![\"First](\"https:\/\/watermanatwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/ColumbiaRiver3-26-16.jpg\" "\\"First")
<\/p>\nIt turned out to be a pretty good day for kayak fishing for the first fishing trip of 2016. A little chilly in the morning, about 40\u00b0F out the door. The wind was calm with overcast skies as we headed out on the Columbia River for the first smallmouth bass fishing trip of 2016. After chasing fish for a few hours, the fish report, including the ones we threw back, totaled exactly zero fish. We didn’t have any bites nor did we mark any fish on the fishfinder. It’s not that big of a surprise because this is the earliest we’ve gone out fishing for quite a few years, so the water in the Columbia River is still on the cold side for decent fishing. The water temps on the main river were in the high forties and the warmest water we encountered, in a shallow slough, was a bit over 50\u00b0. That’s about five degrees colder than what we would consider to be reasonable for smallmouth bass to move onto spawning beds. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Even though we didn’t have much luck today, now we have a good idea of exactly where we stand as far as fishing conditions go. You want to be on top of the bass when they start to move looking for spawning beds. The big fish move first and you want to be there when they do. That should only be another week or so. Because of the lack of snow and rain last winter, the spring smallmouth bass fishing last year was terrible. Many of the typical smallmouth bass spawning areas were dry land. That won’t be the case this year so we expect the next time we head out looking for bass, we are going to find them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"