I've been looking hard for these ponds. I guess they are 15 miles SE of Kennewick Wa. If anyone knows directions on how to get there that would be great.

Each pound i about 30 to 40 acres. I looked on a topo map and they don't show up. Also I'm looking for Quarry pound in the burbank area....any help would be great .

They're on the Columbia a few miles north of the OR/WA border. Here's a little snapshot that shows it's rough location:



I've never been to the ponds, but I've spent some time in the Finley Hills. You need to head out toward Finley and get on Meals Yellpit Rd. Follow it several miles beyond Finley. It'll climb a little and you'll want to take an unnamed road that cuts off on your left toward the river. I haven't been out there for many months so I can't think of any landmarks--sorry. Take it all the way down to the railroad, and then it's another few miles on foot along the railbed. My topo Map suggests that there is a jeep trail that can get to the ponds, but I've mountain biked out there quite a bit and it could be a little difficult to navigate. In contrast the rail bed is flat and actually constitutes a portion of the impoundment that makes up the ponds, so you can't miss it. As for the Burbank area, there are a lot of water features--I wouldn't know which is which.

Your the man! On the map I looked at it didn't show the railroad tracks which made it look to me like the lakes and the river were one. It didn’t show as two separate bodies of water. Those lakes look virtually untouched. I highly doubt they get fished often. I think next weekend I’m going to explore that area. I really appreciate you taking the time to show me.

matt-

I wandered out to those ponds about 14 years ago when I first moved to the Tri-Cities. E-mann is right - I remember driving to a small pond by the river and hiking the tracks for 2 or 3 miles. Caught some bluegill in the pond where we parked and saw a couple nice bass, caught a few small bass in one of the little ponds along the tracks on the way to yellepit, and only had time to fish a little bit in yellepit (I believe, or maybe mound - it was a while ago). Had one nice bass follow the lure in. I didn't (and still don't) know much about bass fishing, but it looked like someone who knew what they were doing could do well. I also seem to remember a truck parked at one of the ponds, so it appears to be possible to drive in with a right rig. Hope you do well - post some results either way! I've always thought about trying it again, but I always hear trout calling to me from somewhere else...

You know...I bank stealhead fish close to there. I take the gravel road left before you get to the McNary boat launch. I follow that road pretty far to the pump house thing but, I have never gone all the way. I wonder how close I can get to the ponds from there?

I finally made it out there this morning. I took Finley road all the way to Les Blair Rd and took a left followed it all the way down to a dead end up on top of the hill.

I could see Palmer pond down the cliff. It is a half mile hike down a steep crazy crazy crazy steep cliff. Beautiful veiw oh my god! I saw 7 white tail drink water from the pond. I had my dog so I wasn't about to climb down there. I couldn't see yellepit or mound but, my gps said they were 2 miles east down the tracks.

Thats about as close as I could get I'm studying my maps now to see if there is any other ways. If not I guess I'm gonna have to take a day and hike it.