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A bunch in the 1.5 to 2lb range. I lost a real pig on the jump though.
Willamette River Fishing Reports
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I put in a long 11 hour day on the upper Willamette River (Willamette park in West Linn) on Saturday the 10th. It was a beautiful day for fishing with a nice overcast for most of the day, a few sprinkles in the afternoon. A bit less wind would have been nice from a fishability point of view but the bass could not have been more active.
I started fishing around 6am. I was tossing a topwater stick bait. I had wanted to fish the bay formed by the Tualatin but there was already a boat in there fishing by the time I had arrived. Instead I started fishing the hydrilla between the ramp and the mouth of the bay. In retrospect I think I was lucky those guys were in the bay, because the bass were really active out where I was. There was some type of Mayfly either hatch or mating and egg laying going on (I think it was the latter) and that started the food chain a churning. Within a couple of casts I had a blow up on my topwater and I was a bit surprised when I pulled in a largemouth.
What was really wild is that my first 6 bass (all on the topwater) were largemouth and all from that same general area. After a while the bassboat left the bay so I went in to check it out. I made a few dozen casts without a hit so I decided either they had caught all the biters or the bass just weren't there. In either case I decided to move out to the huge flat that starts just outside the bay.
The topwater bite continued for me and I added 8 smallmouth to the 6 largemouth before the wind picked up. Here is my best topwater fish ( a nice chunky 2lb fish).
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/2gV5iKW']A couple of things that helped me hook more fish this week than previous weeks is that I slowed down the retrieve a bit. I think that made it easier for the fish to actually grab the bait rather than swipe at it and miss. Once the wind picked up I missed a couple of hits so I decided to put away the topwater. I just miss too many fish when it is choppy. They still bite it pretty well but my hook up ratio really heads south.
I switched to a jerkbait and kept working my way up the flat and one thing I was amazed by is the amount of hydrilla that is in that section of the river now. I have not fished the upper Willamette in the summer and that was quite a shock. A lot of the flat did not have any and that is where I was mostly concentrating. The bass seemed to be roving around chasing some kind of bait. It was mix of decent fish and dinks.
My shoulder started to hurt a little so I put the jerkbait down and switched to a white swimbait as I moved up to a point that I really like. Most of the point was pretty clean with a little hydrilla near the shore, but not too much. The swimbait, which I have been loving this year, again proved to be a killer. Here a couple of beauties I caught on back to back casts.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gV6gno]
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/2gV5iKW']I was surprised at how differently they were colored since they were clearly from the same group of fish.
The wind was blowing downstream so fishing the point was pretty ideal. I just pedaled slowly to hold my position and slowly work my way upstream and cover the point (which is pretty big). I ended up catching a ton of fish off of that point before that bite died down. So many good-sized fish were schooled up there in 6-9' of water. As an experiment I threw a spinnerbait for a little while and they liked that too, but it did not cast as well into the wind so I went back to the swimbait.
At some point the wind died down a little so I quickly scooted to an offshore hump that drops off quickly into deep water and has a bunch of cuts and irregularites about it. That has been a great Ned rig spot for me each time out this year. I caught one on the Ned rig on my first cast, The lure did not even hit the bottom. However after that cast the lure was hitting the bottom and immediately picking up this short clingy weed. After a short while I put down the Ned rig and picked up a drop shot. This worked much better. The sinker at the bottom would get some weeds on it but the lure stayed clear. I was mostly catching dinks but did manage one nice fish.
That fish really put up a great fight dogging deep most of the battle but once I got it close to the kayak it just kept jumping repeatedly and almost tail-walking once. After that fish I only caught dinks on the dropshot and since the swimbait had been producing so many nice fish I abandoned the dropshot and went back to fishing 6-9' of water with a swimbait.
The wind picked up pretty strongly around then but the fish kept biting. That section of the river just has a ton of offshore water that is 6-10' deep. As I worked my upstream I kept steadily picking up nice bass on the swimbait. A few dinks here and there, but mostly nice sized fish. Eventually, I worked my way up to a section that had a lot of hydrilla. The swimbait was hanging most casts so I tried throwing the topwater for a bit but I did not get any strikes (that I could see in the chop). I was pretty frustrated and then I thought back to my days in PA and NC. I had fished this exact situation hundreds of time and a lure called a Mann's baby 1-minus was always a great choice.
I dug through my lure boxes and eventually found my sole bably 1-minus and tied it on. It is called a 1-minus because it is a crankbait that runs less than a foot deep and if I lift my rod high I can even make it bulge the surface. It is also really fat (almost roundish) and the body pushes weeds away from the trebles. Most of they hydrilla had a little water over top of it because the current was causing the weeds to lay down a bit. It was a perfect situation for this lure. This lure ended up being nothing short of deadly in this situation - especially when the wind died down for a bit and I could see the cuts and holes in the hydrilla and steer my lure through them.
Coolest thing happened during the calm period. I hooked a nice sized bass and had it about 15' from the kayak when it jumped and spit the lure. I watched the lure and as soon as it hit the water I saw 2 bass zoom up and both smash it. I had them both hooked for a second but one came off pretty quickly. It was just that kind of a day.
Ater the brief lull in the wind it came back with more fury. I kept throwing the baby 1-minus but now I was mostly fishing blind due to the chop. Even in the wind that lure casts like a bullet due to its roundness so I just kept chucking and winding and picking up fish. All was going well until I was burning it in (I fiish it as fast as I can reel with pauses) when it hit something solid. I thought, "Oh no I snagged up my only baby 1-minus". I only had that thought for a second because then a huge pig of a smallmouth leaped high into the air and gave me my lure back. I am not sure if I had known it was a fish if I could have done anything to prevent that jump and keep it hooked but I will never know. I would guess that fish was an easy 4lbs.
I went back to fishing but losing that fish really took the wind out of my sails. I was still catching fish - and decent ones - but nothing like the pig I had lost. As the day wore on the wind kept picking up and the sun even came out for a bit every now for a short bit and the fish just kept biting.
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/2gV6i2v']
Late in the afternoon the wind got really serious and there were enough boats wakeboarding to make the river a choppy mess. At that point, I decided I had caught plenty of fish and just quickly fished my way back towards the ramp. As I got downriver from the big hydrilla fields I switched back to the white swimbait and finished the day with that. I just let the current and the wind push me back to the ramp and made casts in all directions as I floated over the huge mid-river flat that dominates that section of the river. Every once in a while I would catch a handful of fish. I can only think that they are roaming the flats in small schools chasing bait. These areas had no reason to hold fish. Just a large barren flat, but the fish were there anyway.
Overall, I caught more fish on Saturday than I did the week before at George Rogers, but I fished 3 hours longer. My catch rate was a little slower but man the number of nice fish was amazing. I only took pictures of a few because after a while the nice sized fish were kind of normal. For the most part I did not need much skill to catch those fish. Just toss out a white swimbait on a 1/4oz jighead and reel it just fast enough to keep it off the bottom. That is some nice relaxing fishing.
I now wonder if the large number of weeds in the upper river make it more nutrient rich. This was only one trip but the bass do seem to be of a larger average size and there seem to be a lot more fish in the 1.5 to 2lb range. Of course I did have pretty ideal conditions so I don't want to draw too many conclusions from a single trip, but I sure hope it is true
I started fishing around 6am. I was tossing a topwater stick bait. I had wanted to fish the bay formed by the Tualatin but there was already a boat in there fishing by the time I had arrived. Instead I started fishing the hydrilla between the ramp and the mouth of the bay. In retrospect I think I was lucky those guys were in the bay, because the bass were really active out where I was. There was some type of Mayfly either hatch or mating and egg laying going on (I think it was the latter) and that started the food chain a churning. Within a couple of casts I had a blow up on my topwater and I was a bit surprised when I pulled in a largemouth.
What was really wild is that my first 6 bass (all on the topwater) were largemouth and all from that same general area. After a while the bassboat left the bay so I went in to check it out. I made a few dozen casts without a hit so I decided either they had caught all the biters or the bass just weren't there. In either case I decided to move out to the huge flat that starts just outside the bay.
The topwater bite continued for me and I added 8 smallmouth to the 6 largemouth before the wind picked up. Here is my best topwater fish ( a nice chunky 2lb fish).
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/2gV5iKW']A couple of things that helped me hook more fish this week than previous weeks is that I slowed down the retrieve a bit. I think that made it easier for the fish to actually grab the bait rather than swipe at it and miss. Once the wind picked up I missed a couple of hits so I decided to put away the topwater. I just miss too many fish when it is choppy. They still bite it pretty well but my hook up ratio really heads south.
I switched to a jerkbait and kept working my way up the flat and one thing I was amazed by is the amount of hydrilla that is in that section of the river now. I have not fished the upper Willamette in the summer and that was quite a shock. A lot of the flat did not have any and that is where I was mostly concentrating. The bass seemed to be roving around chasing some kind of bait. It was mix of decent fish and dinks.
My shoulder started to hurt a little so I put the jerkbait down and switched to a white swimbait as I moved up to a point that I really like. Most of the point was pretty clean with a little hydrilla near the shore, but not too much. The swimbait, which I have been loving this year, again proved to be a killer. Here a couple of beauties I caught on back to back casts.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gV6gno]
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/2gV5iKW']I was surprised at how differently they were colored since they were clearly from the same group of fish.
The wind was blowing downstream so fishing the point was pretty ideal. I just pedaled slowly to hold my position and slowly work my way upstream and cover the point (which is pretty big). I ended up catching a ton of fish off of that point before that bite died down. So many good-sized fish were schooled up there in 6-9' of water. As an experiment I threw a spinnerbait for a little while and they liked that too, but it did not cast as well into the wind so I went back to the swimbait.
At some point the wind died down a little so I quickly scooted to an offshore hump that drops off quickly into deep water and has a bunch of cuts and irregularites about it. That has been a great Ned rig spot for me each time out this year. I caught one on the Ned rig on my first cast, The lure did not even hit the bottom. However after that cast the lure was hitting the bottom and immediately picking up this short clingy weed. After a short while I put down the Ned rig and picked up a drop shot. This worked much better. The sinker at the bottom would get some weeds on it but the lure stayed clear. I was mostly catching dinks but did manage one nice fish.
That fish really put up a great fight dogging deep most of the battle but once I got it close to the kayak it just kept jumping repeatedly and almost tail-walking once. After that fish I only caught dinks on the dropshot and since the swimbait had been producing so many nice fish I abandoned the dropshot and went back to fishing 6-9' of water with a swimbait.
The wind picked up pretty strongly around then but the fish kept biting. That section of the river just has a ton of offshore water that is 6-10' deep. As I worked my upstream I kept steadily picking up nice bass on the swimbait. A few dinks here and there, but mostly nice sized fish. Eventually, I worked my way up to a section that had a lot of hydrilla. The swimbait was hanging most casts so I tried throwing the topwater for a bit but I did not get any strikes (that I could see in the chop). I was pretty frustrated and then I thought back to my days in PA and NC. I had fished this exact situation hundreds of time and a lure called a Mann's baby 1-minus was always a great choice.
I dug through my lure boxes and eventually found my sole bably 1-minus and tied it on. It is called a 1-minus because it is a crankbait that runs less than a foot deep and if I lift my rod high I can even make it bulge the surface. It is also really fat (almost roundish) and the body pushes weeds away from the trebles. Most of they hydrilla had a little water over top of it because the current was causing the weeds to lay down a bit. It was a perfect situation for this lure. This lure ended up being nothing short of deadly in this situation - especially when the wind died down for a bit and I could see the cuts and holes in the hydrilla and steer my lure through them.
Coolest thing happened during the calm period. I hooked a nice sized bass and had it about 15' from the kayak when it jumped and spit the lure. I watched the lure and as soon as it hit the water I saw 2 bass zoom up and both smash it. I had them both hooked for a second but one came off pretty quickly. It was just that kind of a day.
Ater the brief lull in the wind it came back with more fury. I kept throwing the baby 1-minus but now I was mostly fishing blind due to the chop. Even in the wind that lure casts like a bullet due to its roundness so I just kept chucking and winding and picking up fish. All was going well until I was burning it in (I fiish it as fast as I can reel with pauses) when it hit something solid. I thought, "Oh no I snagged up my only baby 1-minus". I only had that thought for a second because then a huge pig of a smallmouth leaped high into the air and gave me my lure back. I am not sure if I had known it was a fish if I could have done anything to prevent that jump and keep it hooked but I will never know. I would guess that fish was an easy 4lbs.
I went back to fishing but losing that fish really took the wind out of my sails. I was still catching fish - and decent ones - but nothing like the pig I had lost. As the day wore on the wind kept picking up and the sun even came out for a bit every now for a short bit and the fish just kept biting.
[URL='https://flic.kr/p/2gV6i2v']
Late in the afternoon the wind got really serious and there were enough boats wakeboarding to make the river a choppy mess. At that point, I decided I had caught plenty of fish and just quickly fished my way back towards the ramp. As I got downriver from the big hydrilla fields I switched back to the white swimbait and finished the day with that. I just let the current and the wind push me back to the ramp and made casts in all directions as I floated over the huge mid-river flat that dominates that section of the river. Every once in a while I would catch a handful of fish. I can only think that they are roaming the flats in small schools chasing bait. These areas had no reason to hold fish. Just a large barren flat, but the fish were there anyway.
Overall, I caught more fish on Saturday than I did the week before at George Rogers, but I fished 3 hours longer. My catch rate was a little slower but man the number of nice fish was amazing. I only took pictures of a few because after a while the nice sized fish were kind of normal. For the most part I did not need much skill to catch those fish. Just toss out a white swimbait on a 1/4oz jighead and reel it just fast enough to keep it off the bottom. That is some nice relaxing fishing.
I now wonder if the large number of weeds in the upper river make it more nutrient rich. This was only one trip but the bass do seem to be of a larger average size and there seem to be a lot more fish in the 1.5 to 2lb range. Of course I did have pretty ideal conditions so I don't want to draw too many conclusions from a single trip, but I sure hope it is true
I
igquick
0
It's hard to be 90% consistent when landing them, with all the head shaking and jumping. So far, I've always felt it best to always keep the rod down unless they are near snaggy structure.
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Totally agree. I always try to knock a jump down when I can by keeping the rod low and constantly changing the angle. Unfortunately this was at the end of a long cast and I thought it was a snag when it hit because it just felt like the lure stopped dead cold. With that much line out, I don't know that there is anything that could have been done - but it doesn't stop me from replaying it a thousand times a day in my head
EOBOY
Well-known member
Bass:
Another great report. Did you make it all the way up to Rock Island? Going with Ben tomorrow in the DB. Ya finally got to me.......
Another great report. Did you make it all the way up to Rock Island? Going with Ben tomorrow in the DB. Ya finally got to me.......
I
igquick
0
I know that feeling! Hook into one after a far cast, and you think to yourself, it's going to jump a few times before it gets to me and you might lose it...sometimes I wish they stayed down like carp
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No. I didn't quite make it all the way up there. The fishing was so good on the flats, humps and points on the way there I ran out of time I can only imagine the fishing is even better around the island.
I can only imagine the fishing is even better around the island.
EOBOY
Well-known member
bass said:No. I didn't quite make it all the way up there. The fishing was so good on the flats, humps and points on the way there I ran out of time
Bass:
Did a "shake down cruise" Yesterday, headed straight for the island and found out why no one fish's the inside arm of the island. There is a slalom course built in there now.......WTF? full of skiers? My favorite water is a ski course!!!!! I can see I'm going to have to bring my toon to do the best there. Some FAT fish in the river.
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That slalom course has been there since early this summer. @portlandrain and I saw it when we went fishing together early in the summer. No one was using it the day we were there but we asked someone what it was. I am surprised that there were folks out there during the week, maybe it is onl used during the week - I can't say if there were boats in there or not last weekend.
One thing that is nice about that whole stretch of river from the ramp to the island is that the West half of the river does not get as much boat traffic since the channel is on the East side and marked. Definitely nicer than fishing the lower river in terms of boat traffic. There are plenty of bass on that side of the river so I am usually content to fish that stretch.
One thing that is nice about that whole stretch of river from the ramp to the island is that the West half of the river does not get as much boat traffic since the channel is on the East side and marked. Definitely nicer than fishing the lower river in terms of boat traffic. There are plenty of bass on that side of the river so I am usually content to fish that stretch.
EOBOY
Well-known member
@bass :
@bass thanks to all your "tutorials" over the last few weeks yesterday was a good one for me on the Willy, not so much for Ben and his buddy Chris. We didn't start fishing at the mouth of the Tualatin, we moved up river till we found a couple of humps and started throwing plugs with no success. so I went to a wacky worm and first cast caught a nice 2lb'er. They continued throwing chatter baits..I kept catching fish so they so turned to me and ask if I had more wacky worms. Sure! By the time they had rigged up the bite slowed so we moved up river and found another hump. There was a nice drop OFF on both sides so I let them fish the bank side while I threw out to the river side, first cast another fish. Soon they turned and started fishing the river side so I threw to the bank side........another fish.
The bite got slow again and there weren't any boats on the East bank so we headed over there to where we had caught fish last week. They still hadn't caught a fish and I was starting to feel bad for them, Chris said no problem atlest I know there are fish here. When we got to the East bank first cast I caught another nice fish. Finally Chris landed a fish, and then Ben picked one up. I continued to catch fish and was starting to worry I might not make it back to the dock. Or worse yet they wouldn't go fishing with me again.
They caught 2 fish each I quit counting at about 20. Chris I think was fairly new to fishing, but never complained and ask where we were going next week, good for him! Told him maybe we would go to Rogers and up the the mouth of the Yamhill, I've heard it can be good there.
@bass thanks to all your "tutorials" over the last few weeks yesterday was a good one for me on the Willy, not so much for Ben and his buddy Chris. We didn't start fishing at the mouth of the Tualatin, we moved up river till we found a couple of humps and started throwing plugs with no success. so I went to a wacky worm and first cast caught a nice 2lb'er. They continued throwing chatter baits..I kept catching fish so they so turned to me and ask if I had more wacky worms. Sure! By the time they had rigged up the bite slowed so we moved up river and found another hump. There was a nice drop OFF on both sides so I let them fish the bank side while I threw out to the river side, first cast another fish. Soon they turned and started fishing the river side so I threw to the bank side........another fish.
The bite got slow again and there weren't any boats on the East bank so we headed over there to where we had caught fish last week. They still hadn't caught a fish and I was starting to feel bad for them, Chris said no problem atlest I know there are fish here. When we got to the East bank first cast I caught another nice fish. Finally Chris landed a fish, and then Ben picked one up. I continued to catch fish and was starting to worry I might not make it back to the dock. Or worse yet they wouldn't go fishing with me again.
They caught 2 fish each I quit counting at about 20. Chris I think was fairly new to fishing, but never complained and ask where we were going next week, good for him! Told him maybe we would go to Rogers and up the the mouth of the Yamhill, I've heard it can be good there.
Last edited by a moderator:
hobster
Well-known member
Right on Dana glad you got to get out there and hook some. Bass fishing can be fun as hell, and the way the steelhead and salmon runs are going I might be doing a lot more of it. Hope we can get together soon! The wife and I are going camping again this weekend, she loves the trailer. Thanks again brother!
EOBOY
Well-known member
Ha, knew you'r wife liked to camp, more fun when you have someone to go with. You heard Rosemary? Something about disaster, broken bones and such. She's no camping queen.
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Good job whackin' em and stackin' em @EOBOY !
Glad to hear you were able to get the others on fish as well.
I want to try fishing way upriver one of these days, maybe launch Buena Vista or something and pedal up the Luckiamute and the Santiam. I have never been on that part of the river and it would be fun to explore some new water. I assume those fish see very little pressure.
Glad to hear you were able to get the others on fish as well.
I want to try fishing way upriver one of these days, maybe launch Buena Vista or something and pedal up the Luckiamute and the Santiam. I have never been on that part of the river and it would be fun to explore some new water. I assume those fish see very little pressure.
hobster
Well-known member
EOBOY said:
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I hit the Willie out of Newberg on Sunday the 8th. The forecast was for the second day of a cooling trend with rain in the forecast. I had a hard time sleeping the night before. Often these cooling trends in the fall are dynamite. I slept in a little and did not get to the river until about 6:40am. I had been concerned that there would be too much wind in the forecast for a morning topwater bite but the river was pleasantly calm and still. As I watched the river I was a little concerned that I did not see any fish breaking the surface, but that is not always necessary for a good topwater bite.
I rushed to get my kayak ready and made my way down the ramp. One bass boat had beaten me out that morning and I watched them take off upstream. I launched my kayak and headed down towards the bridge. There is some good water along that stretch. I started throwing my stick bait and almost immediately it was being attacked by small fish (baby bass or bluegill). I made may way down a short distance when I hooked up with a decent pound and a half largemouth. I picked the fish up and reached for my camera. Where is my camera ?! Wait, where is my PFD??
In my excitement to fish I had left my PFD in the truck. After a few choice words with myself I pedaled back to the ramp, tied up, and got my PFD. That was a first for me. I think the only left for me to forget now are my pants
I put on my PFD and raced back to where I had caught that largemouth. I was hoping there was a pile of them on that spot, but apparently he was a loner, or the other bass were laughing so hard at my stupidity that they could not bite. So I just continued down river. Every once in a while I would get a small hit but for the most part my stick bait was being ignored. I was kind of shocked, it looked so good dancing in the water. When I had finished dusting off a nice flat with it with only one dink smallmouth I decided it was time to put down the topwater.
I picked up a jerkbait and within a couple of casts I had a fish. I thought, "thats OK, this is a fun bait to fish". However, that was it for the jerkbait. So I picked up my Ned rig rod to teach them a lesson. I caught two quick SMALL-ies (emphasis on the small) and then that shut down. I decided that perhaps I was just fishing where there weren't fish and moved down to the area around the bridge.
This is another area with a lot of nice depth water and good current. Now, if I can't catch them here there is definitely something wrong. I fished the heck out of that area and only managed to scrape out a few more fish. The "big one" was maybe over a pound. I was suddenly hit with a wave of self-doubt. "I should have gone to George Rogers park", "I was stupid to come here and waste this weather", "Is there still time to leave and go somewhere else?" Every fisherman knows that feeling when you think you should be catching them and you don't
I decided it was too late to leave and so I sucked it up and decided to continue downstream. I picked up the Ned rig and decided that I would scrape out what I could and then never come back to this stupid place. I worked every little hump and point and continued to catch fish at a painfully slow pace, but I kept my nose to the grindstone. I had finally worked my way down past where I had fished when I was there earlier this spring. All my "good" spots were depleted with only about a dozen fish in what should have been the best 3 hours of fishing.
As I worked my way along I kept my eye on my depthfinder since this was new water to me. I remembered in looking at the Navionics web app that there was not much along this stretch but I was fishing every inch since what should have worked wasn't. I drifted down over a nothing stretch of bank and I saw that the bottom there went from about 28' up to 20' and then back down to about 28'. The make up looked almost like rip rap. I was also marking fish all over that thing. I put down the Ned rig and picked up my drop shot rod.
I dropped it straight down and lifted the rod. Stuck. I thought this is just par for the course today. Then the stuckness started to throb. Woohoo fish on!!
Nice pound plus smallmouth. I quickly released that fish and dropped back down. My bait hit the bottom. I lifted the rod and it was heavy again:
Maybe even a little nicer. I kept that up for a good two hours. The wind would come and go but I would find the spot drop down and catch a fish. I caught over 30 bass in about 2 hours off that little spot. By the end the bite had slowed a little and I would have to jiggle my drop shot around for a few minutes before getting bit but it was a fish on almost every drop for those two hours. The amazing thing was the size. Almost every fish was over a pound and some were close to two. On a light spinning rod that is a real battle! Just one more pic for fun!
I have to say nothing feels better than getting on a bunch of fish when all you have is despair in your heart. That day went from misery to elation. The interesting thing about that spot is that after going over it so many times my mental image is that it looks like a mini version of the finger jetties at Newport, just 20' down. Man what a blast.
By the time I decided to leave that spot the rain had just started to spit a little off and on. I decided I wanted to cover a bunch more water since the day was now officially a huge success and I wanted to learn as much as possible. Eventually I came across another rocky patch in 20' with deeper water around it. The fishing was not quite as good here as spot number one but it was close. I really had that pattern dialed in and I could have finished the day at spot number two, but my heart was light and I wanted to explore.
I worked pretty far down the bank when the rain started in earnest. I had found a bunch of decent spots on the way down (fishing quickly and watching my graph constantly). I fished on particular dock that had a bunch of largemouth and smallmouth on it. I was getting to the point of, "Oh, another 2lb smallmouth, isn't that nice". The dock was shallower and weedy and brushy and I switched to the swimbait to fish it.
Once that spot tired out I decided to quickly fish my way home with the swimbait. I was working a shallow flat that dropped into 20' of water when I felt that odd sensation that occurs when a bass eats the swim jig and keeps swimming along with it. I set the hook and whoa, this was a good fish. I worked it to the boat and it just kept diving under the yak. Each time that happened I held my breath expecting that the hook would pull out. Finally she tired out and I was able to grab her:
A nice fat 2lb 14oz smallie. I weighed her 4 times trying to get her to 3lbs but she was just shy
After that fish I mostly headed back, stopping to throw the swimbait here and there. They were eating it pretty good (like I thought the whole day should have gone) but I was ready to head home.
What a cathartic day, I went from the pits of despair to cloud nine. The bass played hide and seek with me for a good part of the morning but once I did find them it definitely turned into some of the best bass action I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I was close to giving up, but man am I glad I am stubborn.
I rushed to get my kayak ready and made my way down the ramp. One bass boat had beaten me out that morning and I watched them take off upstream. I launched my kayak and headed down towards the bridge. There is some good water along that stretch. I started throwing my stick bait and almost immediately it was being attacked by small fish (baby bass or bluegill). I made may way down a short distance when I hooked up with a decent pound and a half largemouth. I picked the fish up and reached for my camera. Where is my camera ?! Wait, where is my PFD??
In my excitement to fish I had left my PFD in the truck. After a few choice words with myself I pedaled back to the ramp, tied up, and got my PFD. That was a first for me. I think the only left for me to forget now are my pants
I put on my PFD and raced back to where I had caught that largemouth. I was hoping there was a pile of them on that spot, but apparently he was a loner, or the other bass were laughing so hard at my stupidity that they could not bite. So I just continued down river. Every once in a while I would get a small hit but for the most part my stick bait was being ignored. I was kind of shocked, it looked so good dancing in the water. When I had finished dusting off a nice flat with it with only one dink smallmouth I decided it was time to put down the topwater.
I picked up a jerkbait and within a couple of casts I had a fish. I thought, "thats OK, this is a fun bait to fish". However, that was it for the jerkbait. So I picked up my Ned rig rod to teach them a lesson. I caught two quick SMALL-ies (emphasis on the small) and then that shut down. I decided that perhaps I was just fishing where there weren't fish and moved down to the area around the bridge.
This is another area with a lot of nice depth water and good current. Now, if I can't catch them here there is definitely something wrong. I fished the heck out of that area and only managed to scrape out a few more fish. The "big one" was maybe over a pound. I was suddenly hit with a wave of self-doubt. "I should have gone to George Rogers park", "I was stupid to come here and waste this weather", "Is there still time to leave and go somewhere else?" Every fisherman knows that feeling when you think you should be catching them and you don't
I decided it was too late to leave and so I sucked it up and decided to continue downstream. I picked up the Ned rig and decided that I would scrape out what I could and then never come back to this stupid place. I worked every little hump and point and continued to catch fish at a painfully slow pace, but I kept my nose to the grindstone. I had finally worked my way down past where I had fished when I was there earlier this spring. All my "good" spots were depleted with only about a dozen fish in what should have been the best 3 hours of fishing.
As I worked my way along I kept my eye on my depthfinder since this was new water to me. I remembered in looking at the Navionics web app that there was not much along this stretch but I was fishing every inch since what should have worked wasn't. I drifted down over a nothing stretch of bank and I saw that the bottom there went from about 28' up to 20' and then back down to about 28'. The make up looked almost like rip rap. I was also marking fish all over that thing. I put down the Ned rig and picked up my drop shot rod.
I dropped it straight down and lifted the rod. Stuck. I thought this is just par for the course today. Then the stuckness started to throb. Woohoo fish on!!
Nice pound plus smallmouth. I quickly released that fish and dropped back down. My bait hit the bottom. I lifted the rod and it was heavy again:
Maybe even a little nicer. I kept that up for a good two hours. The wind would come and go but I would find the spot drop down and catch a fish. I caught over 30 bass in about 2 hours off that little spot. By the end the bite had slowed a little and I would have to jiggle my drop shot around for a few minutes before getting bit but it was a fish on almost every drop for those two hours. The amazing thing was the size. Almost every fish was over a pound and some were close to two. On a light spinning rod that is a real battle! Just one more pic for fun!
I have to say nothing feels better than getting on a bunch of fish when all you have is despair in your heart. That day went from misery to elation. The interesting thing about that spot is that after going over it so many times my mental image is that it looks like a mini version of the finger jetties at Newport, just 20' down. Man what a blast.
By the time I decided to leave that spot the rain had just started to spit a little off and on. I decided I wanted to cover a bunch more water since the day was now officially a huge success and I wanted to learn as much as possible. Eventually I came across another rocky patch in 20' with deeper water around it. The fishing was not quite as good here as spot number one but it was close. I really had that pattern dialed in and I could have finished the day at spot number two, but my heart was light and I wanted to explore.
I worked pretty far down the bank when the rain started in earnest. I had found a bunch of decent spots on the way down (fishing quickly and watching my graph constantly). I fished on particular dock that had a bunch of largemouth and smallmouth on it. I was getting to the point of, "Oh, another 2lb smallmouth, isn't that nice". The dock was shallower and weedy and brushy and I switched to the swimbait to fish it.
Once that spot tired out I decided to quickly fish my way home with the swimbait. I was working a shallow flat that dropped into 20' of water when I felt that odd sensation that occurs when a bass eats the swim jig and keeps swimming along with it. I set the hook and whoa, this was a good fish. I worked it to the boat and it just kept diving under the yak. Each time that happened I held my breath expecting that the hook would pull out. Finally she tired out and I was able to grab her:
A nice fat 2lb 14oz smallie. I weighed her 4 times trying to get her to 3lbs but she was just shy
After that fish I mostly headed back, stopping to throw the swimbait here and there. They were eating it pretty good (like I thought the whole day should have gone) but I was ready to head home.
What a cathartic day, I went from the pits of despair to cloud nine. The bass played hide and seek with me for a good part of the morning but once I did find them it definitely turned into some of the best bass action I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I was close to giving up, but man am I glad I am stubborn.
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EOBOY
Well-known member
Bass;
Another great report. Thursday it's going to be 80* the weatherman says. I just set my toon up with a 35lb. thrust elec. motor. Think I'll head over there and try it out.
Another great report. Thursday it's going to be 80* the weatherman says. I just set my toon up with a 35lb. thrust elec. motor. Think I'll head over there and try it out.
C_Run
Well-known member
Nice. I think I better get out there soon.
bass
Most Featured
Thanks @EOBOY and @C_Run!
I have only fished for bass out of Newberg a few times in the past. This was my second all-day trip for bass there and I am still learning the area (really barely scratching the surface I think). May have just been a technique problem by me but the big structures that I was drooling over on the Navionics webapp were more or less a bust, but the small hidden gems were amazing.
I fished downstream this trip but I think upstream looks even more promising. I have done well on the back side of the island in the spring pre-spawn and I am sure it holds fish all summer. Upstream from Ash Island there is a lot of good looking structure (that is a long pedal). I will definitely spend more time at Newberg now that the PB crowd should be thinning out.
I have only fished for bass out of Newberg a few times in the past. This was my second all-day trip for bass there and I am still learning the area (really barely scratching the surface I think). May have just been a technique problem by me but the big structures that I was drooling over on the Navionics webapp were more or less a bust, but the small hidden gems were amazing.
I fished downstream this trip but I think upstream looks even more promising. I have done well on the back side of the island in the spring pre-spawn and I am sure it holds fish all summer. Upstream from Ash Island there is a lot of good looking structure (that is a long pedal). I will definitely spend more time at Newberg now that the PB crowd should be thinning out.
bass
Most Featured
I hit the lower river out of George Rogers park on Saturday. The forecast for a calm morning and a windy Sunday pulled me off my normal Sunday fishing routine. I got to the river at daybreak and was a little dismayed by the lack of visible surface activity. I dusted off the area around the ramp with my topwater and I think that for the first time ever doing that I did not get a sniff. What is wrong with those stupid bass!
I decided to stick with the topwater for a while and I am glad that I did. It was not red-hot bite by any means but when they hit that bait they were out for blood. Knocking it in the air and catching it when it landed. Following it and hitting 3, 4, 5 times until the hooks stuck. The best was the 3rd fish which came up from below like one of those great white shark eating a seal videos and grabbed the bait is it jumped at least 2 feet above the surface with my lure in its mouth. I had to make quite a few casts between bites, but when they bit, it was almost terrifying. Their anger was palpable. On the occasions they did not impale themselves a followup with the swim bait is all it took.
I ended up with 10 bass on topwater for the day - which is more than normal - but it is because each time when I was getting close to putting that topwater down another hate crime was committed!
No giants but nice-sized fish again and again:
As fun as that was eventually the topwater bite slowed down and I tried throwing subsurface action baits like the reliable white swimbait, jerkbait and 1.5 crankbait. I was super tense as I chuckled to myself when I switched to these baits. I was NOT chuckling when they were routinely ignored. These baits have been money for the whole summer. Maybe the bass react differently when they go back to "school"
After spinning my gears, really the gears on my reels were spinnng, I decided that I need to just hunker down and go to soft plastics. I had two spinning rods set up: one with a drop shot with a pretty heavy chunk of lead and the other with a Ned rig on a 1/10oz weedless (rockless) jig head. For most of the rest of the day I moved from hump to point to finger and if I marked fish in deeper water I drop-shotted them and if I fished the tops of those structures I cast with the Ned rig. It was a pretty deadly one-two punch.
I caught as many fish as I desired once I dialed in these patterns. I spent a good bit of the day cruising around with my new to me transducer. It has better resolution side-imaging, which I got to test on the upper river and more power which I got to put to the test in the 130'+ water around George Rogers. That is the first thing I have ever bought off a fishing forum and man was it a good purchase. New in box for 1/3 the price from a retailer. I loved my old transducer, but that was puppy love compared to what I feel now
The fish on the soft plastics were all really fat:
If only I had some kind of sign as to what they were feeding on:
Just any kind of sign I did decide to give a vibrating jig a try once again. I have half-heartedly tried them a few times this summer but I had some confidence now:
No monster for sure, but it felt good to break the ice. I fished to for a while and then went back to my old one-two punch. At my furthest point upstream I caught one of my better fish off a spot that I know and love.
I ended the day with a ton of bass. The interesting thing is that I caught at least a dozen pikieminnow including one pig that had to be North of the 3 pounds. It was my first trip this summer when I had caught more than just a few. Usually the bass would stop biting then I would catch a pikieminnow or two off of a spot that was producing. Makes me feel like bass are the dominant predator.
Eventually, I decided to just put the pedal to the metal and zoomed the 2 miles back to the ramp. It was just another beautiful day on the treasure we call the Willamette river. I caught a ton of fish and might have spent some time searching for and finding sturgeon with my FF. I think it is time to start the sturgeon/bass trips. The sturgeon looked hungry on the FF
I decided to stick with the topwater for a while and I am glad that I did. It was not red-hot bite by any means but when they hit that bait they were out for blood. Knocking it in the air and catching it when it landed. Following it and hitting 3, 4, 5 times until the hooks stuck. The best was the 3rd fish which came up from below like one of those great white shark eating a seal videos and grabbed the bait is it jumped at least 2 feet above the surface with my lure in its mouth. I had to make quite a few casts between bites, but when they bit, it was almost terrifying. Their anger was palpable. On the occasions they did not impale themselves a followup with the swim bait is all it took.
I ended up with 10 bass on topwater for the day - which is more than normal - but it is because each time when I was getting close to putting that topwater down another hate crime was committed!
No giants but nice-sized fish again and again:
As fun as that was eventually the topwater bite slowed down and I tried throwing subsurface action baits like the reliable white swimbait, jerkbait and 1.5 crankbait. I was super tense as I chuckled to myself when I switched to these baits. I was NOT chuckling when they were routinely ignored. These baits have been money for the whole summer. Maybe the bass react differently when they go back to "school"
After spinning my gears, really the gears on my reels were spinnng, I decided that I need to just hunker down and go to soft plastics. I had two spinning rods set up: one with a drop shot with a pretty heavy chunk of lead and the other with a Ned rig on a 1/10oz weedless (rockless) jig head. For most of the rest of the day I moved from hump to point to finger and if I marked fish in deeper water I drop-shotted them and if I fished the tops of those structures I cast with the Ned rig. It was a pretty deadly one-two punch.
I caught as many fish as I desired once I dialed in these patterns. I spent a good bit of the day cruising around with my new to me transducer. It has better resolution side-imaging, which I got to test on the upper river and more power which I got to put to the test in the 130'+ water around George Rogers. That is the first thing I have ever bought off a fishing forum and man was it a good purchase. New in box for 1/3 the price from a retailer. I loved my old transducer, but that was puppy love compared to what I feel now
The fish on the soft plastics were all really fat:
If only I had some kind of sign as to what they were feeding on:
Just any kind of sign
I did decide to give a vibrating jig a try once again. I have half-heartedly tried them a few times this summer but I had some confidence now:No monster for sure, but it felt good to break the ice. I fished to for a while and then went back to my old one-two punch. At my furthest point upstream I caught one of my better fish off a spot that I know and love.
I ended the day with a ton of bass. The interesting thing is that I caught at least a dozen pikieminnow including one pig that had to be North of the 3 pounds. It was my first trip this summer when I had caught more than just a few. Usually the bass would stop biting then I would catch a pikieminnow or two off of a spot that was producing. Makes me feel like bass are the dominant predator.
Eventually, I decided to just put the pedal to the metal and zoomed the 2 miles back to the ramp. It was just another beautiful day on the treasure we call the Willamette river. I caught a ton of fish and might have spent some time searching for and finding sturgeon with my FF. I think it is time to start the sturgeon/bass trips. The sturgeon looked hungry on the FF
C_Run
Well-known member
Well, your reports have inspired me to also go smallmouth fishing finally. I also made it out to my local sluggish Willamette trib on Saturday. The results were not as stellar but did catch 14 smallmouth and two pikeminnows. I probably lost an equal number.The pikeminnows always surprise me and make me think I have a trout at first but no self-respecting trout would dwell in these waters. The day started with frayed/corroded wires on the FF and then it quit so I had to rely on memory as to where the best ledges and other structure were. I didn't run into any trophies but it was exciting enough and kept me entertained. Thanks for all your posts.
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