OK, I cast myself at your mercy, ye of the southern provinces. I am formerly from Portland, and want to return to the Columbia to partake of the great returns this spring. I used to fish around Bonneville many moons ago, for walleyes, shad and steelhead, and have a few ideas about where to go around there. But I'd sure appreciate some ideas about other places and approaches to go. Anyone care to give us northerners some ideas about where to start and what to start with? In particular, any ideas that would minimise the drive from puget sound, such as where to start around Longview and such.

And if anyone starts with the notion that the Columbia is a zipperlip, well, I'm going to sic Dave Jackson's humor on them.

S.H. The techs we used last year were Back trolling Kwikfish, Fishing Kwikfish on anchor, Herring trolled and Backbounced. Those were are staples with the majority of the fish Caught on the Kwikfish , Just about any combination of silver and Chartruese worked for us real well, but we caught fish on most of the colors we tried just some worked better than others. We looked for water that was around 25' deep and for the most part didnt have any trouble finding fish. We fished mostly from I-205 up but fish were caught all they way down river, the lower you get the more the tides come into effect. Then you can troll on the incoming and high slack. Good Luck.

*flex*

This year I'd try fishing a little shallower than 25 feet, like 10-15ft. That's where I've seen the action so far this year. Try launching at willow bar in longview on an outgoing tide and either go upriver under the powerlines, to the wing jetties there, or go down and fish along Crimms Is. Get a Col. River cruising atlas, and look for concentrations of other fishermen, find out what's working, and just do what they're doing.

Hope this helps.

Aaron

Anybody using spinners, herring, prawns? I used to do well with J-plugs in the Willamette, anyone trying those?

What size of kwickies are you liking?

For the record, back when I lived in Portland, we used to troll for walleye below the Beacon rock area with Lindy plugs. We'd catch (and release) about 1 or 2 salmon for every walleye caught. Caught big wallleye, too. So there's an idea, as well.