Columbia River Smallmouth Bass

The smallmouth fishing in the Bonneville pool is really heating up. They've been releasing a lot of water from The Dalles Dam, increasing the river level and creating endless new smallmouth bass fishing spots. Prime time smallmouth fishing this time of year.

Nice! Thanks for the info.  I went for a paddle on the Willamette with a friend yesterday and afterward I fished from about 10 am to noon. I only got one that I was too embarrassed to even measure for AOTY. 

Nice work. If I drive over want to fish this week? Name the time and place.


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Nice work. If I drive over want to fish this week? Name the time and place.

Looks like a windy and unsettled weather week, be lucky to get out there at all...

Nice! Thanks for the info.  I went for a paddle on the Willamette with a friend yesterday and afterward I fished from about 10 am to noon. I only got one that I was too embarrassed to even measure for AOTY.

At least you got one. I fished the Willamette near Salem for 4 hours Saturday and didn't get a single bass. I ended up with a bunch of perch and blue gill on crappie jigs, but they were all small. I was getting bites on plastics, but couldn't set the hook

The weather is hit and miss this week but I lucked out and managed to get out even though the wind was right on the borderline for safe kayaking. Light and variable with 15-20mph gusts, kind of tricky. More water being released into the Bonneville Pool with serious currents due to high water flow on the main river. Due to a passing cold front and the colder water being released from the dam, the river water temp had dropped, slowing the fishing action. Luckily, even with hazy sun, the shallower water warmed up and the fish started to bite in the afternoon.
First up was this sturgeon. I never fish for sturgeon so catching even a small one on a 10 lb. test rig was quite an adventure. Got it unhooked and back in the water with no harm done.



The bass started to come alive as the water warmed up. Happy to say the big ones are still around.



The Bonneville Pool appears to be at, or near, maximum capacity so things should settle down a bit temperature and current wise in the next few days. If the wind and weather cooperate, the next two or three weeks could be the best smallmouth fishing of the year. I try to keep the situation updated on my blog(link below) and post here as well.

Dang! I'm heading to Tahoe for the rest of the month! Good news is I'm taking the yaks and should find some bass there.

Nice fish.


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Those are some nice bass. Oh and sturgeon too.

Too bad the weather is so crappy because the smallmouth fishing is really good. I've been wanting to head up to John Day, but since the fishing around here is so good and the weather is uncertain, it's hard to get up there. If the fishing is this good here, it must be unbelievable up there. By most accounts, the John Day River area is one of the best smallmouth bass fishing spots in the United States.

Nice fish!  all on jigs?

Nice fish!  all on jigs?

Most of them on 1/8 oz. yellow lead heads with a 3" reddish or watermelon color tail. I call them "grubs", not sure what the technical name is. If you move to a different part of the river, a crankbait like a Rapala X-Rap works for the bigger fish, shad swimbaits work too, but they seem to like the grubs in the spring. I have noticed some of the fish coughing up crayfish, so that's what those grubs must look like to them.

The high water levels and dirty water have really put a damper on the smallmouth bass fishing around here, so I headed east where the bass fishing is generally better. Launched at Celilo Park and fished up to the mouth of the Deschutes River. Unfortunately, the river is high and muddy there as well and the fishing was really slow. It was also very hot, well over 90° and looks to stay that way at least until the middle of next week.



Even though the overall fishing was pretty sad, I did catch one big smallmouth that made my day. This may be the largest smallmouth bass I have ever caught in the Columbia River, for sure the biggest west of the John Day Dam.



There is a more detailed report on my blog. With the Columbia running high and muddy, temperatures in the mid to high 90's, I think it may be a few days off from chasing the bass on the Columbia. I only saw two boats at the mouth of the Deschutes River, normally it looks like a boat show out there, that can't be a good sign.

Nice smallie! You sure make a guy want to head east.  My plan was to get there this Spring/summer, but it looks like that won't be happening.

My plan was to get there this Spring/summer, but it looks like that won't be happening.

If you want the big ones, spring is the best time, you may not catch many fish, but when the water is 55-60°, only the big fish are biting. You can catch smallmouth on the Columbia all year, winter is kind of slow with miserable conditions, all you have to do is find them. That's why fishing for them on a kayak is so much fun; it's more like hunting than fishing, you have to paddle around and use you experience to fish a spot that looks good. With salmon and steelhead, you anchor in the middle of the river, throw something out and hope a fish swims into it while hoping the wind doesn't pick up. For that kind of fishing, I'd rather fish the tributaries when the fish head upstream or find a friend with a nice boat that holds a cooler full of beer and sandwiches.