I hit the Columbia on Saturday the 16th. I was totally stoked because I just knew I was going to have a monster day. When I got to the ramp I was a little dismayed by the amount of wind. Usually the day at least starts off calm but the wind was whipping it was spitting rain. I was not too unhappy though because I knew that rain would have the smallmouth chomping big time.

 

I started the day off tossing a whopper plopper and within a few casts missed what looked to be a good fish. That really had me thinking that it was going to be a day where I had to knock off early because my arms were so tired from fighting big smallmouth. I was really tense on my next cast, but, huh, I did not get a bite. Nor on the next cast or the one after that.

 

After about 15 minutes of peppering this point with casts I had not had another bite. That's OK, some days they just don't want to hit topwater and maybe that makes sense with the wind and the rain. That's OK, I love a good bladed jig stealthblade bite. As I made my first cast a fish swirled chasing something about 10' in front of me and right in the line of retrieve.

 

This is going to be an epic bite I thought as I reeled my lure towards and through the spot where the fish had swirled, but no bite! I figured maybe the fish had moved a little left or right but a thorough fan-casting yielded only the occasional weed. I thought to myself that maybe they want something else. So I picked up my swimbait rod.

 

Second cast with the swimbait and WHAM! I hooked a nice smallmouth that immediately started tail-walking across the surface. It jumped a total of 5 times before I was able to get in my net. It was a nice, but skinny, 18" 2lb 5oz bass. I was now fired up since I was sure I had figured out what they wanted.

 

However, cast after cast laid bare the truth that I had in fact not figured out anything. After tiring of tossing the swimbait I tried a Ned rig, then the wobblehead, then the drop shot but it was like I had caught the only bass in the river. Man, I hate that feeling.

 

I decided to move spots and worked towards one of my favorite shallow shelfs. As soon as I caught past the small weedbed on that shelf I had another bass smack the swimbait. This spot is usually loaded if they are there so I was ready to just start wailing on them but all I could manage was one more fish off of that spot.

 

I decided to move to another spot, then another spot, then a surefire spot that all turned out to be duds. Eventually I made my way pretty far downstream to one of my favorite humps and fished it fruitlessly with a full complement of moving baits. At that point I was pretty frustrated!! I thought the bass have to be somewhere so I started fishing in the deeper water beside the hump. I finally found a small group of fish and managed a few between the Ned and the drop shot.

 

I felt like that was a pretty good clue so I moved to another spot and tried to fish a similar deeper flat that is close to shore. First cast I felt a pop on the drop shot and landed another fish. All right, I know what to do now. Of course, I did not get another sniff off of that spot. However, I at least felt that fishing deep and painfully slow would at least get me some bites.

 

I went back out to the hump and picked up another fish or two and then decided that since I had figured them out I would hit another spot that is just ideal for this type of fishing. The only thing that spot was lacking was fish. Finally out of frustration I thought maybe they are suspended around this beautiful structure so I picked up the stealthblade and on the first cast, POW! I had a violent strike and landed a 1lb 13oz bass (which felt pretty good after the string of smaller bass). OK, I have got them now!

 

Of course that was just another liar fish. I tossed that stealthblade for quite a while but only had one other hit so then it was back to trying to scrape them off the bottom. The next hump I fished yielded two bass, the one after that zero bass.

 

Finally, it had been 7 hours on the water and I had I think 14 bass at that point. I decided to try one last spot and that turned out pretty well. I ended up catching 7 or 8 bass off that last spot in 45 minutes before deciding to call it a day. The reason I packed it in was that once again most of those bass were dinks with the "big" ones going a pound and a half or so.

 

On the day I ended up with 21 bass but they were mostly dinks. I am still not sure why the fishing was so tough. A cold front did pass through in the early morning so maybe that was it. The shad smolt are starting their out-migration to the ocean so maybe that was it. Or the most likely explanation is that I just sucked Oh well, it is good to get humbled every now and again. Anyway, here a  couple of pics and a video (more fishing and less catching in this one!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds like an amazing day of fishing to me 

Naw, it wasn't just you or the Columbia.  Up at Banks on the same day - 75 fish with the biggest 5 going 8 1/2 lbs total!  Monster dinkfest!!

sounds like you had a good day and your persistence paid off.

8 hours ago, pdxfisher said:

However, cast after cast laid bare the truth that I had in fact not figured out anything.

 

8 hours ago, pdxfisher said:

All right, I know what to do now.

 

Been there. Done ^this.^ I tie on a new lure and WHAM, but it's one and done with me still casting a lure that isn't working. 

 

7 hours ago, Glenn said:

Up at Banks on the same day - 75 fish with the biggest 5 going 8 1/2 lbs total!  Monster dinkfest!!

 

That's kinda amazing, Glenn. 

I've noticed since last week that the bite has really died down too.  I have been fishing one of the lakes by Camas quite a bit in the last month and I have gone from catching 15-20 in a 2.5 hour evening to about 5-7 all in a weeks time.  The only thing they seem to want to eat right now is the Crush City Mayor and the Karashi.  I am probably going to head back north in September and start fishing big swimbaits again on Silver and Kress.

14 hours ago, Glenn said:

Naw, it wasn't just you or the Columbia.  Up at Banks on the same day - 75 fish with the biggest 5 going 8 1/2 lbs total!  Monster dinkfest!!

 

Thanks Glen! I feel a bit better about my day!

2 hours ago, Rockhopper said:

I've noticed since last week that the bite has really died down too.  I have been fishing one of the lakes by Camas quite a bit in the last month and I have gone from catching 15-20 in a 2.5 hour evening to about 5-7 all in a weeks time.  The only thing they seem to want to eat right now is the Crush City Mayor and the Karashi.  I am probably going to head back north in September and start fishing big swimbaits again on Silver and Kress.

 

Well maybe I don't stink as bad as I thought if you and @Glenn were not stacking weight then at least I am in good company!

 

@Swamp Girl I am not sure how that happens so often on tough days. Switch baits and bam, one fish then nothing. Switch spots and bam fish on the first cast and then nothing. It is like they are intentionally trying to mislead us

44 minutes ago, pdxfisher said:

It is like they are intentionally trying to mislead us

 

They toy with us. They are cats and we are the balls of yarn. 

I think you have it right @Swamp Girl!!