Rainy day in Portland, OR - Trying a spybait for the first time

[pdxfisher]

Took me a while to get this written as yardwork and real work have been keeping me occupied.

 

I hit the upper Willamette out of 10th street on Thursday, August 6th. I had taken a week off of work to do yardwork but with rain in the forecast I figured I should just go fishing instead of working on a steep and slippery slope. I got to the river around daybreak and was on the water around 6am. The morning started out breezy and cloudy after an hour or two it changed to breezy, rainy and cloudy. 

 

I was a bit underdressed and shivering off and on all morning. I almost packed it in a few times but I decided I didn't want to have to tell my wife what a wimp I had become. I could her her say, "So, you came home early because to were too cold on an August morning". Hypothermia did not seem so bad

It rained for most of the morning. A steady rain coupled with a decent wind blowing in my face did not make for the most pleasant of fishing conditions. Wind and current were aligned and I had to constantly pedal my kayak to not drift downstream really fast. There were even occasional whitecaps on the river. Definitely not my favorite conditions.

 

The fishing was decent. I ended up with 47 smallmouth and 1 tiny largemouth. My best fish of the day was a 2lb 11oz smallmouth that I caught on my favorite 3" white swimbait on a 1/4oz jighead.

 

 

I fished topwater a lot in the morning but I never hooked up. With the wind, rain and waves it was hard to even see my topwater. After a while I gave that up and switched to a spybait. I had never used one before but a friend of mine had tried them earlier with good success so I had ordered a couple and decided to give them a try. One of the great things about those spybaits is that they cast incredibly well. 

 

I have to admit that up to that point I was spending a lot of time picking out backlashes in the gusty wind. The spybait was a godsend in that regard. It cut through the wind incredibly well and that definitely improved my mood. I caught a lot of fish on the spybait. My best was a 2lb 5oz smallmouth:

 

 

I caught a mixture of dinks and nice fish on it throughout the day. A really interesting thing is that I had tons of fish follow it to the kayak and tons of fish hit it right at the kayak. Exploding on it just as I was about to lift it from the water. I think I may have been fishing it a little too fast - mostly because the kayak was blowing around so much that it was dragging the lure on top of how fast I was reeling. I can't wait to try them on a calm day.

 

I would say that they seem to feel a similar role to the 3" swimbait but they do sink faster and seem to stay deeper on the retrieve. Those are nice features.

Throughout the day I would move along humps and points and when I spotted fish under the kayak I would quickly switch rods and drop down either a Ned rig or a drop shot. Both worked really well at picking those fish up. A lot of the fish were suspend 10' off the bottom and I would watch them follow the soft plastic down to the bottom on the 2D sonar and then feel the "thump" as they sucked it in. I really love my sonar!

 

Overall, I would say I caught a good number of fish on the spybait, 3" swimbait, Ned rig and dropshot.

 

I did catch on fish on a topwater. As I was heading back to the ramp in the late afternoon the weather had switched to a mix of clouds and sun. I decided to try another new lure (for me). A Berkley Choppo. They are a whopper plopper knockoff but I have been unhappy with the 90 sized plopper (the 110s are grea). The 90 sized ploppers take a while to surface after a cast in the kayak unless I raise my arms straight up overhead as it lands and check the cast just as the lure lands. I figured I would try the Choppo. I am happy to say that the Choppo surfaces really well after a long cast. I did finally catch a topwater fish late in the afternoon on the way to the ramp after missing and losing a couple others. I can't wait to fish that lure in good topwater conditions.

 

After that fish I made a few casts but mostly just sped back to the launch and called it a day.

Here are a few more fish from the day:

 

 

 

[roadwarrior]

[TnRiver46]

Nice fish. Sounds like my kind of place! 

[pdxfisher]

Thanks guys!

 

Portland has some really good bass fishing. The Columbia is even better than the Willamette but it is hard to find days when the wind is calm enough in the Columbia gorge to get the kayak on the water. 

[galyonj]

On 8/15/2020 at 6:04 PM, TnRiver46 said:

Nice fish. Sounds like my kind of place! 

Hm. Mine too. ?

[Oregon Native]

Columbia was always my favorite too...but...loved the wind...kept most people off the water....rain was a bonus.  Can imagine its tough packing for a yak for that river....good for you.  Islands up by Dalles can be amazing.....

[pdxfisher]

4 hours ago, Oregon Native said:

Columbia was always my favorite too...but...loved the wind...kept most people off the water....rain was a bonus.  Can imagine its tough packing for a yak for that river....good for you.  Islands up by Dalles can be amazing.....

I have not fished that area but that is what I keep drooling over. The Navionics webapp of that area and the Google maps views look really good. This fall the wind should die down enough to make it yak-able.

 

It is a pretty long drive from Portland so I want to make sure I can spend a full day on the water - and no time in the water

[Oregon Native]

Good luck...stay a couple days and camp...

[Sphynx]

The Columbia is an awesome river to fish, it's one of those rivers that as long as you have a way to get out on the water your problem will be trying to eliminate productive looking water, not finding it lol.

[skekoam]

Sweet fish.  Just curious, does it feel any different lipping a SM compared to LM bass?  I have yet to catch a SM, but can't wait. 

[pdxfisher]

2 minutes ago, skekoam said:

Sweet fish.  Just curious, does it feel any different lipping a SM compared to LM bass?  I have yet to catch a SM, but can't wait. 

They just seem harder to lip due to the smaller mouth. Largemouth seem easy to grab but smallies definitely are a little tougher for me to get maneuvered into a good position while I am in the kayak. Otherwise no real difference.

[skekoam]

On 9/4/2020 at 4:12 PM, pdxfisher said:

They just seem harder to lip due to the smaller mouth. Largemouth seem easy to grab but smallies definitely are a little tougher for me to get maneuvered into a good position while I am in the kayak. Otherwise no real difference.

Thanks.  Sounds similar to a few spotted bass (I think) that we've caught at a small pond and the mouths seems visibly smaller than other LMB I've caught.  Made them a bit difficult to lip.