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I hit the Columbia on Sunday the 6th for a day of smallmouth fishing but I got a nice surprise in the middle of the day!
I knew the day was going to be pretty special when I saw the sunrise.
With a start to the day like that you know something great is going to happen. The day started out normally enough for this time of the year. The beautiful sunrise turned into off and on sprinkles and the East wind was annoying but manageable. So pretty good conditions for the gorge
I tried fishing shallow at first but after dusting off a few spots with maybe (probably wishful thinking) bite I decide to go back to fishing deeper which is what has been working for the past few trips. I went out to an isolated rock that I found fish on a couple of weeks ago and started probing it with a drop shot.
I was dragging it along and I could feel it scraping over the big rock when I felt a thump. I set the hook and I was stuck. "Man, that really felt like a fish" I thought to myself. I pedaled up to try and free my rig. When I got upstream and pulled it came free - and there was a fish on!! I think I did hook a fish and my line got caught at the same time. Anyway, it was a funny way to catch my first bass of the day. Not a huge one (1lb 12oz) but a decent fish to start the day.
I immediately went back and quickly picked up my second bass. After releasing that fish I pedaled back to my magic rock and hooked a third fish. This one had some shoulders! After a good fight I was able to land what would end up tying my best fish of the day, a nice 3lb 12oz smallmouth.
Even though the weather was little chilly the fishing was on fire so I felt nice and warm inside. After that fish I decided to change up my presentation to try and keep them biting. I switched to a Ned rig just to show them something different. It seems to me that if I rotate my baits I can catch more fish off a spot as opposed to fishing it to death with one bait and then trying to switch things up.
I was also excited to fish the Ned because I had bought a new Shimano Vanford to put on my Ned rig rod. The worm gear on my old Shimano (~20 years old) was starting to catch sometimes and I knew it was on its last legs (and good luck finding parts for a reel that old). Anyway, I quickly picked up several fish on the Ned and I was in love with the weight and performance of the new reel.
After those fish I switched to a wobblehead jig and picked up another, and then after a few casts without a bite I went back to the drop shot. In the end I was able to catch 10 bass off of a rock that is only about 10' long and sticks up a couple of feet in 25' of water. Eventually though that spot dried up and so I decided to try shallow again.
That was a waste of time. I maybe got one bite up shallow all day. I admit I did not fish up shallow all that long but I fished enough to understand that the bulk of the fish were not cruising the shallows.
After the short foray into the shallows I decided to head to the spot where I caught the bulk of my best fish two weeks ago and once again the spot did not disappoint. I ended up sharing the spot with a guy in a bass boat. He was killing them on a deep ncrankbait and I was racking them on the wobblehead. My best stretch was back-to-back-to-back fish and he was doing at least as good as I was if not better. After a while he yelled over that he was going to leave the spot for me. I thought that was really nice of him! The bass this week were a little shallower than the two weeks prior and were seemed to be sitting in 10-15'.
After he left I decided to quickly hit the shallows at that spot to see if any fish had their noses to the bank. I was tossing a white swimbait next to the shore when I felt a thump! I set the hook and the fish felt really funny. It seemed to swim much faster than the bass I had been catching. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I finally corralled a small steelhead in my net (got a great jump on video).
That is the first steelhead I have caught in the Columbia while fishing for bass! What a treat. I carefully unhooked the fish and sent it on its way. A good day just got even better!
After that I made a few more casts with the swimbait but I figured lightning was not going to strike twice so I put that rod down and picked the Ned rod back up. I am not sure if resting the deeper spot helped or if more nice fish moved in but I started catching some really nice bass on that Ned rig. The new Vanford performed like a champ and three of those bass went over 3lbs, including another 3lb 12oz bass!! After a bit the bite eventually slowed and after making a few casts I decided I would start to head back and stop and fish a spot or two on the way back.
I hit the magic rock from the morning but only managed on fish. I hit one of my favorite shallow spots and could not get a bite. Then I pulled up to where they dock the big boats. I even though that spot looks like a lot of nothing there are often bass hanging around there. I quickly picked up three bass on the Ned but they were all small so I decided I would continue on to the ramp.
I stopped at one last little point and scraped up my last fish of the day. It was another small one so I decided to call it a day.
It really ended up being a day worthy of the sunrise. I ended up with 27 bass with four over 3lbs and my best 5 weighing 16lb 11oz. A lot of the bass were just 1 to 1.5lbs but they are still fun on the light spinning gear. The bass alone would have made for a really good day but the steelhead really took it over the top!! What a blast!
Anyway, here are pictures of the other 4 of my best 5 (other one is up above).
The other 3lb 12 oz
3lb 6oz
3lb 2oz
And of course a video of the day:
I knew the day was going to be pretty special when I saw the sunrise.
With a start to the day like that you know something great is going to happen. The day started out normally enough for this time of the year. The beautiful sunrise turned into off and on sprinkles and the East wind was annoying but manageable. So pretty good conditions for the gorge
I tried fishing shallow at first but after dusting off a few spots with maybe (probably wishful thinking) bite I decide to go back to fishing deeper which is what has been working for the past few trips. I went out to an isolated rock that I found fish on a couple of weeks ago and started probing it with a drop shot.
I was dragging it along and I could feel it scraping over the big rock when I felt a thump. I set the hook and I was stuck. "Man, that really felt like a fish" I thought to myself. I pedaled up to try and free my rig. When I got upstream and pulled it came free - and there was a fish on!! I think I did hook a fish and my line got caught at the same time. Anyway, it was a funny way to catch my first bass of the day. Not a huge one (1lb 12oz) but a decent fish to start the day.
I immediately went back and quickly picked up my second bass. After releasing that fish I pedaled back to my magic rock and hooked a third fish. This one had some shoulders! After a good fight I was able to land what would end up tying my best fish of the day, a nice 3lb 12oz smallmouth.
Even though the weather was little chilly the fishing was on fire so I felt nice and warm inside. After that fish I decided to change up my presentation to try and keep them biting. I switched to a Ned rig just to show them something different. It seems to me that if I rotate my baits I can catch more fish off a spot as opposed to fishing it to death with one bait and then trying to switch things up.
I was also excited to fish the Ned because I had bought a new Shimano Vanford to put on my Ned rig rod. The worm gear on my old Shimano (~20 years old) was starting to catch sometimes and I knew it was on its last legs (and good luck finding parts for a reel that old). Anyway, I quickly picked up several fish on the Ned and I was in love with the weight and performance of the new reel.
After those fish I switched to a wobblehead jig and picked up another, and then after a few casts without a bite I went back to the drop shot. In the end I was able to catch 10 bass off of a rock that is only about 10' long and sticks up a couple of feet in 25' of water. Eventually though that spot dried up and so I decided to try shallow again.
That was a waste of time. I maybe got one bite up shallow all day. I admit I did not fish up shallow all that long but I fished enough to understand that the bulk of the fish were not cruising the shallows.
After the short foray into the shallows I decided to head to the spot where I caught the bulk of my best fish two weeks ago and once again the spot did not disappoint. I ended up sharing the spot with a guy in a bass boat. He was killing them on a deep ncrankbait and I was racking them on the wobblehead. My best stretch was back-to-back-to-back fish and he was doing at least as good as I was if not better. After a while he yelled over that he was going to leave the spot for me. I thought that was really nice of him! The bass this week were a little shallower than the two weeks prior and were seemed to be sitting in 10-15'.
After he left I decided to quickly hit the shallows at that spot to see if any fish had their noses to the bank. I was tossing a white swimbait next to the shore when I felt a thump! I set the hook and the fish felt really funny. It seemed to swim much faster than the bass I had been catching. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I finally corralled a small steelhead in my net (got a great jump on video).
That is the first steelhead I have caught in the Columbia while fishing for bass! What a treat. I carefully unhooked the fish and sent it on its way. A good day just got even better!
After that I made a few more casts with the swimbait but I figured lightning was not going to strike twice so I put that rod down and picked the Ned rod back up. I am not sure if resting the deeper spot helped or if more nice fish moved in but I started catching some really nice bass on that Ned rig. The new Vanford performed like a champ and three of those bass went over 3lbs, including another 3lb 12oz bass!! After a bit the bite eventually slowed and after making a few casts I decided I would start to head back and stop and fish a spot or two on the way back.
I hit the magic rock from the morning but only managed on fish. I hit one of my favorite shallow spots and could not get a bite. Then I pulled up to where they dock the big boats. I even though that spot looks like a lot of nothing there are often bass hanging around there. I quickly picked up three bass on the Ned but they were all small so I decided I would continue on to the ramp.
I stopped at one last little point and scraped up my last fish of the day. It was another small one so I decided to call it a day.
It really ended up being a day worthy of the sunrise. I ended up with 27 bass with four over 3lbs and my best 5 weighing 16lb 11oz. A lot of the bass were just 1 to 1.5lbs but they are still fun on the light spinning gear. The bass alone would have made for a really good day but the steelhead really took it over the top!! What a blast!
Anyway, here are pictures of the other 4 of my best 5 (other one is up above).
The other 3lb 12 oz
3lb 6oz
3lb 2oz
And of course a video of the day: