Northwest Fishing Reports

Location: Mouth of the Tualatin River, Oregon
Species: Bass
Lures used: Crankbaits, Topwaters, Spinnerbaits
Time of Day: Noon

Had a couple hours to goof off yesterday especially with the nice weather so I went to the mouth of the Tualatin where it spills into the Willamettte to fish for bass. Because the water levels have recently gone up there was increased flow, so I was working lures along the seam of riffled water and the eddy. Could not bottom fish because of the vegetation so I had to get my lures deep anough to stay just above the grass while still clicking the rocks and boulders. Would foul about half the time with either grass or drifting leaves.

Hooked this wonderful smallmouth which was a hard fighter. Actually I thought I had on a silver salmon because they are known to stack up where I was fishing, but after an awesome game of tug-o-war I finally brought her to shore.

She weighed 4lbs 6oz acording to my little digital scale. She hit a 3/8oz FireTiger tandem spinnerbait. She was released unharmed.

Thanks Lewis (lskiles) for teaching me how to move my post. :thumright =d> =d> :thumleft:

I sure hope I have something good to report about Lake Selmac after this weekend. And yes, Mike, I will have my camera ready to go.

I am evolving on the web :bom:

nice fish!

Nice SM Cav!!!

Nice fish, get anymore around there other then that pig?

A couple in the 12" range. Shakers. I usually don't fish the mouth because it gets real low and hard to fish. Have had several 30+ fish days further up river during the summer, but mostly small fish anchored by a couple 2- or 3-pounders. The smallmouth have been taking the whole river system over in the last few years. I used to catch all or nearly all largemouth from the river, now its 90% smallmouth. Gozillions of crawdads!

Well Selmac was a bust. I caught 4 bass all under 10" and they fell to a 7 1/2" Culprit on a keel weighted Texas-rig. The water was cold 51 degrees. Would not hit anything else I threw at 'em.

I fish that river in tigard,oregon. Some of the best warm water fishing of ever had. VERY NICE CATS IN THERE.

cavdad45 wrote:A couple in the 12" range. Shakers. I usually don't fish the mouth because it gets real low and hard to fish. Have had several 30+ fish days further up river during the summer, but mostly small fish anchored by a couple 2- or 3-pounders. The smallmouth have been taking the whole river system over in the last few years. I used to catch all or nearly all largemouth from the river, now its 90% smallmouth. Gozillions of crawdads!

It's really tough for smallies and largemouth to coexist in the same body of water. It usually ends up in favor of the smallies, as they usually overtake the largemouth...

I've come to realize that especially on this website. Back in the 80's there were only a couple places in Western Washington with smallies and it was quite a big deal for my buddies and I to go from Anacortes to one of these smallmouth lakes. Now it seems they are everywhere. I think the old slot rules helped the smallies propogate, while allowing alot of bigger largemouth to be harvested. They didn't plan it that way, I'm sure because to WDFW the bass was just another form of sucker or trash fish.

Back to the Tualatin River, I still catch a few quality largemouth there especially in the 3-4 pound range. They are the anchoring weight to a bunch of smaller smallmouths. This was my best smallmouth from this river this year.

Another fantastic Oregon river for smallies is the Yamhill River.