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To  many anglers Spring Chinook is one of the best tasting fish the North  West has to offer. Anglers each year head to the Columbia to try their  luck in hooking these amazing fish. Typically you’ll find that the  Willamette will start producing fish before the Columbia. This is because  smolts are released from the Willamette a little sooner than the rest  are released.

A relaxing, fun and successful way to catch these fish is anchor fishing.  This can be done on any river that is tide affected but found most popular  on the Columbia River and Willamette. The first thing you must always  be aware of is your tide. The only way to properly fish on anchor is  to fish an out going tide. This will keep your boat straight on anchor  and give your plugs the action they need to work in the water. The best  way to get started is venturing out and exploring holes with a fish  finder. You want to find water anywhere from 18-30ft. You can find fish  in other water as well but these depths are more common to hold fish  this time of year. Using your fish finder you want to find holes that  provide shelves or drop offs. Often times these salmon will just lay  behind these shelves looking for slower water to rest in before continuing  their journey upriver. Once you find shelves the best thing to do is  mark your location on your GPS either on your fish finder or a hand  held. If you don’t have either you can still manage it just may take  longer to locate the shelf next time you go out. The best thing to do  if you don’t have a GPS is try and memorize something along the shore  directly across so next time when you come back you can line yourself  back up and come close to getting in the same spot. Once on anchor you’ll  want to start getting your gear ready to go. I prefer to fish a braided  line either 50lb power pro or tuff line when fishing plugs or spinners.  This is because there is no stretch in your line which increases your  hook sets because fish will often hook them selves before you even grab  your rod. From my braided line I run it to a spreader which looks just  like heavy gauged wire bent in a 90 degree angle with swivels on the  ends. Three way swivels will work as well but you’ll find the spreaders  prevent tangles and frustration. From there you’ll want to tie an  18”-24” 15lb mono dropper line down from your spreader. This is  the line that connects down to your weight. Weight size may vary depending  on the current but for the most part 8-10oz will work. The reason I  run a lighter monofilament line for my dropper is because if your weight  snags on the bottom you want your weight to break loose first. This  will hopefully save you from having to re-rig a whole set up and also  save money. All that’s left to do now is tie on your plug. I like  running Luhr Jensen Kwikfish in a size K14 or K15. Colors will always  vary but there are few that seem to be winners each year. One of my  favorite is one many refer to as the “Double Trouble” it’s a chrome  body with Chartreuse on each end. The most key part to this whole setup  is making sure your plug is properly tuned. To do this put your plug  in the water and pull it upstream and watch the action. A properly tuned  plug will always stay straight inline and not pull to one side. If your  plug does run to one side you’ll want to tune it by adjusting the  eyelet your line connects to. If your plug pulls to the left turn the  eyelet to the right and vise versa if it pulls to the right. Now that  the plug is properly tuned wrapping your Kwikfish with bait will greatly  increase your catch rate. You’ll find the majority of everyone fishing  will be using Sardine fillets which you can buy filleted already or  take whole sardines and fillet them yourself either is fine. The reason  sardine is chosen over many other baits is because of its oil content.  Being that’s it’s a very oily fish it leaves a stronger scent in  the water attracting more fish to your plug. Wrapping your plugs is  easy I start by cutting fillets down to about 1” X 2” fillets. You’ll  want to place your fillet on the belly of you plug. So in order to do  that cut a slit about half way up the fillet. Using that slit you can  now slide it around the hook on the belly of the plug. Magic thread  or miracle thread is a couple threads out there you can use to wrap  your plug. I like to start at the back of the plug and work my way to  the front of the plug then wrap back towards the back making a total  of about 20-30 wraps. To finish it off just make several half hitch  knots and this will keep your bait secure. Now you’re ready to put  your lines in the water. Make sure to check your drags ahead of time.  You want a drag that is snug but not tight and not too loose. If a fish  hits you want them to be able to take line. You’ll find more fish  will hold the plug longer with a looser drag which equals more hook  ups. Hopefully some of these tips will help bring more fish to the boat  this year good luck!

March and April can be fantastic months for catching big Largemouth Bass. One key is getting started early by doing your homework. Your target species is worth the extra effort, and you may be surprised at how you can improve your Spring success. Don’t waste those eye-crossing, boring, twitchy days of February by just sitting there cursing the snow, fog, rain and bombed-out thermometer and barometer. You have more important things to do besides reorganizing your tackle box for the tenth time. You’ve got preparations to make!

Do you have Google Earth on your computer? If you don’t, I strongly recommend that you download this useful application, and it won’t take long if you have a high-speed connection. With the satellite ‘look-down’ shots you can search out bodies of water near your location, zoom in and study features that might have taken you weeks, months or even years to discover in the old days. The view can be manipulated to show you different ‘looks’ of the same areas, and the clarity of the pictures have really improved in the last few years. Heard of a spot you might like to try? Just plug in the lake, river or reservoir, watch the planet turn, ‘fly’ down and scan around. Sometimes the picture is so good you can even make out underwater structure such as rocks or gravel beds. Very useful! Most of the satellite pictures were taken during summer months in order to take advantage of good weather for clear pictures, so you may want to bear this in mind when considering the typically higher spring water you may be fishing.

Do you have a GPS? Some, such as my Garmin Map 76 Csx, have tide tables, sunrise and sunset times, sun and moon locations, moon phases, compass, barometric pressure and ‘Excellent, Good, Average or Poor’ fishing day and time designations for each day of the year. Hardly seems fair but don’t worry, I can guarantee you the bass aren’t going to roll over and wait to be lipped when they see you holding your GPS unit. I like to scan ahead and look for Spring tides, moon phases and ‘best’ fishing days for upcoming months. When fishing, I also like to mark waypoints when I find a honey hole. They usually produce from year to year under similar conditions.

Most high-end GPS units also have the capacity to accept chips with specialized information. I went online and purchased a chip with Western lakes and streams, which also shows bathymetric information (underwater topography) and even old roads or creek channels through reservoirs. This can be golden, when a few feet of water depth and a crucial underwater feature might make all the difference in locating that lunker bass, or in locating any fish at all under tough conditions.

Another useful GPS tool is the ‘trackback’ feature, especially handy for finding your way back on an unfamiliar impoundment if you fish until after nightfall. My wife was finally impressed with my GPS last November in Mexico, when she needed to find a drugstore in an unfamiliar city. I took us right to it, then tracked us back to our hotel. She quietly said ‘hmph,’ which is the same as anyone else jumping up and down and saying ‘Wow!’

Don’t forget the advantages your home computer can provide. No need to wait for your monthly bass magazine. Most of them usually focus on weather conditions, forage fish species and water temperatures them good old boys down South are familiar with, but won’t happen up here for us until deep Summer, if ever. Try Internet searches on specific bodies of water you want to fish. Look for maps, newer articles, local organizations and forums, and don’t be afraid to trade information with other online bass fanatics. Some of them will gas you, but most are good-hearted people, happy to share helpful pointers. Time of year or month can be included as keywords in your search. You can save or ‘bookmark’ your searches. You can also pull up good articles from online fishing magazines. I like to go back and re-read helpful information from sources I’ve already found. For me, some useful tidbits don’t always ’sink in’ the first time, but once I finally ‘get it,’ watch out!

Maps are still useful tools. I like to fish the Columbia River and some of its tributaries and a good map can be very helpful, not just in navigation, but in reducing the river to fishable, productive areas. My current favorite maps are produced by “Fish – n – Map Co.” They are waterproof, tearproof, writable and sufficiently detailed as to be trustworthy river partners. Did I mention they also have GPS longitudes and latitudes? They also have reliably marked areas with the best Smallmouth or Largemouth fishing – as well as other species – depending on river level and tides.

There is no need to stay home right now. You can put on your longhandled underwear, some warm, waterproof clothes, some fingerless gloves and go out for some coldweather bassing. Try jig-and-grub or jig-and-pig combos in blacks or browns fished very, very slowly. Try suspending stickbaits fished slowly with occasional short ‘rips.’ Try spinnerbaits, slow-rolled. Try deep-digging crankbaits in firetiger, silver or citrus, following bottom countours down, where creeks enter the lake. Get your depth-finder on, look for concentrations of fish in deeper holes and try vertical fishing finesse drop-shot rigs, and vertical jigging spoons. Try rattling lipless crankbaits, ripped along like it’s mid-summer (Don’t know why, but it works sometimes). And don’t be afraid to try – gasp! – live bait like nightcrawlers on baithooks with no lead. Be patient, freeline them down into deep holes that you know contain big rocks, stumps or jumbled logs and limbs. You’ll hang up down there, but you might just hang into the biggest bass of the early season! I’ve caught Largemouth in February, and I know you can too.

Do you have a new spot nagging at the corner of your mind, or have you seen or heard of a place that might hold good bass? Time to study up! Arm yourself with good information, write down some goals for places to visit this Spring, and you’ll be a step ahead of where you were last year when you venture out to find that trophy fish! Hint: Smaller bodies of water and shallower areas of big water will heat up faster in a 3 or 4 day late-winter or early-spring warming spell, and bass do like warm(er) water.

Future articles will contain information on the importance of stealth, hunting a big fish, topwater techniques, modifying baits, lines and line visiblity, bait sizes, nightfishing, tidal considerations, barometric pressure, fishing pre and post spawn, best weedless and finesses soft plastic techniques, improvising and experimenting, river vs. lake fish, and possibly, requested topics}