Not surprisingly, the Columbia River also is on our list of Best Smallmouth Bass Fishing in Washington. The mid-Columbia also has very good fishing for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, shad and walleye. In the summer and fall, bass will move into deeper water and often be found behind rocks and points and other structures that allow them to stay out of the main current while they wait to ambush prey. During the spring spawn, smallmouth will be in shallow water, so focus on shorelines. Smallmouth bass will key on rocky structures, whether manmade riprap or natural rocks near shore or underwater.

Start at just about any launch on one of the reservoirs, also known as “pools.” These pools are, from downriver to upriver, formed by Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary dams. A number of bass tourneys here attest to that. True, it can be tough to fish both for its size and the wind that whips up most afternoons, but the shear numbers of smallmouth bass (and some very big ones) in the big river is incredible. This is huge water stretches through long impoundments formed behind giant hydroelectric dams. Much more: Brownlee Reservoir Fishing Columbia River In the summer and fall, you’ll most likely find bigger bass holding in deeper water, where you can get after them with soft plastics, jigs and other lures.īrownlee also has some of the state’s best fishing for crappie and channel catfish, and good fishing for other types of panfish, catfish and largemouth bass. The bass will tend to be in shallow water and often extra aggressive during the spring, around the spawn, and will attack lures with a vengeance.

Its large population of good-sized smallmouth bass is part of the reason.įor Oregonians, the Powder River Arm is particularly popular, but anglers equipped with a boat might do well to move away from the busier ramps to find abundant rocky smallmouth habitat throughout this big waterway. The uppermost reservoir on the Snake River between Oregon and Idaho is near the top of every warmwater fishing fan’s favorite fishing holes in both states. The following are a handful of the very best places east of the Cascade Mountains. There are some truly great bass fishing in many parts of the state, including some fantastic smallmouth waters in western Oregon.īut truly, Eastern Oregon is tough to beat for its many rivers and reservoirs absolutely loaded with bronzebacks.

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