pdxfisher

I hit the Willamette out of Swan Island for sturgeon on Sunday, October 25th. It was my first trip out for sturgeon this fall and my hopes were high. I met up with friend who I had not fished with in years so it was already a special day. We saw scattered fish as we made our way through the harbor. They looked huge on the side imaging (judging by my speed and the size of the marks) but they were all kind of isolated. One here and one there. We made it out to the first dry dock and there were a ton of fish kegged up as expected. We both normally prefer not to fish close to the dry docks and usually do so only if we can't find biters anywhere else. However this being our first trip we figured "hey, lets get the skunk off and then move on". Narrator's voice: "They did not get the skunk off" We fished there for about 15 minutes with only line rubs to show for it - unless you count the old rusted light fixture I reeled up. However, the light fixture was not clipped so I had to throw it back We then headed out to the edge of the harbor and fished for a bit. My friend got his skunk off with a shaker but all I got was a bait stripped to the bones by some type of nuisance fish. We then spent a fair bit of time zig-zagging our way down to the RR bridge looking for signs of life. We marked plenty of small fish (pikieminnows?) but nothing that looked sturgeon-like. We then zig-zagged back to the harbor on a different path but once again could not find any main river fish. Out near the mouth of the harbor we marked some small groups of what appeared to be sturgeon but we could not buy a bite. We stopped at a few different places but we never found any biters out at the mouth. We then headed back and decided that we might as well fish the dry docks, at least for a bit. I stayed well out near towards the mouth and my friend went in close. I was marking a decent amount of scattered fish and he said they were kegged up as usual right next to the dry dock. Almost immediately we both hooked up. The water temp was 57 and at that temp those sturgeon are crazy! We both had really hard battles and in the end we both were able to subdue our fish. Mine was around the 4' mark and my friends was around 6'. While he was fighting his fish one of the dock workers told him he should not be so close to the dry docks (like you have a choice where you are going when a 6' sturgeon is pulling you around in a kayak). Once of the main reasons I hate fishing near the dry docks is that there is so many places for a fish to hang you up. I find it a lot more relaxing and fun to fight fish out in more open water. After getting yelled out my friend moved further out (closer to where I was). About that time other kayakers came into that little harbor. Some of them went and fished near where the fish were kegged up and they all fished way further in than my friend or I. I did see the security guy call over the one kayaker and say something to him (no idea what) but they went right back to fishing. I think legally you can fish there but I try not to rock the boat. Anyway, within a short while I hooked up again and landed another nice one after another spirited battle. My friend decided at that point to fish his way back to the dock as he had been out salmon trolling the day before and was pretty whipped. The funny thing was that every once in a while I would call him on the radio to say hey and see how he was doing. Each time as soon as we started talking I would get a bite! Eventually I started calling him and saying that I wanted to get a bite so I was calling him I caught fish steadily all day long. Never red hot, never ice cold. It was just a nice fun day of relaxing sturgeon fishing. There were enough fish out where I fished to keep it fun and each battle was a crazy tug of war. Here is my biggest fish (probably about a 5' fish). By now you must be wondering what is up with the title. Well, during the course of the day I had 3 sturgeon leap completely out of the water in crazy twisting jumps. I got a good video of only the last and smallest. The others are just off camera but you can see and hear the splashes. Here is a frame grab from the video: Here is some video from the day (including good footage of the jumper I caught on film). Overall if you want to fish tight to the dry docks the bite is really hot. If you'd rather fish out a bit the bite is still good. I ended up with a dozen for the day (full day) which was enough for me.

I have a Garmin echomap Ultra 106 on my Hobie outback. I had an echomap chirp 73sv before the 106. I usually split my screen 2D, SV and maps. Sometimes 2D, SV, maps and DV. I also have an NMEA 2000 network with a Garmin steadycast. I have found the heading sensor to be invaluable in fishing offshore structures.

I never pass up a chance to fish unless it is dangerous to be out. One of my most memorable days in PA was in horrible post-frontal conditions on a small lake. By all accounts I should have not caught a thing. Instead I lucked upon some kind of wood that was jammed into and inside bend of a massive hydrilla bed. I caught about a dozen bass including 4 over 4lbs fishing that one little spot. There was a lot of luck involved in stumbling on it but no amount of luck gets me a bite at home! I did not get a bite anywhere else that day but there were enough in that spot that if I made repeated casts with Carolina rig with 6" finesse worm I would get a bite every now and again. On the way to the lake I was thinking I would be lucky if I got a bite. You just can't ever tell.

Thanks for the extra tip! I will get a white one and a dark one before next spring.

I catch smallmouth in rivers out here in Oregon and in a local lake. They fight really hard in both. I think that smallmouth fight the hardest when the water is clear (or fairly clear). One of my local streams (called a river) is pretty much always turbid. I don't think that the smallmouth in that river fight as hard as those in the local lake or the bigger rivers. I would be hard pressed to say that the big river smallmouth I catch fight harder than the lake smallmouth - they both fight so dang hard that is beyond my ability to compare. Both the big rivers and the local lake are fairly clear when I am fishing in them for bass.

Great report! That is a Fishing with Bill Dance kind of a day!! I had to look up what a Jackall Grinch was. That is an interesting concept. I might have to get a couple to try next spring. Thanks for the report!

We are fortunate out here in the Pacific NorthWest. Bass fishing is usually good and stable through late October to November depending upon when the winter rains start. The weather and water conditions out here are much more stable than they were when I lived back on the East coast in PA and NC. I don't miss the chaotic conditions of the East coast playing havoc on my success. On the other hand we don't get those crazy bites just as a massive front rolls through either. Just remember the good times to help get you through the bad. I hope those who need rain get it and those with too much dry out!

Thanks! I really feel blessed to get to fish productive waters in such a beautiful setting. You might even say it is... gorge-ous (for those who don't know the area is the Columbia gorge)

I hit the big C on Sunday, not looking for salmon but rather in search of bronze. The salmon run is waning but the smallmouth are always there and always hungry. I got to the ramp close to daybreak and quickly launched. My partner was already on the water by the time I got there. He had to leave early and wanted to squeeze every minute of fishing out of the day that he could. We headed upstream looking for the rock structures that are smallmouth magnets. I am surprised by how much more chunk rock that Columbia has compared to the Willamette. It seems to make the smallmouth a little more choosy about the rock structure that they will use. The Willamette smallmouth seem to be OK using the smoother basalt rock while the Columbia smallmouth don't seem to care for it, likely because of the better options. We started the day fishing our way upstream. At first we were only finding smooth structures that gave way to sand. Those all seemed empty and we kept moving along, hopscotching each other looking for that right kind of rock. I hopped past my partner to a rock formation that, on the surface, looked like all the previous rock structures, but this one had that special something. Rather than being a giant rock sticking out of a sandy bottom, this one had a nice rocky reef that trailed out to 25-30' of water. I was excited as I made my first cast onto the reef with a Ned rig. I slowly worked it back to me, letting the current do most of the work when I felt that weight and tug that means smallmouth. I set the hook and the fight was on. The fish went airborne immediately - like smallmouth love to do. I was happy to see that the hook stayed fast and I went to work on the fish. Applying pressure and letting my spinning rod wear the fish out. After a minute or two I was able to land a nice fat 2lb 15oz smallmouth! On my next cast we doubled up and I caught a nice 1lb 13oz fish. After a couple of fishless casts I hooked a 3rd fish. After that the bite stopped for a few minutes. I went back and forth over the spot with my sonar a few times to map it out better (you have to love Quickdraw). Once I understood the spot better I decide to go back over some interesting looking rocks pile that was out a bit deeper. I switched to a drop shot and on my second cast I was rewarded with a 3lb 1oz bass! I kept probing that deeper stuff and was able to nab a fish fish off that structure. Not exactly kegged up like they get in the summer but still a pretty outstanding grouping of fish. That pretty much describes how the day went for me. If there were fish on a structure I could usually pull off 3 to 5 fish. If not then I moved on. What I came to find out was that, on that day, the smaller structures were not holding fish. The best spots were good sized rock formations that had lots of chunk rock mixed in. I still hit every rock formation I came to but I quickly moved on if they did not look right. If I caught one fish I would carefully work the structure over, switching between the drop shot and the Ned rig. As the day wore on and the wind picked up I concentrated on the drop shot which is easier to maintain contact with. Some times I would see them on the sonar and bop them on the head - I love that kind of fishing. It is really cool when they are suspended and you watch them follow your drop shot down until there is just one mark on the screen and then you feel that thunk! It was just a fantastic day in a beautiful part of the Columbia. I really covered a lot of water in the kayak. I ended up more than 3 miles upstream by the end. By that point the wind reversed and the river got a little choppy. At that point I had 19 bass and really wanted that 20th. I headed back downstream into the chop - stopping to fish the best spots I had found during the day. I am not sure if the fish moved, if they set up differently due to the wind change or whether it was just tough to fish while bobbing up and down in the small wind waves but I had to work like a dog for that last fish. It was a little anti-climactic since it was only a 12" fish and it basically hooked itself (no skill involved whatsoever) but I was happy to get it. Just a great day on the river! A couple more pics with just a beautiful backdrop: That was definitely more pound and a half to two pound fish than I think I ever caught in a day on the Willamette. I know there are plenty of much, much bigger fish than the ones I caught but it was a pretty awesome day on new water. I can't wait to get the Columbia really dialed in. Here is some video from the day.

Thanks!

My first trip on the big C in a kayak. Went in not knowing a lot and left with gaining some knowledge. I only ended up with 4 on the day. A 3lb 4oz (which is sweet), a dink and two in the 15-16" range. My partner on the day drubbed me catching 8 nice smallmouth. We both wasted a lot of time learning the area and fishing (what we now understand) is unproductive water. Next trip should be better (I hope). Here is a short video of landing my biggest fish and the bumpy pedal back!

I hit the upper Willamette out of 10th street on the 20th. It was a really gorgeous day that started out chilly and foggy, ended up sunny and hot, and the smallmouth were cooperative all day long. From my last trip I knew the bass would be in the fall transition. I am sure most folks know this but I will say it anyway. When this happens not every fish transitions at once. There is a large percentage that make the move but there are always groups that continue that summer pattern. They are the smallmouth equivalent of the folks that can't take a hint that a party is over or the table that continues to hang out in a restaurant long after the open sign has been turned off. On this trip most of the fish I caught came out of a fall-like pattern. Fish were not on top of the humps but in the holes around the humps and at the edges of humps that had deeper water. Even though those fish made up the bulk of my catch I was able to catch 4 bass on topwater when the came up at various times busting bait. I only caught one of those on video but it is just such a fun experience. In the case I caught on video I was throwing a deep crankbait in some deeper water between two humps. All of a sudden bait was skittering and bass were busting just off to my left. I quickly reeled in the crankbait, picked up my topwater and tossed on top of them. I immediately got bit and landed a nice smallmouth. Just awesome fun! They came up about 1/2 dozen times during the day. I raced to them each time. Twice I did not get there in time but 4 times I hit paydirt. I through the topwater a lot during the day (off and on) but I only caught one fish on the topwater by just covering water and that was my first fish of the day. The fall transition is interesting because it is easy to get sucked into sticking with a summer pattern because that pattern will produce some fish, but you end up fishing over fewer fish. Another indicator for me that the fall transition is happening is that I start to catch more pikeminnows on the humps. It seems like once the bass abandon them the pikeminnow move it. Or it may be that they are always there but the bass outcompete them when they are both there. In either case, if you start catching pikeminnows on "bass" spots that is an indicator to change things up. When you see this on the end of your line start to think about fishing deeper and changing up your game. So, I did not completely abandon the summer patterns but I only fished them when the bass pretty much screamed "Here we are and we are hungry" Most of my fish for the day came on a drop shot in 15-30' of water. The most productive spots were rocky areas close to sharp drops. I did a mix of blind casting and video game fishing. I caught a lot of my fish by seeing them on my sonar and dropping on their heads. That is not as exciting as a topwater bite but it is really cool in its own way. True to normal fall fishing, the average size of the fish were nicer. Lots of pound and a half smallmouth. My big fish of the day was only 1lb 15oz but I lost several big fish (and quite a few normal fish) when the hook pulled out. I don't understand what was going on with that. I did change to a bigger hook and that seemed to help some (but caused a lot of line twist with the drop shot). I still need to find a better solution Here are some pics from the day: Here is a short video with some of the fish from the day. If you just want to see the schooling fish topwater bite jump to the 8:55 mark:

The fires out here in Oregon have kept me off the river for the past couple of weeks but I went out yesterday. The water temp was right around 60 and the bass here are definitely in the fall transition. The number of fish patrolling the flats is way down as expected. Fish mostly seem to have moved to deeper water near the edges of flats. To be clear, there are still some fish on the flats, just far fewer. A drop shot was the best bait for me. I spent most of the day seeing fish on the finder and dropping it on their head. Overall numbers were a little lower than normal for summer but quality was up. Fewer dinks as a percentage. The other indicator I have out here for the fall transition is that when I start to catch Pikieminnows on the flats where I would normally catch smallmouth. That means that the bass are mostly no longer using the flats.

This is kind of old school but one of my favorite techniques is to use a Johnson Silver Minnow with a twin tail trailer. You can slide it across the top like a frog but then drop into every little hole. I guide it from hole to hole and jiggle it until it falls in. I catch them both on top like a frog or as it sinks in (almost like a flipped bait). I am not sure if this helps in your situation (the holes need to be a couple of inches across to get it to fall in). The other question is whether you are trying to punch through the mats with a texas pegged soft bait as follow up. It may be that you are casting too far to make punching through with a heavy weight practical. In those cases I use not too heavy of weight and cast near (just beyond) the blow up and try and jiggle it to get it to fall through the mat. Using a bulkier plastic with a light (1/16 to 1/8oz) weight usually balances out staying on top of the mat when you want it to with still being able to jiggle it down a tiny hole. Best of luck!

I have been trying to avoid fishing on weekends as much as possible this summer. However, work has been so busy lately I just did not feel like I could take a day off so I decided on a weekend trip. In looking at the weather it looked like Saturday was going to be the worst day from a pleasure boat view point (best day from a kayak fishing viewpoint). I decided I would fish on Saturday, but where to go. After thinking on it for a bit I decided to launch out of Newberg. I know the ramp can get busy but the number of folks just hanging out around the ramp is often much smaller than other places that have a lot of shoreline facilities near their ramps. I got there around daybreak and I was surprised that there were multiple other folks launching as well (I have become spoiled by my weekday trips). A couple of the boats headed in the direction I wanted to fish so I just resigned myself to fishing behind folks all day long. I think that made the fishing a little tougher but I was still able to scratch out 30 smallmouth and 2 decent sized crappie. I started the day fishing this point that is the bane of my existence there. It is a perfect looking structure - a rock monolith rising out of 20-30' of water and topping off around 4-6'. If you were to create a smallmouth structure this is what you would make. I never have much luck there but on Saturday that changed. I had no luck at all. Not even a sniff. That stupid point keeps me up a lot at night as I try to figure out what the heck I am doing wrong. After that I continued downstream to an abutment that sticks up out of the water a little ways above the bridges. I dropped a dropshot down to the bottom and felt a bite. Swing and a miss. I dropped back down, felt another bite and this time I connected. I was really surprised to really up a decent little crappie. I think I was getting lots of bites from them throughout the day. In lots of spots I would get those same bites that did not stick. I did manage to land a second one later in the day on a Ned rig. I don't catch many crappie on the Willamette so it is always kind of exciting when I do! After that I spent a good bit of time fishing between the bridge and that abutment. I mostly alternate betwee a dropshot and a Ned rig and picked up the occasional fish. I could not believe that I could not get bit on a topwater. It just seemed perfect. I threw a whopper plopper for a bit, then a Sammy for a bit and neither one got any interest. I finally dug deep into my tackle box and grabbed a Heddon Tiny Torpedo and tied it on. That used to be my go to topwater before I started buying all these expensive topwaters. On the third cast I caught a small bass. Then a couple of casts later I missed a good sized bass. I was getting really stoked but then the sun broke out and I just could not get another bite on that lure. I will be ready next time though! For the rest of the day I mostly alternated between fishing a dropshot and Ned rig. I would occasionally throw a crankbait or jerkbait. I did not catch anything on the crankbait but caught a few on the jerkbait. I think this was my first trip this year where I did not catch anything on my trusty 3" white swimbait - although I never do as well at Newberg with that lure as I do in other spots along the Willie. The bite wassteady all day long. When I got on a good piece of structure I would fish it very carefully with the soft plastic and was able to catch fish at a reasonable pace. I spent a lot of time fishing sunken brush - which usually produces in that area - but those spots seemed to be mostly dead. Some of my normally productive spots just seemed completely dead but I did stumble on a couple of new places. I went further on this trip than I normally do and made it all the way down to the 219 bridge. I caught a couple of smallies of the mid-river trestle in 40' of water which was kind of fun. I did as much scouting and mapping of that area as fishing and it looks really nice. I am excited to fish it in the future. I did manage about 1/2 dozen fish from the rocky structure under the bridge where it drops from ~10' into about 20' of water. The thing that felt different about this trip (and the last trip) is that the fish do not seem to be schooled as tightly as they were earlier in the summer. I can catch multiple fish from an area but I am not getting the kind of back to back to back action I am used to seeing. It kind of feels that rather than traveling in wolf packs that the fish are in similar areas but more spread out. I have no idea why. No big fish on the day, best fish was probably around a pound a half (never got out the scale) but a decent number between 1 and 1.5lbs. Overall it was a pleasant day on the water. The boating crowds were never too bad. When I pulled out around 4pm the parking lot was only 1/2 full if that and no one was on the ramp. Here are the crappie I caught: Here are some of the bass: Here is some video from the day:

I took a day off to fish the Willamette on the 31st. I went in with high hopes as it was supposed to be cloudy most of the day. Long story short, it was a pretty disappointing trip. I fished for 9 hours and only caught 19 bass. That includes a flurry of activity around noon where I caught 6 in less than an hour. The wind started out of the south and was pretty stiff most of the morning. In the afternoon the wind was out of the north and pretty strong. That period where it was shifting over is where I had my good flurry. I fished and caught fish from 5' to 30' deep. So many of the fish I caught were right after a move or a lure change. Each time I thought to myself "All right, here we go". Each time I was wrong. Best fish on the day was 1lb 14oz fish. A handful of others were decent and the rest were dinks. I am still not sure what the deal was. I was not marking many fish deep or shallow. I am not sure where they were. Maybe hugging the bottom and inactive or just not where I was looking or fishing (but that was pretty much everywhere). That was a puzzler for sure. Couple of fish pics from the day: And some video:

They just seem harder to lip due to the smaller mouth. Largemouth seem easy to grab but smallies definitely are a little tougher for me to get maneuvered into a good position while I am in the kayak. Otherwise no real difference.

I threw an AR for about 1/2 hour on Monday but did not have any luck with it. It was an extremely slow day - normally I have been catching around 50-60 fish per trip but I only got 19 on Monday and most of those were dinks. I will try the AR again in the future - especially now that I have a couple set up for use. The AR did look pretty cool in the water so I think it will be effective but nothing was working well this past Monday. I always struggle to get confidence in a new lure or technique until I have a really good day fishing it. I know it will happen for the AR at some point but I am not there yet. Thanks again for all the advice!

Thanks again for all the tips. A few Alabama rigs arrived from Amazon today. I bought some 1/8oz jig heads to use with them. I got them rigged up and ready. I am fishing tomorrow. I will give them a try at some point in the day.

Thanks for all the comments. I look forward to trying them. I will report back on whether I have success or not. Thanks also for the comment on legality. That is why I am going to use only 3 of the 5 arms with jigheads and swimbaits. On the other two arms (top arms) I plan on putting shaky head like spring things that will hold hookless swimbaits. 3 hooks is the limit in Oregon so that setup is legal here. I was going to use 1/4oz heads but maybe I will use 1/8 oz heads after reading the post by @A-jay.

One of my best producing lures out here is a 3" white swimbait on a 1/4oz jig. Often I have other fish following the hooked fish all the way to the kayak. I have been thinking about trying an Alabama rig but was curious if folks had any experience with them for smallmouth. In Oregon there is a 3-hook limit so I am planning on getting some 5-armed rigs and putting hookless baits on the top two arms. Seems like it should work well as long as all that wire does not bother the smallmouth. Just curious if anyone uses them for smallmouth. I am also curious if hooking a double or triple destroys them

That is interesting. I definitely see a lot more pleasure boaters, stand up paddlers, kayakers, etc than previous years here in Portland but I would say that the fishing pressure is just a little higher than normal. The smallmouth bass fishing has been as good as I have ever seen it so far this summer. To the original question, the fall offers some of the best bass fishing here in Portland, OR. I would say that through early to mid October the fishing is usually lights out. The bass bite starts to slow at that point but usually the fish you catch are bigger. Around that time of the year I start to do split days of sturgeon and bass or trout and bass, eventually switching to solely sturgeon fishing through the winter. Location also matters. Most of the year I fish a big river here (Willamette) but I have a hard time finding bass in the late fall (November). I have much better success at my local lake (Hagg) in the late fall. Winter fishing for me is throwing a Carolina rig, drop shot, jig'n'pig or Ned rig at timber that is near the creek channel. I am usually fishing 35-50' deep.

Everything that was old is new again In Billy Westmorland's book "Them Ol' Brown Fish" (1976) the "fly'n'rind" was the smallmouth bait. I think it might even account for the world record. I also remember in the old Fishing Facts magazines in the 70s there was always a full page ad for Northland jigs (hair, feather, bucktail, etc). Folks used them for everything.

For me the biggest thing is how comfortable the rod handle is in my hand and how well it balances with the reel weight. The handle comfort is going to be a bit different for everyone. I have pretty big hands so a lot of rods (especially those with the bare blank near the reel seat) are not comfortable for me. My advice is to go to a tackle store and hold a bunch of rods and find the one that just seems to melt right into your hand. When you hear the angels sing you will know you have the right one. Overall, pretty much any medium to medium light, 7', ~4-12lb test decent quality rod will do. Just find the one that is right for you. If you are breaking rods then perhaps you are high sticking fish when trying to land them. With a properly set drag you should not be able to break a rod on a fish.

Thanks guys! This is an awesome site. Seems like most everyone is friendly and helpful.