One "willy" big bass and the first on the AOTY board

Check out the video here.
Okay, the headline is bad, but the fish was big.

A recent trip on the Willamette River near West Linn Oregon netted a nice smallmouth bass. The trip was a first for me in the kayak in these waters. I have fished them several times for coho in one of my many previous boats but never the kayak. An added bonus for the day was taking nephew Travis out for his first kayak trip in a Hobie.

The weather was great with little wind and warm temperatures. We took out early in order to have time on the kayaks without the powerboats. Since this was expected to be the last weekend of the summer with temps in the 90s, I was certain we would see several boats. 

It took us little time to gear up the kayaks and we were underway by 8 a.m. We crossed the river and I started fishing close to the shore while Travis started snapping photos with his iPhone. 

It didn't take long to get into a bass and I quickly brought in an 8-inch smallmouth. I showed it off to the camera and started back at it. I was trolling a size 6 brown woolly bugger on my 7 weight with a clear sinking tip. Within 30 minutes I was onto a large fish. I fought it for about five minutes before it came up and revealed itself. It was a beautiful 17 inch smallmouth. I landed it, measured it and then turned it loose. I had signed up for the northwest kayak anglers Angler of the Year competition and the bass was the first fish I entered. At 17 inches, the smally should earn me 170 points on the board. 

I caught one more small bass before the boat traffic and the temperatures increased. With the fishing becoming slow, Travis and I explored the river for another couple hours before heading back to the dock. It was a great day and the fishing wasn't bad either.  

Popular posts from this blog

Starting The Season With A New Fleet

Image
The blog has received little love over the past year, so it was time to write a post. It's not that I have been fishing less, it's that I haven't taken the time to post and work on the videos. The 2022 salmon season was not nearly as epic as the 2021 season especially with the limited fall salmon season. This was mainly due to a unique hatchery Tule Chinook salmon return where the Spring Creek Hatchery upstream of Bonneville Dam had about 100,000 Chinook return - twice the average. The Tule is an endangered species in the rivers below Bonneville Dam and due to some complicated issues,  caused a closure in the lower Columbia River during the height of the season. Hobie PA17t The 2023 salmon season is off to an unseasonably cold start with winter holding on and March coming in like a lion and going out like a lion. No lambs this year. Hopefully better days await in April and beyond. I did reorganize my fleet buying and selling some kayaks while still ending up with a tandem,
Read more

Looking towards 2021 while glancing in the mirror.

Image
A limit of springers caught in July! As the fall salmon season was coming to a close, I anxiously waited for another disaster in 2020 while hoping to catch one more fish on the kayak.   Starting with a pandemic, the year seemed like it was forged in strife with racial injustice protests, political conspiracies, hazardous air quality, massive hurricanes, melting glaciers, financial disasters, and finally an election where unproven accusations and lies caused the first breach of our nation's Capitol in more than 200 years. Yep, 2020 was certainly a year we got a clear view of our country's past, present, and future.  Through most of the chaos, I enjoyed many days on my home waters fishing for salmon with my buddy Mark. The kayaks proved a great way to social distance and the Willamette and Columbia Rivers offered opportunities for salmon, steelhead, bass, sturgeon, and shad close to home.  The first half of the salmon season was tough and it wasn't until May that I finally la
Read more

2021 Fishing Season Salmon No. 5 and 6

Image
Welcome back to the 2021 kayak fishing season recap.  It's now the waning of summer and Mark and I focused our efforts on the Columbia as the Fall King season gets underway. We are still close enough to home that I have time to fish a couple hours before work, keeping our carbon footprint low and putting extra hours on the water. Salmon No. 5 - After July, the action moved from the Willamette River to the Columbia River. I caught a nice jack king during an early trip and tagged No. 5 on a trip before work on August 23. We were still using spinners and Pro Trolls but we can only fish one rod in the Columbia. The video features a look at the jack first and finishes with the big fall king.  Salmon No. 6 - Number 6 was caught on another trip before work and it was the biggest of the season at that point. My trips before work start in the dark and last about 2 hours before I need to be at the shop by 9 a.m. I have a little wiggle room with the 9 a.m. start, but this year I made it to w
Read more