I tried that spot near the marker at Plymouth Island that Pasco recommended today (Sunday). It was a great place to fish with waders. From the bank itself would be difficult... A buddy and I put in about 7 hours and saw 3 caught by boaters immediately upstream of us. They were running divers though, so I doubt that our plugs alone were going deep enough to get the job done. Had a good day on the water and got to see someone getting some action at least. I'll probably try there again next weekend, but borrow my brother's boat this time around. Best of luck guys

Cant get the plug down? Standard plunking rig will put the plug or spin-n-glo/ bait right down near the bottom.

How was the hike in? Good trail?

leftandright,

Starfish is right, if you caught fish lately you're doing the right thing. Best pointer will be to go when the dam counts are 5 or six times what's going over right now. The big push hit Bonny today, unless it was a one-day spike, give 3-5 days and they'll be at McNary.

leftandright,

Starfish is right, if you caught fish lately you're doing the right thing. Best pointer will be to go when the dam counts are 5-6 times what's going over right now. The big push hit Bonny today, unless it was a one-day spike, give 3-5 days and they'll be at McNary.

The path going back in to the marker is basically a rarely used road bed. It was a really easy walk, although there is a fence to cross... I suspect that the fence was just put up by the Army Corps of Engineers to keep people from going back to the marker. There was no signage or anything, and the roadbed went all the way back to the marker, so I didn't worry about it. As far as the fishing went, I wasn't plunking, although I probably should have been. I was just doing the cast and retrieve bit with wiggle warts. I'll have to give plunking a shot from there at some point and see how that goes. Good spot though! Thanks for the tip!

Mark, I'd say more like 7 days from Bonnie to McNary rather than 3-5 days but you're right, the big push is definitely crossing Bonneville finally. It should get much better soon. We scratched up one keeper yesterday but it still looked awfully slow at McNary.

Schlegelstine, good job on scouting the spot-- I'd definitely suggest plunking if you're shore fishing.

I was thinking of trying the same spot from a boat this weekend. The guys I saw there were using divers and downriggers... Any suggestions on the right diver for the job? I was also thinking of maybe just setting-up a plunking rig and running that out the back of the boat... Any thoughts?

For anchor fishing you can run a mixture of cannonballs, divers or downriggers. I'll usually start with either two cannonballs and two divers or a cannonball, a downrigger, and two divers but it varies depending on the location. I seem to do better along Plymouth Island with divers, the riffle on the Oregon side with cannonballs, the tree hole with divers, Little Goose with downriggers, etc. so it's worth mixing it up a bit to see what the fish want on any given day.

Whether you're using a diver or cannonball, decide on a dropper and leader length combo (I usually start with 2 or 3 ft dropper and 5 or 6 ft leader) but you can vary that too. For divers use size 30, 40, or 50, doesn't seem to matter much. For cannonballs I'll start with 3 or 4 oz. in soft water or up to 6 or 8 in heavy current, you want to be able to bounce it back a little ways if possible. Good luck and let us know how you do!

Schlegelstine wrote:

I was thinking of trying the same spot from a boat this weekend. The guys I saw there were using divers and downriggers... Any suggestions on the right diver for the job? I was also thinking of maybe just setting-up a plunking rig and running that out the back of the boat... Any thoughts?

Yes but way too much ground to cover

If backtrolling one standard setup is a size 40 Jet Diver (although a 30 would work) about 5' above a K14 or K15 Kwikfish with a sardine wrap on the belly. Double Trouble, Cheese Measles, Fickle Pickle, etc are all good but other colors work too.

If anchored use 4 or 5 oz of weight on an 18" dropper about 4 feet above your offering. Can either drop it and wait or back bounce.

Other plug options off the top of my head are Mag Warts, Flatfish, M2-SP Flatfish and Tadpollys.

Bait works too. Herring in a bait roller is good and if the current is slow ehough cut plug is good. Roe, prawns and sand shrimp all work nicely with a Spin-N-Glo or big salmon spinner but watch the boat/current speed.

Those are just some high points and I am no expert so "your mileage may vary"

No fishing reports? Went out last Friday below the mouth of the Umatilla, Had one wammy about 1:10 in the afternoon but no fish. Fished till 4:00 seen 1 fish caught about 3:45. Noticed there are a bunch of boats fishing the Washington side this weekend. Any stories?

I made it out this past Sunday. I went out with three friends on a boat starting at about 4:50 AM. There were already a dozen or so boats on the water by that time... We fished from 4:50 AM to 2:00 in the afternoon with no luck. We were using sardine wrapped kwikfish - two on jet divers and two with weights back bouncing... Out of about 50 or so boats, I saw only 6 fish on. A friend of mine went down to Drano this weekend and said that the action there was incredibly slow also. It seems funny... The fish count is so high, but the bite seems to be awfully slow... I'll probably be hitting the Yakima now that the Columbia is going to be closed, hopefully with more luck. Anyway, best of luck to all you guys.

I fished below McNary Sunday with the family and Monday and Tuesday with my brother. On Sunday we had a hit on a herring wrapped M2SP, but it didn't stick. Only saw a few caught on the OR side and a few more caught on the WA side. I heard later that Saturday was good, but Sunday was slow. Monday was a good day with about at least 12-15 fish (that I saw) caught on the WA side. We got going early and had a nice 5 lb jack hit our M2SP, and then a 10-12 lb nate hit a prawn spinner for a gentle boatside release. Then the heart breaker was a nice 12-14 lb keeper that came unbuttoned from our prawn spinner beside the boat after 5 minutes of tug-o-war. Tuesday was slow - only saw 6 or so fish caught but we managed one of them - a nice 10 lb cookie-cutter keeper. That was it, except for a false-alarm sucker that hit just as I was grilling the steaks for lunch. Plan to head back out Thursday - Sat and then move up to Ice Harbor after that.

I also fished Tuesday below McNary. caught 1 fish (keeper) about 6:20 am, had 3 other hits, could not keep them on. There was alittle red aluminum boat that had the hot plug. I seen them land 3 keepers, released 1 wild and lost 2 others. I tried Ringold this morning throwing vibrax spinner, no action what so ever. Drove out to Ice Harbor to look and see, talked to 4 plunkers 2 towards the dam on the Burbank side, only one had any action and he lost the fish. There was a total of 4 boats towards the dam, water looked a little more stained then below McNary. Also will be hitting McNary tomorrow. Good luck to ya E-mann

Fished Ice Harbor dam yesterday. Managed to get one chinook (12lbs.) Had a lot of company! The word is out. NOTE: At 6pm they opened ALL the gates and it shut down fishing real quick. Per discussion w/ a dam operator, he indicated that they plan on doing the same for some time. What is the word on McNary??

Final report for Plymouth/Umatilla springers: Fished Thursday - Saturday with two nice keepers caught on Thursday anchored on the WA side just below the marker in 19'; the one pictured hit a prawn spinner and the other took an egg spinner. We also tried Kwicks and herring. Our neighbors were having some luck on bait-wrapped Kwicks. Friday was a total bust - not even a bump on the WA side and Saturday we threw the kitchen sink at 'em on the OR side and lost one at the boat on a prawn spinner.

Over the week of fishing, I tried lots of stuff but for me, the fish favored the prawn spinners. However, I saw plenty of fish taken on Kwicks, but I couldn't get 'em to produce.

Looks like the up-river run is just about over and sadly we have another prediction that will likely not come to pass. It's odd how good the reports were from the lower river and yet I don't think the fishing ever really turned on for us. The bright point is that the jack counts are picking up so there's hope again for a season next year (although it was disappointing to see how last year's stellar jack counts have not yet produced a stellar return of adults...)