This is a question for you guys that fish the columbia at or around Umatilla. A bunch of my buddys have it in their heads that we need to go over to the Columbia and try some early steelhead fishing. Being the guy that owns the 21 ft Northwest Jet I figured I would try and find out a few things about it before we go. Here goes.

1> I understand that pulling plugs is a hot ticket. I have never fished in the columbia but it appears to have no current. Do you just drop out a couple mag warts, put down the kicker and start trolling around???

2> How deep is the water that holds fish??? It would seem that a plug would not get anywhere near close enough to the bottom if its real deep.

3> Where do you launch the boat in relation to a few of the better fishing spots. Where is a good place to stay that gives you options each morning as to where you want to go.

4> What works??? I have fished all over the west and Canada but never in the Columbia. I guess its time to try it out. Help me a little as I am clueless on this subject. I was thinking of going either next monday, or the monday after that.

Thanks for the help and if you need any Clearwater, Snake reports I will ge glad to reply

Im not the best person to answer this but I'll give it a shot.there is lots of curant below mcnary dam this year not as much as usual.there is plenty of curant down stream to back troll warts use large jet divers on your quick fish if you fish near the dam due to water turbulance.the washington side seams to run the most fish.above the dam there is very little curant again the washington side seems to be the most productive (especialy at night with vortex's). the mouth of the Umatilla is great but most all of the salmon that stage there are not fin cliped so read your regs careful. steelhead seem to comeon strong late even at the mouth. I could keep going I grew up there and spent half that time on the river.mostly for bass and sturgeon. have fun.I think this year any where on the columbia is going to be good!!!

Don't fish the Columbia much myself, but do have some friends that fish it a lot. They mostly troll plugs just above McNary dam in the slack water pool. Troll slowly, just fast enough to work plugs. They try to target water from 10 to 20 ft deep. Seems as if fish that just come through the dam don't always hug the bottom. Again, troll slowly.
Also, I have caught several steelies below the dam using walleye gear (in line spinner blades with crawlers) bouncing the bottom. These were caught off mouth of the Umatilla R. or on the Wa. side just upstream of the bridge. Good luck. By the way, my sources say the fishing should pick up as water starts to cool in a month or so.

This place can be red hot at times. Of course the water needs to cool off before the bite will turn on. If fishing during the day, troll red hotshots in the area around the fish ladder of the Oregon side. You will need to stay 200ft. from the fish ladder opening. Another popular technique is to slowly pull a jig, bobber and shrimp around. Now we come to my favorite way of fishing and that is to fish at night pulling lighted vortexes. You will have to be on the Washington side to do this. I can't wait for the water to cool off. Hopefully that will be before all the steelies go by. There are launches on both sides of the river, right above the Dam. Don't worry about the depth, the fish will be in the upper 15 feet. I also like to troll along the wing wall of the Washington side. If you go, you will see a groove in the wall that I put there from my rod tip scraping along it! Oct. 12th 2000 20 FISH ON, 16 LANDED.