We’ve had a few windy and wet days here in the PacNW that has been putting a damper on the smallmouth bass fishing. Starting today, looks like we are going to have a few days of ideal fishing weather so we are going to be out on the Columbia River fishing every day we can.
Today started out with a brisk west wind, not the “calm winds with 3mph gusts from the east” the weather forecasts had called for. We paddled out anyway but didn’t go too far from the launch until we could get an idea of what the wind was going to do. For the first couple hours, it was borderline conditions, the wind was pushing the kayaks too fast for decent fishing. It got to the point where if the wind would have picked up just a bit more, we were heading back.
It’s a good thing we decided to stick it out because I hooked into a real nice fish. After a long fight made even tougher because of the windy conditions, I landed a big smallmouth bass. This bass may be the biggest smallmouth I’ve ever caught in the Columbia River; well over twenty inches and real chunky.
Shortly after catching this big bass, the wind gradually died down until it was just about dead calm. I managed to catch another smaller bass, maybe sixteen or seventeen inches, a really nice fish. It turned out to be even more memorable of a day not only because I caught the biggest smallmouth ever, but I caught the smallest smallmouth ever as well!
I shot some video today, including that big smallmouth and will shoot more in the next few days. I don’t know if I’ll have the time to get the video edited and posted online until the end of this week, but I’ll try to post photos of any more fish caught as well as daily fishing reports. If you want to catch that trophy smallmouth bass on the Columbia River, now is the time!