Tag: Oregon Walleye Guides

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Hot Columbia River Walleye Action!

Fishing this past week for walleye on the Columbia has been absolutely fantastic. The water temps ranged from 45-47 degrees which means that the spawn is in full force. This means most of the larger fish are up shallow spawning, and can be difficult to catch, but this also means that you have the opportunity to find the mother load of smaller eater sized males staged in deep water adjacent to spawning areas. These smaller males don’t hang with the big females, as they can be food for the big girls.

Our best producing technique has been trolling worm harness and spinner blades. During the spring we don’t think there is a better method for putting a bunch of walleye in the boat. For a complete breakdown on how we apply this technique click here

As the spring progresses and water temperatures climb up into the 50’s we will enter the post spawn season on the Columbia. During this time walleye will disperse back to the sections of river they call home, and will aggressively start to feed to replace lost energy from the spawn. During the post spawn period we will start to see some larger fish in our catches, as age classes begin to be more mixed on food sources.

All in all we are into a great season here on the Columbia, and if you are looking to get in on some of the best eating fish on the planet make sure to book a trip with us.

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It’s Columbia River Walleye Time

Last week we started our Columbia River Walleye season, and things are off to a great start. We absolutely love fishing for walleye in March on the Columbia River as it gives us the best chance of the year to catch an absolute giant walleye. It’s not uncommon to catch fish well over 10 pounds on the Columbia during the pre spawn period, and the magical teeners are a constant reality.

During this time of year we often rely on fishing large walleye plugs like the Bandit Walleye Deeps. We fish these plugs in 10-25 feet of water. During March we are often searching for the big bite, and last week that big bite came right off the bat on Tuesday. We were probably a half an hour into one of our favorite trolls when the back rod slammed down and the battle was on. A few minutes later we slid the net under what would be our biggest fish of the young season. Weighing in at an even 13 pounds this Columbia River walleye was, after a few pictures and high fives, slid back into the mighty river to dump her load of eggs and hopefully give someone else the chance to shake her tail.

While the weather and conditions didn’t prove themselves to be perfect for chasing huge walleye we still managed to get 5-8 bites per day. Keep in mind that we were trophy hunting, and when actively looking for big fish we often give up on the chance to put lots of smaller fish in the boat. The fish pictured above ended up being the largest of the week, but we caught several other fish pushing the 8-9 pound mark.

We are super excited for the upcoming season and as the spawn progresses we will shift our ficus to loading up lots of eater size walleye. We will still find a few big fish, but our focus will change to loading the cooler instead of finding a big Walter for the wall.

April, May, and June are fantastic months, and trolling worms on spinner rigs will become our go to presentation. We will still troll plugs when the conditions permit, and there will be some great plug bites when Columbia River Walleye are focused on feeding on the conveyor belt of salmon smolt heading from inland rivers to the ocean.

If your interested in a walleye trip with us make sure to give our office a call at 208-669-1569 and Dani will fill you in on the particulars and get a date lined up for you. See you on the water

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Columbia River Walleye Fishing Heating Up!

With the official start of summer just around the corner the walleye bite on the Columbia River is really starting to heat up. Water temps are now in the upper 50’s and walleye are feeding heavily as they feed on migrating juvenile salmon smolts heading to the ocean. We have been having success both pulling crankbaits, and fishing bottom walkers and worms. Our best bites the past few outings have been using crankbaits in color combinations that mimic downstream migrating salmon smolts. Any baits with chrome, blue, and purple hues to them have been getting consistently attacked by hungry walleye.

A major key to our success this year has been the use of inline planer boards. We like the yellow boards made by Offshore Tackle Company and we use them in conjunction with the tattle flag system. Trolling with planer boards lets us really expand the amount of water we cover, with our outside boards often 50 feet to the side of the boat we are covering over 100 feet of river from the outside board on the right side to the outside board on the left side. Another benefit to fishing boards is that it lets our baits fish out away from the influence of the boat. Fish that come in contact with our plugs on outside boards have no idea our boat is even in the area. Yet another advantage of fishing planer boards it the ability to run deep diving plugs on short set backs. Yesterday for example the fish really seemed to be keyed into a Bandit Walleye Deep, and by using a planer board to fish the lure to the side of the boat we were able to run them at 40 feet behind the board. This put our Bandits fishing at around 13 feet which was perfect for the active feeding walleye that were looking up from 15-19 feet of water.

The video included below is an example from some trout fishing earlier this year on how we set out our planer boards and the spread we get from using them.

Using planer Boards to Catch More Fish

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Columbia River Walleye Report

We started our 2020 walleye season last week on the Columbia River. To say that fishing started out hot was an understatement. Fishing was on fire! The beautiful spring weather has pre spawn Columbia River Walleye on the bite, and the box of fish we brought back to the landing last Thursday was one of the best we have seen in years. The fish this year are averaging a little bigger than the past few, and although we may be catching a few less the overall size is fantastic. If you are looking to break the magic 30 inch mark you need to do yourself a favor and give us a call.

All our fish were caught last week trolling crankbaits in 16-24 feet of water. Currently the large deep diving plugs such as the Bandit Walleye Deep, and the long extra deep Bay Rats are fishing well. We also did very well on Berkley Flicker minnows in the #11 size. For a detailed article on how we fish crankbaits early in the season click on the following link.

https://jonessportfishing.com/how-to-fish-for-columbia-river-walleye-crankbaits-when-where-why-and-how-to-take-your-walleye-game-to-the-next-level-part-1-winter-early-spring/

Fishing will continue to be very good for big fish over the next few weeks. The water temperature last Saturday was 41.5 degrees, so we still have a little ways to go before active spawning starts, at least in the mainstream Columbia. The Walleye spawn will kick off when water temps are between 45 and 50 degrees.

Our main focus will be on chasing Columbia River Walleye now through June, and into July. These are a great, excellent eating, and plentiful fish that are great for the entire family. If you are looking to learn this fishery booking a trip with us is a great way to shorten your learning curve, and we love helping people learn how to target these cool fish.

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Columbia River Walleye Report

Columbia River Wallere

To say that the past few days have been a challenge would be an understatement.  Due to recent heavy rains the flows on the Columbia River have changed greatly in the past week.  As I write this the river is currently dropping and the conditions are getting “better.”  I put that last statement in quotations because although things were a little difficult, after a few adjustments we found the Walleye very willing.  I have wrote before on how we approach fishing for walleye during high flow periods on the Columbia, so when flows came up we changed from primarily pulling deep diving crank baits to trolling bottom bouncers and worm harnesses.  Our key to catching fish in these conditions was to find areas out of the main flow and troll downstream as slow as possible.  We also played with a bunch of combinations with beads/floats and blades before we locked into what these fish seemed to want.  The color combo that worked the best the past two days for us is Gold and Black, and in particular we did well with a black fish pill and a Gold Smile Blade.

Although we kind of stumbled onto a working color combo, our biggest key to success was simply fishing hard.  We barely had one fish by 11am on Friday and we ended with 10, and again on Saturday we didn’t really get into fish until after noon and managed to end up with 15 including a monster 12.35 pound beast!  Walleye fishing is all about paying attention to minor details.  Pay attention to the details, make adjustments, and when you find a groove ride it until it goes away.

The Walleye Spawn is currently on and the spring weather is improving, with that said we have openings over the next few weeks and going all the way through July.  Walleye have become a favorite fishery of ours, so if you would like to see why we like it so much, or to just learn how we go about it get in touch with us and book a trip.

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Columbia River Walleye Fishing

We have been fishing hard over the past week and getting into plenty of action on the Columbia River for delicious Walleye! This year we are not catching the numbers of fish we have the past few years, but the overall size and quality of the fish this year is amazing, and we are putting plenty in the boat for guys to take home.

We are finding most of our fish in 20-25 feet of water. Our most successful presentation has been trolling crankbaits. For some reason the action of the cranks are just driving them crazy. We have been running a wide selection of colors, and have really just been playing with things as the day goes on to find the right combination.

Despite the changing conditions this year, I think this has been the most fun I have ever had Walleye fishing as it’s really making us think and execute to constantly put fish in the boat. The months of April and May have for the past few years been our absolute best time frame, so hopefully our good fortune continues over the next several weeks and we get to experience more of this great fishing.

If you are interested in fishing with us we still have plenty of open dates, and we would love the opportunity to earn your business.

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Columbia River Walleye Guides

Columbia River Walleye

At Jones Sport Fishing we have absolutely fallen in love with chasing tasty Walleye on the Columbia River. Our Walleye season starts in full force during the month of March, and we chase these fish hot and heavy all the way through July. The Columbia River is known both as a place to catch monster Walleye as well as large numbers of great eating size fish. On any given day you could find us pulling crawler harnesses, dragging crankbaits, vertically jigging, or casting swimbaits for these incredible tasty fish.

At Jones Sport Fishing we are full time fishing guides that pride ourselves on working hard to make sure we both put you on fish, and make your day as enjoyable as possible. We have years of experience and have assembled a great team of guides that all share our philosophy. We hope that after you book your first trip with us that you will come back for years of fishing fun. To Book your next Columbia River Walleye adventure give us a call at 208-669-1569 or click on the green Book Online button at the top of the page.

Thank You,

Kyle Jones