a humbler on the mighty columbia

[team doyle]

determined to fish new water, i apprehensively drove past
some of my most productive locations on the bonneville pool sunday
morning - looking for adventure (and new, untapped treasure).

launched at rowena. water temp 52 degrees everywhere i went.
the river was flat and the surrounding bluffs and vistas provided unparalleled
grandeur. i respectfully fished this territory of native american beauty.

i had done my map homework; and located flats and points and backbays.
i probably casted my lipless bait a couple thousand times, and three
dinks is all i had to show. where did i go wrong? this thing called angling is a lot like golf - just because your game came together for you last weekend, that doesn't mean you'll make crisp contact this time out.

joe

[Hunt'nFish]

You know Joe I had a tough time of it as well. Stopped by the Willy and it was way high and chocolate with lots of debris. So decided against it and headed for the CR. I fished the lower CR and threw the Norman craw, lipless and spinnerbaits to no avail. Saw no fish breaking water either. went to a rattle tube on the flats and finally got things figured out. Fished a 3/4 day and had a couple dozen to show for it. Mixed size, no big mamma's though. Suspect mostly males, as they ran about 1-1.5lb. Did get to work on my tan though.
Tried some rip rap on the way back and got NADT.
Hunt'nFish

[bucketmouth]

I too experienced a tough day fishing this weekend. Went to Hagg Lake and caught 2 small smallmouth and one Largemouth form dawn to noon. Water temps were good, clarity was great weather was near perfect, but the fish were not biting. Typical spring Hagg Lake experience for me. Just thought it was going to be better.

Am kinda of glad I was not the only one. But would like to have seen or heard better reports for mothers day weekend!

[arkansasbasser]

Joe, I appreciate the fact that you stayed out of the lower B pool. You are educating those big smallies way too much. We did fair there on Friday. Sorry to hear that it didn't work out for you on Sunday. That's what you get for fishing on Mother's day.:D

[boblag]

I was there (Rowena) Saturday and had the same experience. I thought it was gonna be one of those fish in a barrel kind of days, but I couldn't find them in the backwaters or anywhere else. I talked to a few other guys and none of them got many either. My first theory was that they weren't in the backwaters in numbers yet because the main river's been cold and the backwaters just started heating up. One guy, though, said that it's been good in recent days in the backwaters but that it slowed down on Saturday. All I can think is that a lot of the fish were spawning, given that it was in the low 60s in the backwaters. Or maybe it was the turbidity...:shrug: