Northwest Fishing Reports

As I mentioned few times before that I moved to Washington State last year. So I never fish on Columbia River in my life...just until soon! My club is having the two-day tournament ( August 18th and 19th) on Columbia River, launching off the Bonneville Dam.

Please tell everything you know about the Bonneville Pool such as...safety concerns (i.e. hazardous obstabcles due to the tidal water), forages, hotspots, lure recommendations, etx.

Thanks very much,
S.A.

You're not going to be launching off of bonneville dam as there aren't any launches there.....

The launches for bonneville pool are at cascade locks, stevenson, Drano Lake, bingen, hood river, and the dalles. I assume you will be fishing that pool and not below the dam for this tournament. Some maps show a launch at the mouth of the White Salmon river and there is one there but it's tribal launching only.. stay away.. also the launch at Drano Lake requires a $5 bill.. the others are free....

If you can recall the presidential election back in '04 one John Kerry actually spent a few hours wind sailing on this pool and got some photos on this particular day of his skill on a board that made the national news........

not making a plug for Theresa Heinz-Kerry's husband just want to make it clear that bass fishermen have to share this water with wind and sail surfers... they love the place because the afternoon winds are great for their sport all summer........ the afternoon winds are great for their sport in the fall, winter, and spring also....


but be not discouraged... I actually spent a few hours this spring rowing my little McKenzie style drift boat around the pool dodging wind and sail surfers as I rowed and I didn't feel like I was putting my life in great jeopardy.

I've fished this pool from time to time over the years.. nothing too aggressive or incredibly successful... mostly just looking for some different scenery.....

probably the least of your worries will be catching some bass... they are extremely abundant and 30 to 40 fish days are very common this time of year even for those who don't really know what they're doing.....

biggest problem will be dealing with wind and current... calmest water really depends on which way the wind is blowing not how fast it is reported to be... there will be some calm in the morning and late evening but during the warmest part of the day it will just always be blowing......

When it's blowing from the west there are sheltered bays and main lake areas west of Stevenson and cascade locks....
If you don't feel comfortable there then head up to bingen where the ramp is in a large protected bay that has a lot of nice smallmouth in it....... or go all the way to the Dalles where there is some moving water and a lot of protection from the nasty westerlys......

when the wind is blowing from the east stevenson is a mess... water west of cascade locks is somewhat protected but the really good bass water at that end of the reservoir is north of cascade locks and highly exposed to strong easterly air flows. There is one small protected area just north of the island but it's not really large enough to make it worth launching the boat.....

when the wind is blowing from the east you want to head up to bingen and/or hood river and launch there... the water will be relatively calm and there's a lot of good bass structure just upstream of bingen......



bottom line, the bass are there.... but the wind and the waves can make your life very uncomfortable... IMHO the waves tend not to get large enough to be life threatening. They are more of a nuisance and an annoyance that has to be dealt with seriously because if you don't deal with them seriously then they will become life threatening...


oh yeah... there is current here also.... flows are about half what they were a month ago (the annual smolt flush is over) but they must be taken into consideration.... fish this reservoir as if it were the wind blown slow moving river that it is not a wind blown lake....

I've heard that there are largemouth here but I can't speak to their presence from personal experience... I've caught lots of nice smallmouth there though... In fact I've been thinking about hitting it next week sometime...