pdxfisher

Man, those smallies are so FAT!!! Looks like it was an awesome day out on the water. Those pics look amazing.

Ha ha, I assumed you meant water spider. 45.6 degrees North here so I got you by a little bit. I am lucky to get to live and fish for smallmouth in such a beautiful area. To make up for it I often sturgeon fish in the industrial part of Portland which is about as unattractive as you can get I think changing up presentations can really help keep the bite going. I think I am often fishing around a decent sized school of fish (loosely grouped). Some percentage of those fish will only bite something that triggers them (reaction bite) others in that group will only bite something slow moving, etc. I am a big fan of straining the water with multiple presentations and then moving on if I don't get bit or stop getting bit.

Thanks everyone. Nothing better than a trip where the bite gets better as the day goes on! I am just extremely impatient! Plus, I have to use all those rods or I will look stupid for bringing them It is beautiful out here and I agree with @galyonj that the majesty of the view is not even all that well captured by the gopro. However, I would guess that Maine is pretty scenic as well. I wonder if you are North or South of me. I know I am a fair bit North of Portland Maine.

Thanks! I still have not caught a 20lb bag of smallmouth though. One of these days though I will break through and get to join your "club"

This is a great thread. It is heartening to read everyone's stories. I am not as old as a lot of you (62) but being at stage 5 kidney failure, torn labrum in both shoulders and having a misshapen disc in my lower back makes it hard to get out in the kayak some days. Fortunately the rest of my health is really good and a lifetime of exercise (highly recommend to young folks) has left me with enough strength to still get out most weekends and as long as I can still fish I am not going to complain.

Wow, I got a cramp in my finger scrolling through so many pictures of big fish!! That is an incredible season. I think you had several trips this year where you caught more that the weight of the your canoe You also get great pictures of your fish. They all look so strong, fat and healthy. I can't even be jealous because your success is just beyond my ability to comprehend days like yours. I can't wait to see what you pull in next year.

I have a Hobie Outback and I like it for me. I thought about a PA 12 but did not want to have to haul the extra weight up the boat ramps. The nice thing about a Hobie is that in thick weeds I can pedal with tiny strokes with the pedals near full extension. That keeps the fins against the hull and I can slide over a lot of weeds. I have never been in lily pads so I am not sure if that would work in that situation but it works really well if there is even a couple of inches of water over the weeds. I will admit I am jealous of the instant reverse on my friends Old Town Pedal kayak. For open water I think it is probably superior mechanism but in the weeds or really shallow water the Hobie performs much better.

I hit the Columbia on Sunday, October 9th. My previous two outings had been pretty luke warm, only catching 10 and 11 bass. I had a mindset going out that if I caught over 10 bass I would have to be happy with that. I left the ramp and started heading out to the first spot I wanted to fish. As I made my way I marked what looked like some fish over basically nothing. I dropped my drop shot down and promptly caught my first fish. I was pretty stoked to be 5 minutes in and having a fish (even if it was a dink). However, the fish must have been on the move because when I circled back I didn't mark any more fish and 10 minutes of probing did not produce any more bites. I continued on my way and got to the first spot I really wanted to fish. I made a long cast and promptly hooked a rope that was hanging loose off the little island I was casting at. I went up and unhooked my topwater and make a cast along the edge of the island, the lure was about 10 feet from the kayak when it was sucked under. I set the hook into a decent fish. After a short battle I landed my first nice fish of the day, a 17.25" 2lb 14oz chunky smallmouth. It was still really early and I already had my second fish. I was getting pretty stoked. I fished all around the little island but could not buy a second bite. I decided to keep the topwater in my hand and cover some water. That was not a great plan since I never got another topwater bite. I read so much about the fall topwater bite in the fall but I really seem to never do all that great with topwater in the fall. Usually what I catch is good quality but I just don't get many fish. When I got to one of my favorite spots I slowed down and really fished it hard with everything from topwater to a drop shot. I was SO sure they would be kegged up on that spot that I fished it longer than I should have. In the end I only had one really convincing bite from a rock. In all fairness, it did feel like a really big rock. Eventually I realized I was wasting my time and decided to try and quickly eliminate spots rather than fishing history. The next spot produced a single 16.25" fish and no other bites. The couple of spots were similar, I would seem to pretty quickly hook a fish but then get no other action. After that I stopped at this big rock that just was sitting on a sandy bottom in 17' of water. There were weeds upstream and down from the spot. I am not sure why, but that spot was a little gem and produced 3 decent bass for me (plus I missed a few and lost another). I felt like things were picking up. After 5 hours of fishing like that I only had 10 bass to show for my efforts. However, the last spot gave me hope that maybe I could find some other spots where the fish were a bit more stacked up. Of course, the next two spots did not produce anything. Eventually I worked my way up to a spot that was just a vertical rock wall dropping into 20' of water. There was a little crumbled rock at the base and weedbeds up and downstream from it. That spot produced a four fish for me including a very nice 18" 3lb 1oz fish. I was starting to feel it! For the first time in about a month I felt like I had a chance at a really good day. I realized I needed to move fast and cover water and then sit on any spot that produced multiple bites. I quickly eliminated a couple of spots when I finally made it to what would turn out to be THE spot. It was a pretty big rocky hump that had a couple of saddles on it. Parts of it came almost to the surface but most of it was 15-25' deep and a mix of basalt and chunk rock. I started carefully working my way around, probing here and there with a drop shot and a wobblehead. I remember saying to myself "I can't believe I have not caught a fish on the wobblehead today". Well, the very next case I felt a good THUMP and was able to land this nice 17.75" 2lb 14oz bass. The other good thing is that the wind had really died down quite a bit. All of a sudden it was easy to fish and the fish were biting. It was a perfect storm of opportunity. I caught a bunch of fish off that spot. Only one or two were dinks and the rest were nice ones. Not monsters but mostly in the 14-16" range which is a fun size to be hammering! I tried to keep them biting by switching between 3 baits. The wobblehead, a drop shot and a new to me technique: jigging a blade bait. They all produced. My primary bait was the wobblehead. They were eating it really well and it is fun to rear back and slam the hook into them. If I made a handful of casts I would switch to the drop shot for a bit before returning back to the wobblehead. After a while those baits stopped producing so I picked up the blade bait. I pretty quickly hooked a big fish that pulled off as it was bulldogging under my kayak. I was encouraged to have hooked a good fish with this technique since it was my first time trying it and I got bit after really beating that spot to death with the wobblehead and drop shot. After losing that first fish I picked up two decent ones jigging away. The only downside is that it hangs up a lot and I felt like I was spending too much time pedaling up to free it. I decided that perhaps I should look for a second magic spot. It was actually just another hump that was very close to the spot I had been hitting. That immediately produced a nice bass and then a big pikieminnow (3lb 6oz). After that I lost a really good sized bass (3-4lbs) when it jumped and through the wobblehead. Keeping with the program I switched to the drop shot and on the first cast I felt some weight and set the hook. I could tell this was a nice fish. After a feisty battle I was able to haul in my best bass of the day. An 18.25", 3lb 5oz beauty. After that I picked up a few more fish and then decided to mostly call it a day. I did spend some time mapping out the area with my Garmin so that next time I could fish even more spots in that area, but I did not really fish. My shoulder was killing me so I was happy to spend some time just better learning this area. After that I did a 40 minute log back to the ramp. By the time I got there I was sweating like a pig from the unusually warm fall weather. I could not have been much happier!! I ended the day with 28 smallmouth and the one big pikieminnow. I caught 18 of the bass, including the two biggest and the pikieminnow in the last 3 hours.

I am fishing a river and I think the fish behave very differently compared to a lake, especially a small one. Usually the bite is pretty steady for most of the day in the water that I fish. The pool I fish is about 45 miles long and anywhere from 1/2 a mile to a mile wide. I only cover a tiny fragment of that water but what I seem to observe is that the fish move around a lot in the fall. Some spots may be dead for weeks then red hot then dead again. Other spots are red hot for a month and then empty. My only advice for fall fishing is to keep moving and try to eliminate unproductive water as quickly as possible. The other thing I see in the fall is that there seem to be schools of smallmouth that relate to clean spots near weedbeds and schools that are your typical rock related fish. I would guess that the weed edge fish are feeding on perch and the rock fish are eating crayfish. I would not just fish rocks if you are not catching fish. I can't tell the difference if there are bite windows (my dead spots have non-feeding fish so tight to the bottom I can't see them) or if they are truly empty. What seems to be true is that if I move around enough I can eventually find a spot where I am marking fish and that they are feeding fish. Once again I am fishing a huge river and the fish have a ton of room to roam. I am not sure anything I have to say translates to a 200 acre lake.

My report this week (once I get around to processing the video) is going to be the PNW version of yours! I caught a bunch on a drop shot but I caught a lot on a swing-head (I call them wobbleheads for whatever reason). I like the Zoom Z-craw as a trailer. The "arms" have kind of a swimbait tip on them and really flutter nicely. I have not tried painting them but your lure looks way cooler than mine Congrats on getting some really beautiful fish and thanks for taking us along on the video!

We get it in the Willamette some summers. It is toxic. Please keep your pets and people off the water while it is present.

A drop shot is always a good choice. I have not used them much in muddy water so I don't know how effective it would be in those conditions. I throw a wobblehead jig with a creature bait in those kinds of depths out here. Depending on the current I would use a 1/2, 3/4 or 1oz version with a creature bait. I have been liking the Zoom Z Craw because the two flappers on it really flutter a lot. I think that makes it easy for the fish to find in deep water.

Some times when I am out on the water I just look around and can't believe how lucky I am to get to fish in a place like this!

I just outlast them Smallmouth move around like crazy. Spots that are loaded one week are empty the next. Even seems like over a period of hours the fish move in and out. If I move around enough I can usually run into some. This last trip I wasted way too much time fishing a spot that had been my best producer the previous three trips. It is so easy to fall into that trap. Smallmouth prey on our weakness

I hit the Columbia this weekend and the gorge was in fact gorgeous. It was a beautiful day on the water and the only things that would have made it better were more and bigger fish. It was not a terrible day, 11 bass with the big one being 17.75" and a big pikieminnow, but this time of year I feel like I should catch a 20+" bass every time out. I had my chance right off the bat. I started out tossing a zara puppy and in short order a pig of a bass blew up on it. Not once, not twice, but three times on the same cast. That fish wanted to be caught so bad but somehow I was able to deflect all its attempts and getting hooked. I actually checked the lure after that cast to make sure it did have hooks! Not the best start to the day. After throwing everything I had at the spot where I missed that fish and getting no response I headed downstream with nothing to show for my efforts. After that miss I did switch from the Zara puppy to a Berkley Choppo (my normal choice on the Columbia). I love the number of strikes I get on stick baits but man do I have a lot of fish strike those without getting hooked. Usually when they hit the choppo it is a hookup. The next spot I hit was a small rocky clear spot surrounded by weeds. It is often good for a fish or two. I had a nice blow up on my choppo that stuck like it was supposed to and ended up landing a nice 17" bass. Now that's a pretty good way to get the skunk off. However that was the only biter I could find at that spot. The next spot ended up being a bust. The frustrating part was that a bass came through chasing bait but by the time I switched rods to my topwater and got a cast out there it was gone. I was amazed at how fast that fish (or school) was moving as they came up chasing bait in three different spots, about 50' between each one and only a handful of seconds apart. After that I switched spots again and this one produced a nice chunky 15.5" bass and a smaller one both on a drop shot. Those two fish came within a couple of casts of each other and then it was crickets so I moved again. The next spot was where my buddy and I did most of our damage last week. Within a half dozen casts with a drop shot I hooked a nice fish (best of the day) and after a good fight I landed a nice 17.75" bass (2lb 14oz). I figured I was going to have an epic day at that point on that spot but I could not buy another bite off that spot. I fished the heck out of that spot with several different lures for over about 2 hours without a sniff. I eventually realized this spot was not going to be the deal. Just kind of sad that it took me so long to figure that out. So it was time to move again. I hit a mid-river hump that tops off at about 15' and is surrounded by 40+' of water. After fishing it with the drop shot for a while I decided I need to change things up. Searching with a drop shot is just too painstakingly slow if you are not on fish. I picked up my wobblehead rod and on the first cast I caught a nice chunky 16.25" bass. Maybe I was on to something! I fished with that wobblehead for a while and eventually picked up another bass but that was it for that spot. By now the wind was starting to kick up out of the West. I was happy about that because it meant that I would have the wind at my back on the pedal home. I was trying to decide where to fish when I made a command decision to make a big move and pedal an extra 1/2 mile downstream to where there are a few small islands. I had only been that far downstream one time before but I remembering liking that spot. The only reason I mad that run down there was because I knew I would have a tailwind on the way back. So I pedaled my little heart out and made the run. I got to the first island and on my first cast (with the wobblehead) I landed a nice chunky bass. I kept the wobblehead rod in my hand. A short while later I had a hard thump and could tell this would a good fish! After a good fight I was a little disappointed to see a 2' pikieminnow on the end of my line. Oh well. I went back to dragging that wobblehead around and picked up 2 more bass around that first island. By now the wind was starting to get really stiff so made a quick pass around the other islands and then headed back. It was always fun having that strong tailing wind when heading back to the ramp. I was going about 3.5mph and the waves were passing me by. Each time they did they would give me a little extra push. It feels like someone is helping you Once I was most of the way back I did stop and fish one spot because as I zoomed by I marked some fish. It was in about 25' of water and I was right over the fish so I picked up my drop shot. Within a few minutes I felt a thunk and some weight as I was bobbing up and down in the 2' waves. I set the hook and after a fun fight I landed a fat little bass. I decided that was enough for me and I headed the rest of the way back. When I got to the ramp some folks on the dock asked if I saw the otter. They said it was right as I headed in but I was busy stowing gear as I pedaled so I missed it It always fun when you get to see those guys but I guess this was just a day that started with an almost and ended with an almost. Here is some video from the day:

Out here I only care about wind and direction for safety reasons. The smallmouth bite in all wind conditions.

It seems to be the same out here. Lots of scattered fish and some groups that I may or may not find on a given day. I will add that the schools this time of year seem to be a bit more loosely formed than in the summer. They seem to want a bit more elbow room.

I was really happy and grateful to catch that fish! I am lucky to live in an area where they regularly grow that big. My goal is a 6lb smallmouth!

I think I am a pretty good fisherman (6 or 7) on the waters that I fish and know well. If the rating is meant for how I would score if dropped anywhere in the country I would score much, much lower. I think the folks who fish a lot of tournaments and are constantly fishing new and different types of waters are the best fisherman because they have to be good on any kind of water under any kind of condition.

Hopefully the fishing gods will accept your sacrifices and make your next trip your best ever!

The woosh of a rod unloading when a big fish becomes unhooked. I have heard that sound too many times this year

Well, I just want one day out here like one of yours out there! It is a shame that the bass you catch are so big they are hard to get in the canoe Sturgeon fishing is a lot of fun in the winter after the bass stop biting. It is a workout when you catch a good one but it is a lot of sitting around waiting for a bite.

Every bass I have ever caught has been in less than 60' regardless of water clarity

I fish the Willamette for sturgeon. Here are a couple of examples from a while back:

I hit the Columbia on Sunday the 24th despite the East wind forecast. The forecast called for no more than 5mph but that is what they like to say to lure you in. It's always the same old story, "This time it will be different", "When I hurt you in the past I was angry", "I would never do that to you again". My friend put it best. He said, "Fishing the Columbia river is like being in an abusive relationship with someone with a bipolar disorder. They love you one minute and then they are raging the next." Sunday was no different. The wind would pick up and it would get rough, then just about when you felt like packing it in it would calm down and whisper, "I'm going to be nice now, go ahead further downstream..." Of course we can't ignore that siren's song The day did not start out well for me. Maybe it is old age but when I looked at my alarm which was set for 4:15am from a few weeks back I thought, "Yep, that seems about right". I had actually wanted to set it for 4:45am not 4:15am. Of course I did not realize my mistake until I was eating breakfast and asking myself why is it so early. So, I ended up sitting around the house cursing myself for a half hour to start the day. The really sad part is that I was wrapped up in berating myself that I lost track of the time and ended up leaving the house later than I wanted. Yep, that's the way to start your day. I got to the river a little after first light and it just seemed like it took forever for me to get on the water. When I finally did make it on the water I promptly hooked a really nice bass on topwater that almost immediately buried itself in the weeds and pulled the hook. I fished that area for 15 minutes without a sniff. My normal buddy had beat me on the water by a bit and I pedaled over to where he started. He had caught a couple of small fish before I got there. We fished that area together for a bit but neither of us had so much as a sniff once I got other there. So now it has been about 40 minutes and nothing to show for it. I kept seeing that black and white striped beast out of the corner of my eye but I just ignored it. Finally at the third spot, after quite a few casts, I finally got my first fish on topwater. Whew! Felt so good to get the skunk off. It was not a monster but any first fish is a good fish in my book I threw that topwater for a while longer without any success. I decided to go back over the are with a spinnerbait. After just a couple of casts I picked up a respectable 16.5" 2lb 2oz bass. Now that's more like it! However, I could not get another bite and my buddy drew a blank on that spot as well. The next two spots we stopped at turned out to be fruitless like the Columbia river had me on an Atkins diet. The next spot, probably our favorite, produced a ~14" bass for me on a spinnerbait on my first cast and then nothing. My buddy picked up one on a spybait about the same size but it was just slower than molasses. We then decided to split apart for a bit. After I bit I hear him whoop and looked over and saw him with a really nice one. He picked up a 19.5" on a spinnerbait. I hooked a really nice one on a drop shot but the hook pulled out almost immediately. I left that spot and tried a few others but did not get a sniff. I joined back up with my buddy on the spot where I had lost my good fish and he said he had picked up a couple of fish on it. We both fished that area for a while and it occasionally would kick out a fish, and some of them were pretty decent. My first bass of that spot was a nice 17.75" 2lb 14oz smallmouth which I caught on a drop shot. That was my best of the day to that point. I was pretty stoked. It was one of those orangish-colored smallmouth. After a bit the wind picked back up and I just kept that drop shot in my hand. I find it to be one of the easiest things to throw into a stiff wind and fish with effectively. I made a long cast into the wind and let it hit the bottom I lifted it and dropped it a couple of times when I just felt that thunk that feels so good. I set the hook and knew I had a good one right off the bat. After a great fight including a nice jump at the kayak I was able to corral a nice 20.25" 4lb 4oz bass. Not the fattest bass but a nice fish. After that there was a lull for a while and so I moved a little deeper and quickly picked up a fun sized fish ~14" and a dink on back to back casts on the drop shot. I thought I had found the promised land, but after those two I could not get another bite. Eventually we left that spot. The wind was not too bad so we were lured further downstream to a nice hump we like to fish. I had some bizarre luck on that spot. The first fish I caught was when my drop shot weight got hung on the bottom. A slow pull will slide the line of the weight so I keep my hook. Well, when I pulled the lure free a bass smacked. I am not sure if it was on there while it was snagged or if it hit when it jumped free. No monster but a fun fish. That same thing happened a second time but the hook pulled out during the fight. I think the fish on that spot were not very big. I did lose a couple more fish so I decided to try and change things up and switched my worm from green pumpkin to pink. On my first drop I caught a fish. Woo hoo! Of course I did not get another bite and eventually went back to green pumpkin. Since that spot was not holding any quality we decided to move to another spot. That's were I picked up my last fish of the day. Once again, I just moved to some deeper water and on my first cast there, thunk. Not a monster but another nice 16.5" fish that was beautifully marked. Once again I could not find a second biter. By then the wind had picked up some so we decided to go back to the spot where we had caught those good fish earlier. I got nothing and my buddy picked up a 13"er. About then the wind really picked up and it became pretty gusty. It was really hard to fish at that point and my buddy had to leave pretty soon anyway so we packed it in. It was quite the slot back to the ramp but at least my drive behaved. We just plowed our way back, sharing stories, laughing and talking about the good days and the bad days. It took about 40 minutes of crashing through waves to make it back but that was a walk in the park compared to the last trip where I had to paddle back in those conditions and the good company helped to pass the time. I ended up with 10 bass for the day which is pretty slow overall. Here is some video of the day, including a bit of the pedal back to the ramp at the end.