WatermanAtWork Blog

Good Fishing Under Changing Conditions

May 152013

The weather forecast was for windy and overcast conditions, but as is so often the case here in the Columbia River Gorge, the weather was somewhat different than the forecast. I wasn’t planning to go fishing, but when I awoke to calm conditions, I hurriedly packed up the kayak and gear and headed to the river before the wind came up.
It wasn’t exactly calm, there were light and variable winds with sudden 15-20mph gusts so you had to be alert to where the wind was blowing you. One of the unique things about the Gorge is that the wind can be blowing from two directions at the same time, just another of the danger factors on a big river like the Columbia. In addition to the wind, they were letting out a lot of water from The Dalles Dam into the Bonneville Pool making for treacherous currents on the main river. High water flow on the Columbia means caution in a small watercraft like a kayak.
Started out fishing on one of the river’s side bays without much luck so I braved the currents of the main channel to try out there without much success either. I didn’t have much luck until later in the afternoon when I thought I had a snag but it turned out to be a white sturgeon. It was somewhat of a struggle to get the fish to the kayak on a 10 lb. test ultralight rig. Got it to the kayak, removed the hook and back into the river he goes.

The changing water level causes the fish to move around more than normal, so you have to find the fish. Also, a cold front moved through the area the night before, combined with the colder water being released from The Dalles Dam, the river water temperature dropped by a few degrees. When that happens, smallmouth bass have a tendency to move away from spawning nests and just move around more in general as well as slowing down the fish’s feeding habits. Even with hazy sun, by late afternoon, the water in the shallower areas had begun to warm up and the bass started biting. Got a couple more nice smallmouths as well as some smaller bass. The day started out slow, but literally heated up in the afternoon.

The Bonneville Pool appears to be near maximum capacity, so the next couple weeks should be pretty good for smallies as long as the wind and weather cooperate. Once the water starts being used for irrigation, which will probably be earlier this year due to the unusually warm weather, the water will slowly be drained away.

Great Smallmouth Bass Fishing

Kayak Fishing No Responses »

May 122013

After a few windy days, things calmed down and we were able to get a few days of smallmouth bass fishing on the Columbia River. The river water has warmed up, in the low to mid sixties, maybe a bit warmer in the shallower spots. As is always the case on the Columbia, another variable has come into play; the level of the water in the river has come up quite a bit because a lot of water is being released from The Dalles Dam. Since the river flow has been increased, there are more currents and eddys, so you must be careful on a small kayak.
For a couple days, we fished the rocky banks on the main river. We caught a number of fish, mostly smaller ones. With the higher water level, the shoreline changes and the fish must be moving around with all the new underwater structure, so the fishing spots that were great last week are not there anymore. Smallmouth bass fishing here involves a lot of looking around, a fishfinder really helps locate underwater structure. So, smallmouth bass hunting we go.
Yesterday, when we arrived at the boat launch, the weather had changed a bit and it was obvious the wind was going to be a factor.

There are a number of small bays adjacent to the main river channel, because it was too windy on the river, we would be limited to fishing the bays. Being caught downstream with increased current flow when a 15-20mph wind kicks up is not where you want to be in a fishing kayak. The usual spots weren’t really producing anyway, might as well start looking for the fish 100 yards off the launch. Turned out to be a great day of fishing with very little paddling. Smallmouth bass move around a lot, when you find them, usually there’s good fishing in store.
After catching a few smaller fish, I started casting the trusty lead head grub near one of the small islands near the main river channel when a smallmouth came out of a couple feet of water and hit the grub about 15′ from the kayak. After a great fight on ultralight tackle, I had this nice smallmouth on the boat.

No more than ten minutes later, just a short paddle from where I caught one good sized bass, I had another big hit and another big fish on the line. After another great battle, I landed this really nice smallmouth bass. Definitely the biggest bass of the year so far.

This is one of the biggest smallmouth bass I’ve ever caught on the Columbia River. Not sure how big the bass in the river can get, but we are headed back out again as soon as the weather and conditions permit. With the higher river level, once the bass get settled in, the smallmouth fishing should be about as good as it gets.

Bike Pit Stop

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May 082013

With the dryer than normal late winter/early spring weather, the mountain bike has been getting a bit more of a workout than normal. Usually, we plan to do any major maintenance when the wet weather is over, no sense installing a bunch of new parts then take them out in the mud, although dusty conditions aren’t much better. Bottom line is that a lot of parts on the trusty Giant need to be replaced, today is the day.

The big job is to replace all of the suspension bearings, a number of them are worn out or “flat spotted”. While the bike is apart, might as well service the rear shock as well. The chain and cassette need to be replaced as well as the front chain rings. I think the rear brake caliper is slowing leaking through the pistons and will probably need to be replaced, but I think I may hold off on that until the leaking really gets bad. Those brakes are not cheap, need to get everything you can out of them.
Blogging is over, off to the bike shop…

Bass Fishing Heating Up

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May 082013

The weather is getting much warmer and the water temperatures around the Columbia River Gorge are climbing as well, the smallmouth bass are starting to move. Mid-May to the beginning of June is usually the prime smallmouth bass fishing time around here, but with the much warmer than normal spring temperatures, it seems the season is starting a bit early this year. We’ve been out a few times this year already with typical early season results; not many fish, but the ones caught were good size since only the bigger fish are moving in the cold spring water.

We caught a lot of fish this day, not as big as the past week or so, but when bass of this size start biting, that means the water is warm enough for all the fish to start moving around looking for food and spawning beds. We are anxious to get back out there, but the wind is not cooperating, so it may be another day or two before we can go fishing again.
We took a lot of really cool fishing video that we are editing and will have up on the watermanatwork.com website shortly. We are going to have a lot of smallmouth bass fishing coverage on the website, so stay tuned, the fishing season is really starting to turn on.

First 2013 Fish

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Apr 262013

The first fishing trip of the year did not go so well for the fishermen, but the second trip evened things out a bit. Even though it is still very early in the fishing season, we managed to get a couple big smallmouth bass.
The water in the Columbia River is still pretty cold, maybe the low fifties in most spots. What we look for are backwaters and eddies where the water is a little warmer.

With the melting snow, the water level, temperature and current are constantly changing depending on which part of the river you are on and how much water is being released from the nearest upstream dam. While the “real” smallmouth bass season begins in a week or two, when the water is on the cold side, only the big fish are moving. You might not catch many smallmouths this time of year, the ones you catch are likely to be pretty good sized fish.

Typical for this area, after a couple days of calm winds, we are back to the normal 15-20mph Gorge wind, too windy for kayak fishing on a big river like the Columbia. Trout season opens in Washington this weekend and Oregon is stocking their trout fisheries for the large number of fishermen that go after the Pacific Northwest’s most popular game fish. 2013 fishing season is off and running!

Dryer and Warmer, Summer Is Coming

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Apr 262013

It’s starting to look a lot like summer around here. Days are getting longer, nights are a bit less cold and we are starting to see the thermometer show some 70′s. The mud that was everywhere a week or so ago is now hard packed dirt with dust starting to show on top. Pretty good conditions for mountain biking. We’ve been riding the local trails around Hood River, OR as they round into summer shape.

The local trailbuilders have carved out some nice new trails in the local hills, some of them are pretty spectacular.

The nice weather is bringing out more riders.

The warmer weather has also got the ticks on the move, so after you are done riding, make sure you don’t have any on you!

Cascade Locks Disc Golf Course

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Apr 192013

Disc golf is a growing sport, the Columbia Gorge has a number of great disc golf courses, now it has another in Cascade Locks, Oregon. With the economy the way it is, the cost of a couple golfing discs and gas money is all you need to start your own disc golf tour.
There are disc golf courses all over the United States, the same here in the Columbia River Gorge. The Dalles, Hood River, North Bonneville and now, Cascade Locks, all have public disc golf courses that are free to play. Cascade Locks is the closest Gorge disc golf course to Portland, that will probably add to the popularity. North Bonneville Disc Golf Course is right across the Bridge of the Gods, there’s two great disc golf courses that are a little over a half hour’s drive from Portland and Vancouver.
The Cascade Locks course, called “The Locks Approach” has some long holes that will be exposed to the famous Columbia Gorge wind and a few holes with some very tight fairways in a wooded section down by the Columbia River, so it should be a decent challenge for all levels of disc golfer.

We’ll have to get out there a few times this summer, should be a fun place to play.

Riding Away From the Rain

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Apr 192013

Even though this spring has been exceptionally mild, there are still rainy days and cold days as well as rainy and cold days. Like many outdoor activities, you must become somewhat of a weather forecaster to plan what to do and where to go. With mountain biking around here, the weather is a factor as well as the trail conditions. Right now, the trail conditions range from too muddy to ride, to perfect, depending on the amount of rainfall in the previous few days. By dodging the storms, or running away from them, we’ve been lucky enough to ride some the best local trails in near perfect conditions.

With storms approaching from the west but trails still in great shape from a stretch of dry weather, Don and I hit Post Canyon again. As I’ve said before, Post Canyon is a great place to ride, one of the best spots in the Pacific Northwest, for sure. We’d ride it all year except it gets over-the-top crowded in the late spring and summer so we go somewhere else. We know we get to ride Post Canyon with conditions like this for only a few weeks a year, we take advantage of it and savor every minute because we won’t be riding here much longer.

Don and I have been honing our big air skills on the Post Canyon features

As expected, a significant storm blew in from the Pacific Ocean and headed up the Gorge. With rain falling as far east as Hood River, Don and I headed east towards the central Oregon high deserts to Deer Hollow. Even when it’s raining twenty miles away, the Cascade foothills block almost all the rain. The trails were in perfect condition and there were blue skies above.

The next day, still raining from Hood River west, we headed back to Deer Hollow, where the trails were dry and in perfect condition with hazy sun overhead.

Since then, it’s been on and off rain, but we did manage to sneak in a ride at Post Canyon with pretty good conditions.

We are hoping the showers we are experiencing today will end and tomorrow will be dry and Sunday will be good to ride.

Blog Remodeling

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Apr 102013

We have done a little remodeling to the WatermanAtWork blog in order to make it a little easier to use.
You may have noticed that there are a couple tabs above these posts that will take you to specific subjects. The “Cameras,Computers,etc.” category has been around a while but the link to it was in a drop down menu that nobody ever saw, hopefully, things will be easier to negotiate. This is mostly tech stuff and reviews about cameras, computers and other gizmos we use around here.
There is a new tab for Kayak Fishing, pretty self explanatory. We are going to be doing a lot of kayak fishing, so check here if that’s what you’re into.
There is a tab for Cycling for mountain and road biking.
The “News” tab has the latest news about the blog or the watermanatwork.com website as well as things not covered in one of the other sections.
If you click on the “WatermanAtWork Blog” title or the “Home” tab, you will go to the blog home page which has all of the posts by date. We have also restored the links to the watermanatwork.com website and the WatermanAtWork YouTube page, they are in the column to the right. You can find previous posts by checking through the Archives dropdown menu or find specific subjects by using the blog Search window above it.

Fish Win On Opening Day

Kayak Fishing No Responses »

Apr 092013

The wind was calm and a hazy sun was out for the first day of the 2013 kayak fishing season but the fish did not seem to get the message. The water was in the mid fifties, warmer than expected and the setup looked perfect for smallmouth bass.

Threw everything in the tackle box at them, including plenty of proven winners, but we only got a couple half hearted nibbles and that was all we had to show for eight hours of fishing. It’s still great to be back on the water and I got this cool photo of a tugboat pushing three barges into The Dalles Lock to get past The Dalles Dam that you can see in the distance behind The Dalles Bridge.

One more thing. I was getting ready to launch my kayak in The Dalles when an Oregon State Trooper stopped by to check on my safety gear, which is now required by Oregon State law, and an Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Permit, which I did not have. You have to have a PFD and a whistle to operate a non motorized watercraft in Oregon waters, that includes stand up paddleboards. That’s gonna be a big hit this summer. Make sure you have all your licenses and permits in order. I thought I had all the permits I needed, I was one short. The trooper was cool about it, he gave me a whistle and let me slide on the Invasive Species Permit, which I purchased when I got home.

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