Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
My girlfriend and I fished the mouth of the Palouse River Saturday from 6 pm to midnight, and I went out again Sunday morning 6 to 11 am. We were targeting channel catfish from my boat.
Saturday (6pm-12am): No luck-- we couldn't even catch bait for the channel catfish! After two hours of trying to catch a perch, trout, pikeminnow, or bluegill on worms all I had to show for it was a 9-inch yellow bullhead catfish (released). Albeit, that was pretty cool, because I had never caught a yellow bullhead before. So as the evening set in we just fished chicken livers for the channel catfish. Lots of little bumps, but no takers. We were fishing around humps and drop-offs in 10-40 feet of water.
Sunday (6am-11am): The next morning I was up at 5, trying to catch some better bait from the marina at Lyon's Ferry KOA (were we stayed). I caught and released two small smallmouth, and retained one small trout. I cut it up into four chunks of cutbait and hit the water around 6. After fishing deep again for two-three hours with no luck, I took a cue from the five boats that zoomed past me up the river and went shallow. That was the ticket-- the channel cats were hunting/playing/mating in 1-4 feet of water! After locating a reedy area with some structure, success was a synch. I lost my first two. I saw one attack something in the shallows, so I threw a jointed swimbait by it which it savagely struck. I was using my bait catching pole though, so it tore through my four-pound test with the first headshake. I then started using the cutbait. The first taker broke my leader (8-pound test) right at the boat. But I managed to land the last two(pictured). Great fights! By then it was time to check-out of camp, and I was out of good bait anyway.
Now that I know what I'm doing I can't wait to get back in 2013 or 2014! You could really knock em dead in this fishery. Just fish shallow at night or in the morning and use fresh cutbait. I think I'll bring some jointed-minnows as well next time. The Lyon's Ferry KOA is a great place to camp too.
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service