Willamette report

[halomidge]

Spent 2.5 hours on the Willamette around Wilsonville. A dozen fish, 4 fish over 17", lots of hits. All but one fish were taken with 4" brown zoom worms on the bottom. Tested a variey of other tubes and Yamamoto grubs. Fishing made it an outstanding morning.

[eggbouncer]

Nice to hear that other people are out enjoying chaseing bronze backs durring this time of year. There are some nice fish in that section of river.

[bacon_to_fry]

how late in the year do you guys fish surface baits? are you finding fish near the banks/eddies?

wondering because i'd like to venture out on foot and cast the banks. am i wasting my time?

thanks!

[halomidge]

There is a little surface activity right at day break but most of the activity is off the bank in 12'-20'. All of the hits happen right near the bottom and the slower the better.

[Private-Aye-Fish]

Sounds like you had a good time.

Quick question....

East or West of the Freeway?

[Fishfeet]

:grin: Hmmmmmmm! How much vacation time do I have saved up????? Good going Halom! Today would be perfect, no wind, nice day, see ya on the river. Fishft.

[halomidge]

We put in at the boone bridge and work east. There are some great spots west of the bridge as you get close to the mouth of the Molalla River.

[bucketmouth]

Great report. Sounds like some fantastic fish. I too like to go after the smallies on this stretch of the River. They can really be fun. And the October weather has been wonderful.

Get out there and do it again!

[Wannabe]

Water temp yesterday was still in the low 60's on the river. (Was that you and your bud by chance in the drift boat?)
Yesterday was awesome once again. We fished from high rocks to almost Newberg. Fish seem to be deeper like you said with about 15 feet on down the best and liking big rock or ledges. 3" yum dingers dropshotted and jigs still working. 19 1/2" was the best we could do. Just before dark in one spot we had a fish every cast...it was awesome. Was a beartiful day with the sun and fog and hardly any wind. Only low spot was a wakeboarder trying to send a wall of water over us. But it was a day of good company and great fishin.
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[halomidge]

Drift boat that was us... and you were in the awesome bass boat? 19.5 was the top dog in our boat as well. Drop shot with rootbeer zoom worms was our ticket.

[onebadfish]

anything cooking below the falls for smallies?

[Wannabe]

Water temp has gone down about three more degrees and was 58 on average on my temp guage. Buddys boat says temp was about 55 ... don't know who is right but do know it went down three. But it was the chillyiest day yet on the river, hope today there's no wind. Biggest was 19...was ever so pretty. Busted off a dandy on a jig...I think I need to check my line a little better as I had caught several and with my new 7 ft lami jig rod. This rod tends to show no mercy for weak spots in the line.
Tight lines
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[halomidge]

Wannabe - are they moving deeper (20-25) ? and what's your experience with temp and when the bite turn's off?

[Brnzbk]

Halomidge, I have fished the Willamette above the falls for about two years, and for me, the bite seems to stop around 50 degrees. I do know some people, however, who continue to catch fish year-round. For me, the key has been "slower and smaller" (slower retrieve/smaller lures) as the water cools.

Most of my bites last weekend were in the 15-20' range, but I primarily targeted that depth, so I can't say whether they have a preference for that depth. The USGS website show the temp. in the Newberg pool to have dropped 2 degrees to 57 since yesterday. Good luck if you venture out!

[halomidge]

Bronzo- good info.. I concentrated on the Willamette Bass this year for the first time. Went out on the Columbia and Willamette with Paul Woodrum (Knows his Bass stuff) and learned a lot. Really started having some good success this fall and I'm interested to see how and when the cold affects them.

[Wannabe]

Had the opportunity to fish both this thurs and fri and friday the wind was even harder so was tough in some places to fish with such a big bow in the line. Did catch a couple on cranks yesterday which was a nice suprise. Most fish came in 15 to 25. Did get some in 30 plus too. Marking a lot of fish in some of the areas but couldn't get them to go as well yesterday as we did on thursday. Still catching good numbers of fish. Haven't had to slow down to much yet as far as presentation. The only thing that stops me from fishing up here is high water. Still have a lot to learn but thats what makes it fun.
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[halomidge]

wannabe - how deep were you getting with the cranks? pearl, or ? I wouldn't even have tried the cranks at this late in the game... that's great news. I'll probably get out late this week.

[Wannabe]

The cranks are getting down about 12 feet I'm guessing. Using a large Fat Free and and small hot lips. I wasn't throwing it much but got lucky. (Firetiger) Hope to get out myself to later this week...did notice that the water temp is now 10 Centigrage...and was dropping..would like to know how to convert the temp over.
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[Brnzbk]

Wannabe et al. Try this websight:

http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/temperature

Ten degrees C is about 50 degrees F. I am not surprised that you would catch them on cranks. Have you tried yo-yoing a rat-l trap type crank in deeper areas? I have had good luck with that in colder water.

[Wannabe]

Thank you much for the info. I just may have to try the technique tommorrow. Going to try and get a november fish. I'll probably have a whole three rods in the boat and fishing slow with lots of scent.
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