I spent about 15 years fishing the Reach. Here's what I can tell you:

You will want a good sized boat and motor to fish the reach. The 16' with a 90 Merc is fine. The 4hp tolling motor may or may not be fast enough - just depends on where you are. The water in the Reach hauls booty.

Anywhere above Vernita Bridge to a mile or so down river is a good place to start. Generally, you can't go wrong by starting at the Bridge and working your way down stream.

The river is fairly deep and for most of the time should not be a problem. There are a few touchy areas and I highly recommend that you show up at Vernita in the middle of the day and run the river with plenty of day light. Spend the day going over the river and finding the "bad" spots. They are easy to locate. Also, drift over a lot of good looking water with your fish finder. No fish on the finder means no fish. They key is to find the pockets of fish.

Here's what I have used in the past:

Near the Hatchery hole is a good place to boondoog or drift some eggs for Jacks. 30 jack days are not uncommon. Very fun on light steelhead gear.

Mag. Wiggle Warts will always work. They can be back trolled or trolled. Reds, oranges, Pirates, Gold all work really well. You can fish the Warts just about any place, but the Bluff hole, PowerLine Hole, and Reactor Hole are really productive with Warts.

Jigs are very effective in the early mornings. Nordic jigs and Luhr Jensen Flutter Jigs (Crocodiles) work really well. Chartruese is a good color. The PowerLine hole and upper Reactor hole are good jigging holes.

Cut plugged or whole herring works really well. I've used both down riggers and "mooching" style with just a heavy banana weight. I've only done this at the reactor hole. Life get's really interesting when a nice 9' sturgeon grabs your herring!

I have not been to the reach in the last couple of years, but I've been itching to try out a wrapped Qwickie. I'm sure they will as well.

The only thing to remember about the Reach is that some days the fish will bite anything and the next day they won't touch anything. If the fishing is slow, be creative and use everything in your box.