This rocky point on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam was usually very good for smallmouth bass, so I was wondering where the fish were that morning.
Clear skies and sunshine seemed to point to good conditions, but the bass were not cooperating.
Finally abandoning my usual shallow-water presentations, I began to work deeper and deeper in the water column.
The tactic eventually paid off when a spunky smallmouth hit in at least 20 feet of water. Smallmouth do not give up easily, and this one didn’t either. It repeatedly surged off in bursts of speed, and vaulted into the air to try and throw the swimbait.
The fish was fat, with a deep golden-bronze color and the muscular body spoke of power. It was a fine, healthy bass, and it swam off strong when released.
That first fish was followed by another that was also hanging out in deep water. The hard-battling bass were a nice reward for sticking with it.
Summer time bass fishing in the Columbia River can be very good, but the fish are now in deeper water following the spawn, as was evidenced by the fishing that recent Saturday. We took a few bass in different locations, but they were almost always in deep water.
The smallmouth bass in the Columbia River will be putting on the feed bag for the rest of the summer.
They will need to bulk up following their spawning efforts, and the warm summer months are perfect for that.
“These fish are in post-spawn,” said Ed Chin, fishing guide and pro bass tournament angler. Chin won The Bass Federation (TBF) Oregon State Bass Fishing Championship in 2010 and 2015, and is the president of the Bass Federation of Oregon
“They move out into the river in summer and they are out chasing, and wanting to eat,” Chin said. “They are moving offshore now, and they will be hanging out in the middle of the river. That will be the trend until mid-fall.
“I’ll be looking for rocks and current with some kind of depth: from 10 to 40 feet of water. They can be anywhere within those depths. Some days there’s a magic (depth) in there, but other days it’s kind of random. They can be anywhere in that range.”
That current is important, too. While the bass can be found in backwater areas with little or no current in the spring, that’s not the pattern for summer.
“They definitely don’t want to sit still in the off-current areas,” Chin said.
He suggests anglers try trolling upstream over rocky reefs.
“We’ll catch a lot of them pulling plugs in typical walleye areas where you find yourself in 20 to 30 feet of water. You can just troll a plug behind the boat. Try crawfish or yellow perch patterns. They will tend to go after it.”
Chin likes the Storm Deep Thunderstick for this presentation.
He also suggests that anglers try topwater plugs. Lures such as the Rebel Super Pop-R, and the River2seas Whopper Plopper will draw smallmouth to the surface, even when they are deep. Zara Spooks will also draw the fish up.
“They will come up thirty feet and they will smash that thing,” Chin said. “You can catch them with topwater plugs from here on out.”
Anglers can also drift down river while jigging drop-shot rigs, tube jigs, and plastic baits. The idea is to keep the bait bouncing the bottom as you maintain a drift steady with the river’s currents.
“Go with the speed of the river,” Chin said.
Anglers can target a few spots below Bonneville, such as the rocky shoreline below Tanner Creek, and the Beacon Rock area. However, the best bassing is found above Bonneville Dam.
“There are a lot of good areas along (State Route) 14. There is a lot of that broken rip rap along the highway, and along the railroad.”
He explains that there are good rocky areas all the way up to White Salmon.
“Along the Oregon side it’s a little more challenging because we have that freeway running all along the shoulder there,” Chin said.
He did point to the area around Starvation Creek as holding promise.
There are also small impoundments formed by the highway and railroad bed along the Washington side that offer good opportunities for bank-bound anglers.
While there are no limits on size or quantity on keeping bass in the Columbia, serious bass fishermen encourage catch and release fishing, especially for the larger fish. Those large bass are the seed fish, and if too many are removed from the spawning picture, the population will suffer.
If you want to keep a few bass for the pan, Chin and others suggest keeping the smaller, 12-inch fish. They are the better tasting smallmouth anyway. Let the big ones go to spawn again.
Guided trips: Contact Ed Chin of All About Adventures Excursions, 503-781-6473.
aaaexcursions.com
