I took Friday off to hit the Columbia in hopes of some big bass. The day was a grind but it did pay off!  The main plan was to fish a backwater off of the main river but I started the day just quickly checking a few spots in the main river. The bite was not on fire in the main river, I felt like I had to make a lot of casts per fish, but I did pick up 3 bass including an 18.5" 3lb 11oz fatty. It was a pretty good start!

Then I headed to the backwater. I was expecting to just breeze back there and get to fishing. When I got to the mouth of the backwater though I was amazed to see it was only about 4' wide and a riffle flowing out. I struggled to basically pole my kayak up through the short riffle into the backwater.

When I finally got back in there I was surprised, and a little disappointed, to see a handful of other kayakers already fishing in the backwater. I picked up one fish right away which made a couple of big jumps, the first real jumps of the year. I looked at the water temp and it made sense. The water temp in backwater was anywhere from 57.5-59.5 but the main river was only 52.5F. They definitely had more energy in that backwater!

I was excited by the quick success, but I could not get a second bite off of the first spot. With a small crowd fishing the backwater I decided to pick an area that no one else was in so I could have a little spot to myself. That ended up working out pretty well!

I picked up 2lb 4oz pretty quickly and then shortly after that I hooked my best fish of the day. A 20", 4lb 9oz smallie put up a great fight and I was really happy when I was able to slip my net, with my new net bag, under her and corral her in.

All these first fish came on a whitish jack hammer stealthblade with a smoky shad Minnowz trailer. My plan was to quickly rotate baits to try to keep the bite going in the small area I was fishing. I picked up an regular bladed jig in fire tiger (orange) with an orange trailer to show them something different. That quickly resulted in 2 more bass, but the next dozen casts did not produce. I did get to see (and catch on video) an osprey snagging itself a snack

I then rotated through a Magdraft, flat-sided crankbait, and a jerkbait without a bite. I was thinking of leaving when I went back to the white JH stealthblade and was able to catch a couple more. After some casts without a bite I cycled through my presentations without a sniff so I decided to try and expand my area a bit. The first pass in doing so did not yield anything.

I was thinking of leaving and heading back to the main river when I thought I should at least give the Ned rig a chance. It was clear that these fish were pretty heavily pressured (it was crowded on a Friday) and sometimes the Ned can coax those fish to bite. That turned out to be a good move.

Pretty quickly I hooked a fish. It did not feel that big at first but I guess it was just getting limbered up. Once it took off in earnest I knew I had another good one! This one turned out to be a 19" 3lb 9oz beauty. It felt extra special since I had felt that the bite was already over.

That was my last big fish out of the backwater. I did one more on the Ned rig but it was not a big one. At that point I decided it was time to head back to the main river and finish the day out there.

I pedaled over to the where I had come in I was looking forward to zipping through the tiny little riffle. Wouldn't you know. The river must have come up while I was fishing and now the water was flowing into the backwater. It was the proverbial walking to school up hill both ways our grandparents told us about

This time it was shallow I had to drag my kayak through it. I will say I got a good workout getting in and out of that backwater but it was worth to to catch the 2 bigger bass, and the others. By this time I had a total of 12 bass. My plan at this point was to start hitting the points that had produced non-stop action last week. Of course, the bass were just not on those spots.

I fished a handful of spots where I had success last week but could not get a sniff. By this time it had been several hours since I had caught a fish. I had that feeling like there just weren't any bass in the river to be caught. I was even considering throwing in the towel and heading home. Then I said to myself "Are you really going to wimp out after taking the day off work!!".

I decided that if the bass were not on the points like last trip that maybe they would be in the protected areas between the points. I would not even call them a shallow cove, more just an slight indentation between the points. By this time the wind was dead calm and the sun was beating down. Tough conditions to be fishing for shallow water bass.

I started cycling through the JH stealthblade, shallow crank and jerkbait for about an hour through a handful of spots without a sniff. By this time I was really feeling desparate.

One lure that has always shone in these tough conditions is a 3" swim bait. I always have one tied on year round. I am not sure why I waited so long to pick up that rod. Now, I usually use white but I thought with the reasoanalby clear water (about 4' of visibility) and the calm conditions that I would go more subtle. I went with a Smoky Shad MinnowZ (same as my JH stealthblade trailer).

Now I am not sure if they would not have bit a white one just as well but they ate that Smoky Shad pretty well for the last two hours. I caught 9 bass over the last two hours. Nothing huge but a few over 2lbs including a 2lb 9oz and a 2lb 13oz. The bite was fairly steady in this one area. I once again tried to expand and fish a similar area upstream a ways but did not get a bite. When I went back to my initial area I was able to catch my last few fish of the day.

So it was definitelhy never on fire and I had some long lulls but I was able to scrape together a decent 17lb 3oz (91.25") bag of smallmouth. I never had the wicked fast action like i have run across in previous weeks but by keeping my nose to the grindstone I was able to eke out 21 bass for the day.

After catching 83 bass just 6 days early that bite felt painfully slow but in reality it was not too bad. All the fish I caugh came out of 8' of water or less. I did briefly try fishing deeper but only spent about 15 minutes trying that.

So I would say it was a good day, but did not quite live up to my expections. I was really hoping for a 20lb bag but I guess I will have to do that on the next trip

Here is my video from the day including my struggles getting into and out of the backwater.

All the fish up to this point

You done good.

Another good trip for sure.

And I think that big fish of the day would get you near 55 points in this years State vs State thread.

Do it !

Congrats

👏

A-Jay

21 hours ago, pdxfisher said:

Dang good fish!

That water just looks like amazing smallmouth fishing.

I'm curious, what is the wooden structure in the above picture?

Once again, nice fishing!

What a year you're having! I love how you keep plugging until you're hooking.

11 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Another good trip for sure.

And I think that big fish of the day would get you near 55 points in this years State vs State thread.

Do it !

Congrats

👏

A-Jay

That's not my biggest this year. Let me get one over 5lbs then I will enter it.

9 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

Dang good fish!

That water just looks like amazing smallmouth fishing.

I'm curious, what is the wooden structure in the above picture?

Once again, nice fishing!

Thanks! I am not 100% sure what that structure was built for. It may just be marking the edge of the shallow water there. Now the ospreys nest on it.

Congratulations! Pound for pound how do they fight compare to large mouth?

Being in Southern California we're limited to bodies of water that carry smallies and it's a few hours drive to locations that do have them. I will definitely making it a trip to catch one this year.

On 5/22/2026 at 8:47 AM, 2earlye said:

Congratulations! Pound for pound how do they fight compare to large mouth?

Being in Southern California we're limited to bodies of water that carry smallies and it's a few hours drive to locations that do have them. I will definitely making it a trip to catch one this year.

They fight much harder and much more erratically. They are crazy, largemouth are relatively well-behaved.