George, Vince, Larry, and Tom: Columbia R at Umatilla - 04/23/2026

The weather was not great @ launch time 3' to 4' swells. We started just downstream from the Plymouth launch, pulling cranks, Bandits @ 150' - 220' of line out. The river was pretty weedy & we spent a lot of time clearing our lures. We caught a few keepers & Jamie decided to go up the the dam, McNary, & get out of the wind. We moved into the downstream lock channel & started pulling bottom bouncers & smile blades. Color didn't seem to matter. We caught 25 -30 keepers & @ least that many shakers. About noon the wind died down & we moved back downstream to Irrigon & started pulling Bandits again, 150' to 220' of line out. We caught the rest of our fish here. Jamie filleted 40 fish, from 15" to 20". We never got into any of the really big fish the area is famous for, but had a great day in spite of the windy start.