After having some recent success' at Banks and Roosevelt, I and a friend decided to tempt fate further and return to the Columbia system at Umatilla. I had been there about three weeks ago with another fishing buddy and we had great weather and some really nice fish (WALLEYE, smallies, perch and some hefty cats). This morning , at pre dawn, we launched at the Army Corp of Engineer's ramp at Plymouth. This is an excellent year around sheltered launch. We pulled cranks near the mouth of the Umatilla R. just before the sun began to show signs of breaking. We saw some nice steelies rolling, but received no encouragement from either them or the 'eyes ,we were seeking. We pulled out and headed down river to a spot where I have caught a variety of good fish before , we noticed that as the sun rose a slight breeze stirred. As we motored toward the objective the breeze became a wind, still we put down the electric bow motor and had the first fish of the morning. I followed with two nice smallies. By now the wind had come up to the point that holding the LUND over the 40' ft trough was too much of a chore. Plus; keeping bottom contact was next to impossible. Maybe up river, below McNary dam might be calmer we reasoned. No sooner than we began to set up near the locks, the winds picked up. Oh well! we did have a bit of success.

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