Jim K: Fishing below McNary Dam 6/27-28/2026

My family and I stayed at Plymouth CG Friday and Saturday nights.  I knew the winds were going to be bad so planned to put in at Umatilla ramp.  Didn’t know their “Landing Days” town festival had that ramp closed on Saturday so needed to put in at Plymouth that day.  Tried trolling cranks first below McNary Dam with no success, then switched to jigging raps.  When they were biting we’d have consistent success for walleyes.  Returned to ramp with seven eyes we kept each day.

Saturday:  On water at 1pm (Julie just got off nights).  Began by scanning entire 15-25’ drop along South shore from bridge to red do not pass sign.  Dropped waypoints along the way then created a route of it on my Lowrance.  Planned to troll cranks upstream along this route using electric trolling motor to steer and big motor to assist.  Couldn’t get autopilot to engage on Lowrance, but it worked great the next day… go figure.  Manually steered this route trolling cranks from bridge to end or route by red go no further sign.  Varied speeds.  Had zero hits.  With strong South wind we were stuck to this area.  Switched to jigging raps and had consistent fishing by drifting from red-line then downstream through boulders in 18-25’.  Boat control was critical to keep line vertical.  Must have been successful we only lost two jigging raps all weekend.  Kept 7 walleyes between 15-20” in 1.5 hours before bite shut down.  Broke three waves over bow on way to Plymouth ramp as we were going under bridge.  Heading downstream past the bridge I could  now hug South shore and be a little more protected from the wind.  Continued to do so well PAST Plymouth, then turned and surfed even bigger waves back upstream & diagonally across river back to boat ramp.

Sunday, brought another 7 similarly sized eyes back home on Jigging Raps… on water at 11am… caught two in 30 minutes on Jigging Rap pattern, then bite slowed.  Did SMB fishing along shore with success casting cranks.  When wind started to pick up we returned back to walleye drifts and picked up 5 more.  Put in at Umatilla, so much easier drive back this day.  We did not notice any change to current or water being let out of the dam, but walleye were definitely biting in an on again / off again pattern.  We just kept ourselves busy with lunch, casting for smallmouth for a bit until walleye’s began biting again.  Jigging Rap colors needed to be bright (chartreuse, glow, etc.). We did not catch any fish on darker / natural colored jigging raps all weekend.