weren't too difficult to land. When the water is warmer I think the only reason smallmouth ever allow themselves to be reeled in is so that they can try and bury a hook in you The day just got better and better as it went along. I would fish along and then run into a school of 2+ pound fish had multiple periods of the day where I would catch 4 or 5 bass on as many casts. Just crazy good fishing. After the initial flurry on the swimbait I did go back to rotating through my rods and the next flurry happened when I was tossing a jerkbait. I am not sure if I just happened to be throwing a jerkbait when I ran into the next school or if the jerkbait was important, but one thing I know is you don't mess with success while you are fishing. So, until the very end of the day, I rotated through a variety of lures but every fish I caught was on either the swimbait or the jerkbait (KVD bone color). I through a crankbait a ton, a rattletrap a fair bit and a spinnerbait a little but I never had a hit on any of those. My best fish of the day hit around lunchtime and came on the jerkbait. It was a beautiful 3lb 10oz bass. It put up a decent fight, and I could feel its weight during the fight, but in reality most of the fish around 3lbs even fought better and longer. Around lunch time my shoulders (which I have problems with) were starting to ache from all the casting and catching. For most of the afternoon I really took my foot off the gas in terms of fishing and spent a lot of time graphing and mapping the area (Garmin quickdraw). I picked up fish here and there and I have to say I was pretty spoiled because I would be like, "Oh, another 2 plus pound smallmouth, that's nice". You know you have had a great day when even catching them seems kind of routine. The one thing I did was started fishing a crankbait more and more. It was pretty easy on the shoulders (I fish it on an old glass rod that was a super slow taper) and I really wanted to catch a fish on a crankbait. Long story short is that I never did. Towards the end of the day my friend and I were back to my best rocky reef. We had fished it couple of times already but now the wind was just dead calm. I caught one on a jerkbait but then decided it was time to give the Ned rig a try. My friend had most of his success on one and it is really easy on the shoulders. I hit one last flurry for the day catching one last bunch of fish to bring my total to 32 bass. On the day I caught the 3lb 10oz, a bunch of 2lb 13oz to 2lb 15oz and ton that were between 2lb 3oz and 2lb 6oz. I would guess my average weight for the day was well over 2lbs, maybe even 2 and a quarter. I only caught a few fish under 2lbs on the day. I am sure I could have racked a lot more fish and weight if my shoulders had not been complaining so much, but catching enough fish that your shoulders hurt is never a bad thing! Here is a video of some day's action.

I have mine mounted on a telescoping painting pole. It is attached to my crate so the view is of me fishing from behind. I just posted on the fishing reports page and there is a YouTube link in how post. I have tried a head mount (too jerky) and a chest mount (good but it does get in the way a bit). I like having the camera behind me and out of the way but sometimes I think a chest mount may produce more immersive footage. Good luck!

I hit the upper Willamette out of West Linn on Saturday. The forecast for the day was for gorgeous weather and for once the forecasters were telling the truth (they like to do that every now and again to throw you off). I launched around daybreak and the water temp was 47.5F and visibility was about 1-2'. I did not have high expectations since the cold rain earlier in the week had cooled the river temp down by a degree or so. I was expectiing that the slight cooling would put the bass off their feed. Thus, my mindset was that I did not have high hopes for catching fish but instead to just focus on being out on the on a nice day. The first spot I fished produced a single hit on a crankbait. That one stupid hit kept me on that spot way too long. I figured there had to be a bunch of bass around if I got one bite, but that was not the case. I really still had no idea at this point if the bass were in deeper water in more of a winter pattern or if they were on the flats trying to fatten up for the spawn. I went back and forth between deeper water and shallower water, making a couple of casts deep and a couple of casts shallow. Eventually I lucked into my first smallmouth of the year on a Ned rig. I say lucked into because that was the only fish I caught that way all day long. After more fruitless searching I pulled onto a point/flat that is usually a good producer for much of the year. I fished it with a handful of baits without getting any action when I decided to try to switch out my jerkbait for a swimbait because the guy I was fishing with had caught a smallmouth and a pikieminnow on an Alabama rig populated with swimbaits. I did not want to go full A-rig but I knew I could quickly throw on a single swimbait and get to fishing. I had never really used that little swimbait much in the early season even though it is probably my top produce of the course of the entire year. I am not sure I would have tried it at all without my friend's success, but I have to say that I am really glad that he showed me the light. Within a few casts I caught a 1lb 11oz smallmouth on the point that already fished with numerous baits. Not a monster but definitely a respectable fish for the Willamette. The other part that was sweet is that I caught it on a new rod and reel! Always nice to get that first fish on a new rod and reel and remove any curse that may have been picked up in shipping When I went to take a picture of that fish my camera gave me an "out of memory" error. It took me a moment to realize that my SD card was at home safe and secure inside my laptop. Doh! Fortunately I had my gopro with me and so I spent the day holding fish up to it to try and get some still shots. Now the action was never fast and furious but I was able to scratch out a total of 9 smallmouth and 5 pikieminnows. The cool thing is that the smallmouth were all between 1lb 7oz and 2lb 15oz. No dinks all day long. I don't think the small fish have moved up yet (certainly not complaining). The crazy thing was the size of the pikieminnows. I caught a 3lb 10oz, a 4lb and a 4lb 3oz pikieminnow. Those are the 3 biggest pikieminnows I have every caught from that stretch. I know a lot folks hate on pikieminnows but I still think they are a pretty cool native fish and they fought really hard in that cool water. I could not tell if I had a bass or a pikieminnow on until I could see them. Every fish (bass or pikieminnow) I caught was in 6-10' of water. I caught 1 on the Ned rig, 10 on the swimbait and 3 on a Rapala DT6 (in Disco shad). The biggest bass and the biggest pikieminnow both came on the DT6. Now, to be fair, I did not not spend much time outside of the 6-10' range so it makes sense that is where I caught my fish. An interesting point is that most of the fish (all but the first two) came from one of 2 smallish areas. I am not sure if that is because I fished them so hard after catching a fish at each one or if they fish were just bunched up on those spots. The one good spot was just a small part of a huge flat that did not seem any different than anywhere else around it. I am not sure why that particular section seemed to be so loaded up. The other spot was a small, isolated hump. I did spend time on other parts of that big flat, on a couple of other big flats and on several other small, isolated humps but all of those other similar looking spots seemed devoid of fish. Here is a picture of my 2lb 15oz bass and of my 4lb 3oz pikieminnow. Sorry you have to click on these to see them. Flickr used to embed the photos. I will need to figure out a better way to post pics in the future. https://www.flickr.com/photos/36989183@N05/shares/Dk60n8 https://www.flickr.com/photos/36989183@N05/shares/1iwRkr Here is some video from the day. So, in summary, I went out with low expectations but came back with a decent day of catching and even got a little sunburn on my face and hands (even though I wore my sun gaiter for much of the day). Hard to do better than that in March in Oregon!

Thanks for the input! Sounds like the ML rod with the Elite reel will be the proper match for my needs. I just have never held nor seen a Tatula rod in person and I really wanted to get a sense as to what they meant by their ratings.

Thanks! I think that for the lighter baits I throw that perhaps the ML will be a good fit.