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Columbia River Fly Fishing
Fly Fishing Paradise in the Pacific Northwest
There are fly fishing opportunities for steelhead, trout, salmon, shad, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye, carp and more. With the construction of hydroelectric projects, the free flowing river backs up in a chain of reservoirs, where a variety of fish species offer many choices of fly fishing adventures. Fortunately, sea run species still continue to thrive in the Columbia along with introduced resident game fish. For those who invest their time to explore and fish the fly on this big river, there awaits fish and fishing that you might otherwise only dream about! As the big river flows from the Canadian Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, it offers exciting places to go, fish to chase, and landscapes to gasp at. In all my travels across the globe, the Columbia still remains my most treasured river!
Read through this web site and join me in the pursuits of big river fly fishing!
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Fly Fishing For Trout In The Columbia River
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| Virgil Walker cradles a fat triploid rainbow trout from Rufus Woods Res. |
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The Fish: Predomantly rainbow trout with various stocks of hatchery and wild origin. There are Kamloops in both Rufus Woods and Roosevelt Reservoirs. There are a few elusive brown trout in Rufus Woods and some brookies, but don't count on many of these if at all. Rufus Woods has earned its place on the map with the abundance of very large triploid rainbow trout, a genetically altered fish producing 3 sets of chromosomes instead of two. The end result is a fish with virtually no reproductive capabilities, thus utilizing more energy into growth. The Washington State record is just shy of 30 pounds!
Angling Season: Year-Round
Columbia River Location: From Chief Joseph Dam through British Columbia
Flies: Streamers, sizes 2-6, include weighted black bugger or glass bead metallic bugger, suggestive imitation of a redside shiner, clouser minnows in two-tone shades ranging from olive to brown, muddler minnows, and/or tandem bunny leeches in black. These fish the best in the slow reservoirs but also work well in the free-flowing sections.
Dry fly and terrestrial patterns are likely fished in the free-flowing stretch from Northport, WA to Castlegar, B.C. Caddis are the most prolific ranging in size from 18 to 12, with the smaller sizes being more common. Colors include cinnamon, light brown, and olive. Their hatches range from May to December. Blue-Wing Olive mayflies are early raisers in March through April, size 18. Stoneflies are somewhat site specific in the B.C. portion of the Columbia with hatches of little black (size 16-18) and yellow stones (sizes 10-12). These are more prevelant downstream of the town of Trail. The big yellow mayfly, Hexagenia, comes off in July-August. October caddis occur from September through November.
Terrestrials are very common and fish well from late April through the fall including ants, hoppers and my personal favorite, the cicada (May-early June). Small beetle patterns in sizes 12-16 are takers too.
Fly Lines: For the reservoir fishing, use the fastest sinking line you can get your hands on. My personal choice are the Air Flo shooting heads that incorporate tungsten. I can fish any depth from surface to 20 feet plus with these heads. Getting down quick in the deepest slots produces more catches. Obviously, the floating line comes into play for the surface presentations. During the mid-day, intermediate sink lines or the floating line with a clear intermediate tip work great for presenting terrestrial, emergers, and/or nymph patterns. There are times when the trout are just to shy of the bright sunlight to take on the surface and these lines are the answer!
Reference: Columbia River, BC, Big River Rainbows, NorthWest Fly Fishing magazine, Fall issue, 2004.
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Fly Fishing For Steelhead In The Columbia River
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| Stillwater Steelhead--the author with a B-run hatchery steelhead |
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Fly Fishing For Chinook Salmon In The Columbia River
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| Bernie Taylor ready to release an Upriver Brite Fall Chinook in Drano Lake, WA. |
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Fly Fishing For Coho Salmon In The Columbia River
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| Gordie Jones shows off his chromer coho! |
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Fly Fishing For Shad In The Columbia River
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| Neil Hoffberger enjoying summer fly fishing for shad. |
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Fly Fishing For Smallmouth Bass In The Columbia River
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| A porker smallmouth bass from Columbia River backwaters. |
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The Fish: The smallmouth bass has the longest range of all game fish inhabiting the Columbia River from the esturary to the US-Canadian border, including many major tributaries such as the Willamette, John Day, Yakima, Snake and Spokane rivers. These exotic predators were introduced through early immigrants in the 1920's in several basins including the Willamette, Yakima and Umatilla rivers. As major hydro projects were erected on the Columbia, slowing down the natural swift currents, the smallmouth bass has adjusted quite comfortably in the chain of reservoirs. They are extremely aggressive in their feeding habits and eat just about anything they can snap their mouth upon. Unfortunately, they also have a big appetite for juvenile salmonids, which, is a touchy subject to salmon/steelhead purists who support the rights of native species in the Columbia River. Smallmouths seem to grow fairly rapidly with bass weighing 1 to 21/2 pounds on the average in the Columbia River with 3 to 4 pounders being fairly common. The Washington state record smallmouth is 8 3/4 pounds and was caught in the Hanford reach of the Columbia River. Their appetites include everything from insects, crayfish, to fish but once they reach lengths beyond 10 inches, they tend to primarily prey on other fish.
Angling Season: Optimal timing for smallmouth angling is focused on three periods; pre spawn, spawn and post spawn. This equates to early spring, and summer with the effects of water temperature playing a big role on feeding and spawning behavior. I prefer to start fly fishing once water temperatures hit 50o F (typically in April) while bass starting staging from the unreachable depths realistic to fish with a fly to 15 feet or less. As the water warms towards 60oF (June), the bass are becoming very aggressive and begin to prepare for spawning. There is quite an overlap of spawning activity as the smallmouth make their beds at different times and sometimes more than once. After the spawning period, the fish will hang around and continue to feed but as the water warms up, the larger bass tend to seek refuge in the cooler, deeper zones. Though smallmouth can be caught through the summer, the best bass fishing (for smallies larger than 12 inches) is pretty much over by the end of July using fly fishing presentations.
Columbia River Location: As previously mentioned the smallmouth is the most abundant game fish in the basin. Best places to start if you have to fish from shore or a small vessel are backwater bays, sloughs, and ponds. Rip-rap shorelines are great areas to fish where depths drop into about 8 feet of water. Small rock islands and submerged reefs are great too. Pay close attention when water levels drop lower than average as this can reveal many ideal locations for bass when the pool elevations (above Bonneville Dam) are at normal levels. Look for current breaks along the shore with back eddies where points are formed off the shore. Fish this just like you would for trout! When the water warms up to spawning time, 21/2 to 5 feet of water on sandy, gravel shoals or flats will inhabit bass preparing to spawn.
Flies: Smallies are not very picky, if you put in front of them they will eat it! Suggestive patterns like the bugger, work great and mimic a variety of prey. My two favorite colors are black and white. I fish with black flies before spring runoff and then switch to white when the runoff starts causing low visibility. Typical patterns you can fish are buggers, articulated bunny leeches, clousers, muddlers, Lefty deceivers, etc. Have some weighted and some without weight. Other than black or white, other color patterns to try are chartreuse, chartreuse and white, blue and white, and gray and white. Long, snakey flies tied with either a bunny strip or saddle hackle offer the analogous of plastic worm angling used by conventional tackle fishers. Surface fishing for smallies is a kick in the pants using poppers and my choice are the painted balsa wood poppers. Deer hair and foam will work too, as long as you can achieve the "pop". The window is not open for very long with popper action. My best estimate is end of June, beginning of July. Feeding activity for top water action is best at first light and about a half an hour before sunset.
Fly Lines: You need to three types of lines depending upon when you fish. Early season, prespawn, is best with a high density sinking line. My choice is the Airflo "Depth finder". It was a 22-foot head that is about 7"/sec with so much intermediate sink after that and eventually becoming a floating running line. This coupled with a weighted fly gets my fly down and dirty to find big bass early in the season. Once the water warms up around mid May, the intermediate sinking lines are sufficient. The floating line takes it's turn for the surface and shallow presentations once the bass have moved into the shallows. For leaders, the bass are not leader shy. I typicallyy use a leader that is about 5 feet long ending with 8-10 pound test flourocarbon. I also use a small #12 barrel swivel to keep my large flies from twisting my leader and allow the fly to track properly as I retrieve it back.
Rods: I'm amazed how many times I read or hear other fly fishers referencing 7 to 8 wt. rods for smallmouth ! That's crazy. The typical trout in 4 to 6 weight is the most fun. If you need help to turn over larger flies, beef up the line size one step heavier (in a weight foward taper). Also, smallmouth are a hoot using fiberglass fly rods! If you have an old Fenwick laying around, take it with and have the time of your life while these bass bend it to the handle!
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Fly Fishing For Largemouth Bass In The Columbia River
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| Largemouth bass from the lower Columbia River. |
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Fly Fishing For Walleye In The Columbia River
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| When you can find them, the walleye is fierce predator fishing streamers! |
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Fly Fishing For Carp In The Columbia River
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| Common carp on the fly? Yea, that's nice! |
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Fly Fishing The North Jetty of the Columbia River
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| Fly fishing the Columbia's North jetty yeilded this lingcod. |
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Fly Fishing For Panfish In The Columbia River
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| Crappie |
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| Bluegill |
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| Yellow Perch |
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| Punkinseed |
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