Willamette River Fishing Reports

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Aervax
Aervax
Too much going on in my life at the moment to get on the water with my usual frequency. I am living much of my fishing life vicariously through stories from you and others right now. All you guys are catching some really cool fish right now and sharing great pics and stories. Thanks for sharing.

I am with you on the challenges of fishing 8 lb line for smallies. They are toothy fish and scuff up the line. When catching them it usually in the vicinity of rocks, which s harder on light line, too. I do prefer 8 lb for my soft plastics (especially senkos), but use a softer rod, straight up nylon mono, and re-tie frequently. That combo has some advantages that work for me like line stretch and action provided by line flexibility, but I also give up the low visibility of fluoro with that combo. Its a tradeoff either way. Topwater, I go 10 lb nylon mono all the way. Cranking and spinnerbaits, while they swim I like to bang them off of rocks and stumps along the way. Snags and line scuffs are part of that game, so I use 12-15lb mono then depending on the terrain and lure size. I still have to re-tie often. When I forget, I always pay for it.
 
bass
bass
rogerdodger said:
shiny. nice kayak...love that color Outback...;)

I thought you would think it was OK.
 
bass
bass
I launched out of Cedaroak boat launch in West Linn on Sunday around 5:30am. I met up with @portlandrain and I think we both had thoughts of an awesome topwater bite when we hit the water. He launched first (I am terribly slow since I pack way too much junk) and he headed across the river. I saw bass breaking near the launch so I just stayed in the area and started working a topwater. Bass were breaking all around me and after a dozen casts I finally caught a nice little 1.5lber. I was surprised that it took that many casts to get bit but shrugged it off.

I went back to throwing my Sammy but after another dozen or so casts without a hit I switched to a whopper plopper. After a dozen or so casts without a hit I just decided that even though bass kept breaking around me that whatever they were feeding on I was not imitating. I reluctantly put down my topwater rod and picked up a rod rigged with a 4" paddle tail swimbait. That turned out to be winning move. On my first cast, I caught a smallmouth that was a clone of the first. I kept moving around, sometimes casting to breaking fish sometimes just a random direction.

I just moved in a circle around the ramp area and picking up bass. I got 8 total on the swimbait before I tired out that area. Nothing over 2lbs but they were really choking that bait and I was reaching deep to unhook them. That let me know I was doing the right thing. The sun was starting to filter onto that side of the river and they surface action was done.

I moved to the other side of the river and kept throwing the swimbait for a bit, but I guess East side bass don't like that swimbait. The area was still nice and shady but I could not get a bite. I tossed a topwater for a bit, but that did not draw any strikes. I tossed a crankbait a little and that was ignored as well. Finally I picked up my Ned rig rod. I did not think I was going to be touching that thing for at least another hour and maybe two.

Pretty much immediately I caught a 1lb bass. I fished around the first area (a good sized reef) and picked up a fish here and there but did not find a bunch like I was hoping for. I moved down the river to a very evident rockpile. The key thing about that structure is that offshore a little ways there is a rock pile that is not quite connected to the shoreline pile and is easy to miss. When I went over top of that pile (15-20' of water) I started marking a lot of bass. My strategy was pretty simple. I would find the rockpile and then drop down on the bass I was marking. Pretty much every time I did this I would hook up. I did not land them all since I don't think that angle is the best for getting a good hookset on the Ned rig (I was too lazy to rig up a dropshot which would be ideal). However, I was catching them often enough that I was able to tolerate the fish that came unbuttoned.

This is not a huge structure so after a bit the fish stopped biting. At that point I decided to head downstream and check in with @portlandrain. I told him that I had been killing it with a Ned rig and he said he had not been having very much luck. I gave him a couple of the weedless (rockless for our purposes) Ned rig jigheads I was using and one of the Zman TRD baits I was using. I then showed him a spot where I usually have success (a ledge with a sharp 10' drop). I think it was his first cast, but maybe it was after the first couple, but he hooked and landed a nice 1.5lber. A short time later he caught a second nice fish to match the first.

At that we point, we stopped and laughed at how stupid the Ned rig is and how well it worked. After a bit we split apart and for me the day was pretty straightforward. I would get on a nice rocky structure with current and a break and catch smallmouth on the Ned rig. For the most part I was only finding small schools. I would catch 2 or 3 on a spot and the bite would die. I am not sure if somehow the sunshine makes them more sensitive. One cool thing I got to see was that when one of the bass I was fighting was near my kayak it puked up a small baitfish and another bass that was with it immediately grabbed it. I guess cool and a little gross.

@portlandrain had to leave early and we checked in before he left. He said he had some success tossing a spinnerbait into the water near shore that was being made murky by all the wakeboat and powerboat traffic. That was a really smart move since that is a much more fun way to fish than tossing the Ned rig in that rough water. I stayed lazy and just kept tossing the Ned rig and catching bass until I got to one of my favorite humps that is out quite a way from shore.

I was basically out in the midst of wakeboat land. It is kind of like fishing in a warzone. I am trying to delicately probe the bottom with soft plastic while bouncing up and down 2 feet. I put down the Ned rig and picked up a Carolina rig. It is pretty ideal in these conditions (and many others as well). I was able to keep good contact with the heavy weight. This is a pretty huge structure and it took me a while to find them but one I did I had some lights out fishing. This day the bass were on the lip of a trough on the shore side of the hump where it drops from about 12-14' down into 28'. There are a lot of rocks and some trees on that lip and when the fish are there they are thick!

I fished that spot until I got tired of battling the wakes. It is not very run to fish with my head on a swivel and keeping my kayak in position with the current, wind and waves eventually wore me out. The interesting thing I will add is how aggressive those fish were hitting the Carolina rig. A couple of times I went to lift and nearly had the rod jerked out of my hand by a bass that had picked up my worm. If they had been biting softly I am not sure I would have had very much success in those challenging conditions.

Around 3:30 I packed it in and pedaled back to the ramp. Overall it was another fun day on a very prolific fishery. I still need to do a better job of finding better fish but otherwise I can't complain. I ended up catch 58 bass in 10 hours which is a pretty good catch rate. It is still interesting how bursty it is at times. I think I had a few 1/2 hour stretches where I did not land a fish, but they were made up for by bursts of crazy hot action.

Here a couple of pictures of fish. I did not take any pictures of the better fish I got early in the day, but took one picture in the morning and another towards the end because the fish was so skinny which is really weird this time of year.

Normal pounder for the day:

0.jpg


Smallmouth suffering from fat shaming:
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Golfbum
Golfbum
Great Reporting,
Thanks
 
C_Run
C_Run
That was inspirational. I need to make my annual smallmouth trip soon. 58 fish sounds fun.
 
bass
bass
Thanks @Golfbum.

@C_Run, the nice thing about the Willamette is that the fish seem to bite pretty well all day. In the morning (or on cloudy days) I can usually fish reaction baits all day long and that is the most fun. On sunny days I usually switch over to a drop shot or a Ned rig and you can catch bass in 10-20' of water on rocky structures pretty much all day long. Steep banks are good and humps and points are usually even better.

The fish do move around a lot and some days a spot that has been great for a couple of weeks is barren. I don't understand what causes the movement but I just try to keep an open mind and roll with the punches. I don't try to make them bite at any location. Usually they let you know within a dozed casts if anyone is home that particular day.
 
305to503fishermen
305to503fishermen
@bass

Next time you hit that area up, could you let me know i would love to gain some of your knowledge on some smallie fishing in my area. I got myself a cheap fishing kayak but it does the job.

Thanks
 
bass
bass
I am not sure when I will fish there next but I will send you a PM later this week to try to give you some locations and approaches to help you out. If you do not hear from me by Friday evening please ping me again. Lots going on at home right now (the curse of every angler).
 
305to503fishermen
305to503fishermen
@bass

Thank you so much, i would greatly appreciate it. I have fished for largemouth in Florida but never really targeted smallies. especially on a large river like the Willamette so i am a bit intimidated. Also i do have a FF on my kayak.
 
bass
bass
305to503fishermen said:
@bass

Thank you so much, i would greatly appreciate it. I have fished for largemouth in Florida but never really targeted smallies. especially on a large river like the Willamette so i am a bit intimidated. Also i do have a FF on my kayak.

I sent you a PM.
 
O
OLDNEWCLACKA
@bass I've been hitting that spot on float tube for a few months now. Biggest evening I caught 11 on a fly and my buddy did 14 on TRD's all in about a 2-3 hour period. the inlet upriver at the island can be really fun too. Take a shot around the point and into the U on the island. Water has to be up though...
 
bass
bass
Thanks for that info @OLDNEWCLACKA

There were some fish busting the surface in the area that you are describing but they looked smaller. I usually fish to about the mouth of the U but rarely go inside. I seem to catch smaller fish in the U then out in the main river. I keep meaning to go looking for crappie back in there but I never save any time to do that.

I also keep thinking about a winter bass fishing trip into that U. I figure that area must hold quite a few good sized bass in the winter.
 
bass
bass
I had not been out fishing for a couple of weeks so I was stoked to get to fish on a Friday. My plan was to get out early but he 1.5 hour drive back from the beach turned into a 6 hour ordeal (motorhome or something caught on fire) which wiped me out a bit.

The alarm went off at 3:30 on Friday morning and I just turned it off and rolled over. At 7:30am I finally woke back up and had to decide on whether to go late or wait until Saturday. The drizzly gray skies called to me like a siren and I knew I had to get out on the water - even if I had missed the morning bite.

It was almost 9am by the time I got on the water. The weather was nice and drizzly/misty with the wind coming in spurts and gusts. I pulled out from the launch and made a couple of casts with a topwater when I marked a pod of fish underneath me in about 12' of water. I set down the topwater and picked up my Ned rig, dropped it down and the line popped with an aggressive bite.

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Nice solid fish to start the day. The wind blew me off the pod while I unhooked it and released that first fish so I picked the topwater (Sammy) back up and went to work. I have to say it was one of the best and most frustrating topwater bites I have ever experienced.

The bass were all over that sitck bait but between its erratic action and the wind chop I missed fish after fish. At least 3 times bass knocked the lure over a foot up into the air and jumped on it when it landed. I did not hook a single one of those fish. I bet I had 20 hits and landed 2 bass. Finally, I decided to retire the Sammy for the day.

I had been PM'ing with @igquick and he had recommended a 110 sized whopper plopper. I had bought a couple of the 90 size the year before when they were on sale at Dick's and I did not like them at all. Those 90s take a good 5-10' of retrieve before they stay on the surface. Later I had read about this issue but up till that point in time I had a very low opinion of whopper ploppers. However, @igquick said he really liked the 110 size and his favorite color was munky butt (for real!).

I looked up that color on line and saw it was sort of smolt-ish colored so I had gone ahead and bought one. The good thing is that the lure is just a straight retrieve and a lot easier for the bass to actually grab when they bit.

The number of bites went down by a good bit, but my hookup ratio went way up. I was now catching almost every fish that bit. The topwater bite with the plopper was steady, not fantastic, but good enough to pick up a fish every once in a while. Here is a fatty I caught on the plopper.

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I developed a strategy of searching with the plopper and then when I would catch a fish (or miss a fish) I would immediately put that rod down and pick up the Ned rig. Usually, I could catch 3 to 6 fish on the Ned rig before spooking the bite.

I occasionally tried a jerkbait and a swimbait instead of the plopper as a search bait but I could not but a bite on either of those baits. They had been killer in previous trips. I figured it had something to do with the wind and the overcast conditions.

Eventually, I just settled into the plopper and Ned rig combination. Pretty much every steep bank that had good chunk rock on it held plenty of bass.

48448315901_129aafcb40_b.jpg

Eventually, I decided to move up to one of my favorite humps to see if those spots were holding fish as well. I tried the plopper on the hump but could not call up a fish. Even though I did get a bite I decided to try the Ned rig near the deep edge (a pattern that was killer in the past). This turned out to be what they wanted out in the middle of the river along that deep edge. The nice thing is that this spot was holding a lot of nice 1.5lb fish (not monsters but fun on the light spinning rod).

48448478437_d1970e02a7_b.jpg

Eventually, the bite slowed on the deep edge so I worked my up towards the upstream end of the hump where it pushes in to shore. Even though I had not had a single bite on the swimbait all day I decided to give it another try. The sun was peaking out a little now and then and the breeze was a bit less. That turned out to be a lucky call by me.

I started catching some nicer fish where the hump (rocks associated with the hump) push almost all the way up to the bank. They were all so fat. This guy was probably about the fattest, but there were plenty of fish that were nearly as obese.

48448321286_017546196a_b.jpg

I mean, dang, that fish needs to put the fork down :)

I finished the day on big flat that has some troughs on it. I love to fish that structure with a Carolna rig and they were biting it well. The coolest fish I caught there was when I had gotten hung up on a tree that sits on the edge of a trough on the flat. I moved the kayak up so I was pulling straight up and jerked a few times when it popped loose. As soon as popped free a nice isze bass grabbed it. That was really crazy. I can't imagine what that fish was thinking.

Overall for the course of the day I caught fish on topwater, a few on a rattletrap, nicest ones on the swimbait (1/4oz round jighead and a white swimbait), by far the most on the Ned rig (Zman TRD in green pumpkin) and a fair number on the Carolina rig (4" dead ringer in green pumpkin).

I ended up with 73 bass landed with more nicer fish than in the previous few trips. I think that is in part to being on the water when there was so little traffic. I don't think the boats scare the bass, but fishing in wakeboat chop definitely hurts the efficiency.

I still am not sure where to get a consistent bite on bigger fish. I seem to catch all sizes of fish whether I fish in 5' of water or in 25' of water. Seems really strange but that just seems to be the way of it. Perhaps bigger fish are even deeper, but I never seem to mark fish beyond 25' deep and I am not sure why they would want to be that deep anyway. Some day I will figure those bigger fish out.
 
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Aervax
Aervax
Yet another great read and fun fishing report from you, Bass. My own fishing plans keep getting thwarted, so I experience the water vicariously through the stories of you and others for the time being. Pretty darn cool what is being dredged up this time of year. Keep'em comin!
 
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igquick
Nice post! We've been catching some big ones (in my opinion) near the bank 2-3lb smallmouth in several locations. Definitely my personal bests; but my recent fishing trip which involved some of these locations, I caught 0 smallmouth for like 4 hours and going to different spots.

I actually do the same thing with the whopper plopper when using a "follow up" lure. My follow up lure is usually a white curly tail, or white trout magnet.

How do you fish the TRD rig? Do you catch fish on the fall or only off the bottom? Do you fish it like a senko?
 
bass
bass
Aervax said:
Yet another great read and fun fishing report from you, Bass. My own fishing plans keep getting thwarted, so I experience the water vicariously through the stories of you and others for the time being. Pretty darn cool what is being dredged up this time of year. Keep'em comin!

I am looking forward to fishing with you again. Hopefully we can smack some fatties this fall.
 
bass
bass
igquick said:
Nice post! We've been catching some big ones (in my opinion) near the bank 2-3lb smallmouth in several locations. Definitely my personal bests; but my recent fishing trip which involved some of these locations, I caught 0 smallmouth for like 4 hours and going to different spots.

I actually do the same thing with the whopper plopper when using a "follow up" lure. My follow up lure is usually a white curly tail, or white trout magnet.

How do you fish the TRD rig? Do you catch fish on the fall or only off the bottom? Do you fish it like a senko?

2 to 3lb smallmouth are definitely nice fish, even more so in the summer. One thing for sure is that smallmouth do move around a lot in the summer. I have spots that are red hot some days and empty others.

I usually follow up with a swim bait or the Ned rig. The smallmouth hit the Ned rig in all situations. Often on the drop, if there is enough current a lift and drift works great. Sometimes I drag it and sometimes I hop/twitch it. I have not found a way they won't eat it. I have even caught a decent number reeling it in to make the next cast. They just seem to really like it.
 
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igquick
White curly tail grubs were the ticket. Maybe next year I'll hone in on tournament style fishing.
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bass
bass
NIce! I had an epic day yesterday as well in the upper river!
 
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igquick
Nice, any pigs?
 
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