I fished the lower Willamette river on Sunday the 12th of July. It was almost a great day but I was able to avoid that by consistently snatching defeat from the jaws of victory  We have all had those kinds of days where you almost make the great catch. I guess the fish gods decided it was my time.

 

The day basically broke down into 3 segments. The early morning topwater bite was good but a bit erratic. When I was around a school of bass they would relentlessly attack my Sammy but unless I saw them busting in an area I had very few bites just casting around. Usually the bass are spread in that area and fan casting works pretty well, but not on Sunday.

 

The first time I was able to successfully prevent the day from being great was during the morning topwater bite. I saw some fish breaking a hundred yards or so from me. By the time I got there they had stopped pushing bait but I decided to cast anyways. It was like the whole school was attacking my topwater. I hooked what felt like a good fish. It turned out to be 2 good fish!! I had them right at the kayak when the bigger on pulled off. Dang. The one I landed was my best of the day.

 

 

You can see the double just as I lose one of them around the 7:37 mark of the video linked at the end.

 

Once the topwater bite slowed I started throwing a jerk bait (KVD jerkbait) and they were all over that for a few hours.  It seemed they would not hit the surface but that they would hit the jerkbait a couple feet down. A lot of these fish were along steep banks and bluff walls where there was some hidden collapse so that there was a small point under the water. Some of the fish were shallower and on top of the point and some were over 20-30' of water. I never figured out exactly where the fish were but by moving my casts around I caught them.

 

This pattern accounted for a second lost double of the day for me. On one cast I saw what looked to be at least 20 bass of varying sizes following my jerkbait. Some of the fish were pretty big. Two of the smaller ones attacked it at the same time and I had my second double on for the day. I tried to rush them in just to land them but again, one of the fish pulled off near the kayak. Dang a second time.

 

Once the jerkbait bite started to slow I switched to fishing a drop shot in 15-30' of water around various drop offs, humps, rocky flats and ledges. The bite was good on the drop shot the rest of the day. I occasionally threw a Ned rig but with the wind, current and boat wake chop it was a lot easier to maintain contact with the drop shot. Most all of these fish were dinky in size but they still fight hard on a medium light spinning rod. I was using a Z Man Trick Shotz in green pumpkin. I don't think that the bait was particularly critical but the Z Man baits last the longest by far. I can usually catch 15 or more bass before I have to replace the bait.

 

The third and final snatching of victory from the jaws of defeat came while fishing the drop shot. I hooked a good fish and I was fighting it to the surface. I saw a flash down deep and it did not look like a bass. I got it to just below the surface when the hook just pulled out. I watched a 2-3lb walleye bolt back to the depths. That would have been the first walleye I had every caught  in the Willamette proper. They are rare in that stretch.

 

You can see the walleye just as I lose it around the 21:21 mark of the video. Make sure you watch it in HD or the walleye is just a blur. 

 

I ended the day with 45 bass but there were a lot more dinks than the week before. I will change some things up before I fish there again in an attempt to catch some better quality fish.

 

 

 

 

Forty-five bass and it was "almost a good day"? 

19 minutes ago, Dogface said:

Forty-five bass and it was "almost a good day"? 

First world problems!!

45 bass is not a hard number to hit for a full day on the Willamette. I have had a couple of days with over 100 bass. The fish on this trip (my first to that section this year) seemed smaller than in past years. I would bet for numbers of bass the Willamette is hard to beat. The best part is that most folks out here don't fish for them and instead they focus on salmon and steelhead.

 

Overall, it was a fine day of fishing but I definitely felt the pain of losing the bigger fish of a double and losing a walleye (rare in that section). At least I got them on the video so they can torment me forever

On 7/15/2020 at 12:04 PM, pdxfisher said:

45 bass is not a hard number to hit for a full day on the Willamette. I have had a couple of days with over 100 bass. The fish on this trip (my first to that section this year) seemed smaller than in past years. I would bet for numbers of bass the Willamette is hard to beat. The best part is that most folks out here don't fish for them and instead they focus on salmon and steelhead.

 

Overall, it was a fine day of fishing but I definitely felt the pain of losing the bigger fish of a double and losing a walleye (rare in that section). At least I got them on the video so they can torment me forever

I'd say most bodies of water will get you a raised eyebrow at best or an eyeroll at worst if you tell them your fishing for bass up here in the NW, the vast majority of fishing up here is understood to mean trout steelhead or salmon.

This post should be in the "fishing report" board