One thing about the Pacific Northwest; things change all the time and sometimes they can change pretty quickly. The Columbia River Gorge is noted for it’s “natural beauty”, but almost everything is controlled, or has been altered by humans. The one thing that still is 100% natural is the weather, there is plenty of that. The nice weather months seem to pass very quickly, spring is nearly over and summer is almost here. The sunrise is earlier every day.
The smallmouth bass fishing on the the Columbia River is starting to look more like summer conditions as well. More fish moving around and willing to bite, but most are smaller fish eating to grow.
The state record smallmouth bass is about eight or nine pounds, we use pretty lightweight tackle so we can have fun with the smaller fish. The fishing line we use may be a little heavier than normal, say about ten or twelve pound test, in case we do manage to hook into a new state record fish, but mostly because the bass are around rocks and you get a lot of snags.
With summer rolling around, there are more people out on the river, perfect timing for this SUPer to watch me catch a fish.
Smallmouth bass are aggressive fish and great fighters when hooked. Even the small fish put up a great fight. Regardless if most of the bass are in the quarter to one pound range, you have to keep on your toes because not all the fish are small. The Columbia River is one of the best smallmouth bass fisheries anywhere and there a lot of big fish in the river. Nice day, good fishing and a big smallmouth bass is pretty much perfect fishing.
Get out there and go fishing!