Mic,
you're fishing on the east side of McNary dam right? If so you can legally fish at night for salmon and steelhead from the McNary dam to the Oregon/Washington border and if you do you might have better luck as the water might cool down some.
Me, well I have been fishing from Boardman to Umatilla on the Columbia from the bank and even dropped a 1/8 ounce maribou on a steelhead a few times (thumped it in the snout) and it would just move a couple inches each time, but wouldn't get mad enough to bite. And I can't legally fish at night where I have been going.
A friend of mine would put on an egg hook for trout with a single egg and drift it without any weight and get them in the heat this way (also when there was a lot of pressure on the fish like during fall run on the Umatilla).
Dave