I got a message from Kirk Morris, a past guest on this blog and a fishing buddy who had disappeared since he got a boat a couple years ago and didn't have time for us lowly wade and float tube fishers anymore (OK, it is true that I never reached out to him either...). He wanted to know if I'd be interested in coming along for some late season bass fishing in the Columbia. My answer was of course, not just for the fishing, but because Kirk is a great fishing companion. Along with another friend, Dan, we headed out early Saturday morning for the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers.
Kirk had everything set up, so this was just a ride along and cast where Kirk said. He'd been out several times in the last few weeks, and although fishing had been slowing down, he'd still been catching fish. Drop-shotting was the ticket of the day, fishing a swimmy rubber minnow on a hook 12 to 18 inches above a small lead weight. Cast upstream, bounce it on the bottom while retrieving it slowly with the current. Takes were really soft, barely noticeable at times. Never a hit and run. We found a decent number of smallies like the one below, with a short diversion in the middle of the morning to a shoreline full of 8-inch largemouth that would often hit a small rubber worm before you could reel in the slack. That would have been a hoot on the fly rod.
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| Rick and a nice smallie |
The action was consistent enough throughout the morning to keep things interesting. Bass were actually a lot of fun I really need to expand my horizons a little. We stopped by a bridge abutment on the Snake on the way to the ramp to search for just a few more, and after a couple small fish to the boat, Kirk hooked the monster of the day (and year), a 4-lb 11-oz smallmouth. Great way to end the day! Thanks Kirk!
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| Kirk and his biggie |
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