HOOD RIVER -- I found myself on the rocky banks of the Columbia River late Sunday afternoon with plans to pester the smallmouth bass until dusk -- if I could find the fish.
The smallmouth bite this spring has been up and down, mostly because of a never-ending string of cold fronts that keep kicking the bass out of shallower water and backwaters. But Sunday was warm and humid all day, so I thought the bass might be a little silly for my Woolly Buggers and Clouser Minnows.
I hopscotched from rock to rock along the river and tossed my flies into the rocky depths. I used a sinking line, as I didn't see any bass finning around in the shallows. I did see some mammoth carp -- 20 pounds and more -- easing around a shallow backwater and sipping bugs from the surface with delicate little kisses.
I would rather not kiss a carp -- even a 20 pounder -- but I now regret not stopping and trying a dry fly. Carp are getting more and more popular along the Columbia, and one of my fishing resolutions for the year is to learn more about catching these fish. I've hooked a few, and these fish turn into torpedoes!
I should have switched gears and pestered those carp, but I know I have all summer for that.
I eventually found some smallmouth in about five feet of water off a rocky point -- and very near the entry to a shallow backwater that is Spawn Central for smallies every year. I hooked a couple smaller males -- and then a nice female whacked my Woolly Bugger.
It looked like Bass-O-Rama was about to begin, but a west wind started ripping up the Gorge, and casting became almost impossible. I suspect that the fishing might have been better earlier in the day, as it was hazy and warm all afternoon long.
I have been hearing that smallmouth are finally starting to really tear things near The Dalles and upstream. I might head up that way next weekend, as I'm dying to fish a bank swarming with bad-tempered smallmouth bass.
It's been a long wait this year. I think we just need about a week of constant warm weather.
As I hopped rocks back to the Subaru, I found a rattlesnake sunning on a rock. This is the first rattler I've ever seen near Hood River. There are plenty of rattlesnakes upstream of The Dalles.
The little rattler was stiff and slow -- it looked like the sudden cold wind caught the snake by surprise. I used a piece of driftwood to coax the snake off the riverbank trail and into a thicket of brush and rocks.
I'm glad I didn't get bit, but I sure wish I had giving those carp a chance to kiss a dry fly.
