John Day River June 28 - July 1

All four in the top row look good.

All four in the top row look good.

Thanks.  I kind of figured you'd choose the firetiger patterns!

-Allen

The river spiked to 818 today.  Rain chance diminishing and staying low through the week  Look like we're out of low water danger levels.  Where the water levels were, I was really worried we'd be dragging at <400.  We'll likely get back down to the 600 range, but that's fine by me.  Long range forecast is showing mind-80's and sunny too.

-Allen

Well, I had a "care package" arrive from Big Hammer today!   

5" Ringer Worms



In the following colors:

Green Pumpkinseed


Watermelon Rod


Green Wienie Red


Black Neon


Magic Bug


Smoke Purple


-Allen

But wait.  There's more.

4" and 5" Salt Shaker Worms


Green Weenie Red


Oxblood Red


Magic Bug


Cinnamon Blue


-Allen

And just when you thought it was too good to be true.

3" Swimbaits

Shad


Bay Smelt


Sexy Smelt


Sara's Shad


-Allen

So all you SMB groupies ... what are your favorites from the above selections?

-Allen

Overall, my best working smallmouth lure on ultralight tackle is an 1/8 oz. yellow lead head with a 3" clear/red flecked tail. I call them "grubs" some call them "flukes". Any plastic tail with red in it works best for me. Smallmouth bass's main food are crayfish, I guess that what it looks like to them. 1/4 oz. lead heads are too heavy, sink too quickly and get snagged on the bottom. Bass are most likely to hit this kind of lure as it is dropping in the water, pulling your rod back a little and letting the lure sink will more often than not trigger a strike. A big plus is that this kind of lure is cheap. You can catch a hundred bass and lose a bunch of lures on snags for less than $10. Lots of guys swear by plastic worms or "senkos", I've had better luck with the grubs.
This time of year, I would also take a few spinnerbaits. 1/8 oz. with a green and orange skirt works best in my experience, black and blue skirt comes in second. Green and orange works best in the morning, black and blue for high water that is a bit muddy. 1/4 oz. Storm Wildeye Swim Shad swimbaits are smallmouth killers, I would take at least a half dozen of those. You can get the spinnerbaits and Storms at Walmart, no sense buying expensive lures when cheap ones work just as well.
Speaking of expensive lures, my favorite crankbait is a silver Rapala X-Rap, I'm sure different colors may work as well, but with this kind of lure, I think it's the action and the noise the little ball inside the lure makes that entices fish to strike. While these lures will catch any size bass, they are best for the big boys. This time of year, especially in the upper sections of the John Day, you'll likely catch a lot of fish, but the best time for the biggest bass has already passed. Not to say you won't catch a big one, but in the early spring, the big fish are the only ones moving. In the summer, the smaller fish need to catch up on feeding, that's most likely what you catch. I'd only throw a crankbait if you think you've got a shot at a lunker, probably hanging out at the bottom of a deep pool. At $5-6 a pop, I can't afford to lose too many of them, especially when it's just as likely you'd catch the same fish with a $1 lead head grub.
I have 4'6" and 4'8" ultralight rods with Shakespeare spinning reels, but go a little heavier with the line, usually 10lb. test, because smallmouth fishing is a rocky affair, 4lb. test trout line doesn't cut it. I hate spinning reels because they twist the line, but you can't really get a baitcaster that will throw an 1/8 oz. lure.
I may not be the world's best smallmouth bass fisherman, but I fish for them quite a bit, probably have over 100 so far this year, including at least ten about 20" or so. I'll be spending some time up in the John Day area, I like to fish closer to the rivermouth with the Columbia. Not as many fish, but bigger.

Thanks ronbo.  What you say is the most likely scenario for the majority of our fishing ... 1/8 oz jigheads and plastics on ultralites.  We'll mix it up with some topwater and other techniques, just because we can.   

-Allen

Take an extra spool of line, you'll lose some tackle for sure.
I wouldn't worry about low water, it would have to drop to less than 150 cfs before it would be impassable by kayak. Between 150 cfs and 300 cfs, you'll be the only watercraft on the river, when the water is high, people try to run some pretty big boats, kind of a pain in the butt because the river is not that wide and fairly shallow. I'd bet you catch most of your fish casting towards shore, you can catch good size fish in less than a foot of water, as long as the bottom is rocky.
I don't want to put the hex on you, but this time of year, they'll hit just about anything. If you don't catch fish after 10-15 minutes, change your lure. The John Day is one of the best smallmouth fisheries in America, we're lucky it's so close because smallmouth bass fishing is perfect for kayak anglers.

Take an extra spool of line, you'll lose some tackle for sure.
I wouldn't worry about low water, it would have to drop to less than 150 cfs before it would be impassable by kayak. Between 150 cfs and 300 cfs, you'll be the only watercraft on the river, when the water is high, people try to run some pretty big boats, kind of a pain in the butt because the river is not that wide and fairly shallow. I'd bet you catch most of your fish casting towards shore, you can catch good size fish in less than a foot of water, as long as the bottom is rocky.
I don't want to put the hex on you, but this time of year, they'll hit just about anything. If you don't catch fish after 10-15 minutes, change your lure. The John Day is one of the best smallmouth fisheries in America, we're lucky it's so close because smallmouth bass fishing is perfect for kayak anglers.

Extra spools of line ... check.

Water leveled off at a little above 800 cfps today.  If there is no more rain, it should drop back down to the 5-600 cfps range by the time we are there.  No worries there.  Also, there are only 3 groups permitted the day before and the day of our launch.  That doesn't seem like a lot to me.  A couple weeks ago there were 13 groups launching into our section.

You're getting me really excited for this trip.  I've been looking forward to this for years now.  Thanks!!!

-Allen

Extra spools of line ... check.

One spool should do it. The reason I mention it is because I use heavier line than recommended(10lb. test on a 4-6lb. reel), so the reel doesn't hold all that much line. You don't really need that much, but a couple snags or a healthy birds nest can take care of most of your line.

Here's a smallmouth from the John Day last year


Taking a break on the John Day

Bring those X-Raps, those things move soooo sexy.  The ringer worms in the first three colors, the shaker worms in the first one or two colors, and the swimbaits in the shad and maybe the sexy smelt.  I've never fished the JD, but those are the colors I would pick out. 

We had a couple of cancellations today due to an unforeseen family issue.  So if someone were to have Friday to Monday off, I got room on the permits.  Only catch is that you'd have to paddle an Old Town Predator or an Ocean Kayak, which we can provide if necessary.  Besides that, you also would need to provide all your own gear and be fairly self sufficient.

-Allen

We had a couple of cancellations today due to an unforeseen family issue.  So if someone were to have Friday to Monday off, I got room on the permits.  Only catch is that you'd have to paddle an Old Town Predator or an Ocean Kayak, which we can provide if necessary.  Besides that, you also would need to provide all your own gear and be fairly self sufficient.

Very tempting. John Day is a 45 minute drive and a favorite fishing spot for me. You say they'll give me a kayak to run down the river? Must be from out of town.