Had a Great trip this last week fishing for smallmouth between the John Day Dam, and a few other ponds a long the Columbia. Caught around 35 fish for 3 people, 20 inches being the largest. Most fish caught right below the John Day Dam before dark.
Congrats on the bass. Thats a real underutilized fishery. there is a fairly large pond between the morth of the deschutes and the mouth of the John day that has a good number of large and smallmouth bass in it. what methods were you using???
Fished grubs and tube baits with 16 oz weighted jig heads. Color grubs that seemed to work the best were blue and smoke. Casted and retrieved pretty slow, letting it bounce off the bottom a few times. Its only a matter of time before the bass bite really starts going!
As the water warms try fishing a 1/2 oz white double willowleaf bladed spinnerbait earl in the mornings with a retrieve as fast as you can manage it can be exciting anf fun especially for big smallies
Columbia River Bass
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