I went scouting down at the umatilla river this weekend and was curious to know, where in the heck do you fish this thing when the salmon are in? It seems as if there is little to no legal access between pendleton and hermiston!

Granted I have never fished there before and a little info would be helpful to me!

Can anyone chime in?

Scott

My experience tells me the same thing that you discovered. Aside from the stretch below 3 mile dam and a nice long stretch in Hermiston, I've not found any access. The portion below 3-mile dam is some good spinner water--lots of pockets. I can easily spend half a day picking my way up from the mouth, and I've picked up a few nooks (C&R only in the fall) and steelhead. It looks like they're drawing down McKay resevoir so the fish may start nosing into the mouth soon.

The land is private but there are several spots where you can access the river. I'll be heading out this fall for silvers and I'll be glad to show you around if you like.

There is enough local steelie action I never fish it for them, but the same places should work for both.