🎣 Willamette River Bass Fishing Report: August 4th, 2023 🎣

Greetings, fellow Pacific Northwestern bass fanatics! We wanted to share our experience fishing along the Willamette River on August 4th, 2023. Let's dive in.

🌦️ Weather Conditions: The day commenced with a partly cloudy sky and a gentle breeze drifting across the river. These conditions are a very welcome change after all the recent heat and direct sunlight. I figured topwater baits would do well this day, but I was wrong: no luck with the topwaters! Still, I expected fishing to be good.

⌚ Time on the Water: We got on the water between 8:30 and 9 am. Not too early, but early enough to get some good time in before the bulk of the pleasure boaters caused the river to become a wake-filled nightmare. We wrapped up at about 11:30 am.

🌡️ Water Temperature: The water temperature of the Willamette River maintained a relatively consistent range in the low-to-mid seventies, generally hovering at or around 73 degrees.

🐟 Species Encountered: We caught a good variety of species for a day spent specifically targeting smallmouth bass. Not only did we get a few decent bass and plenty of their smaller siblings, we also nailed a Northern Pikeminnow and several crappie (see blow) on a 1/10 oz Z-Man Finesse ShroomZ™ ned rig in Green Pumpkin. I know you can catch these fish on all sorts of baits, but this was my first one on a ned rig, so I was a bit surprised. We quickly dealt with the invasive nuisance and got back to the task at hand.

🎣 Smallmouth Bass, Big Mouth Attitude: The focal point of the day was smallmouth bass. Employing a Goby Bryant Z-Man Finesse TRD™ ned rig and a drop shot equipped with a 4.25" Berkley PowerBait® MaxScent Flat Worm in Green Pumpkin, paired with a Berkley Fusion19™ Drop Shot Hook size 2, we achieved several productive catches.

🪝 Effective Techniques: The drop shot technique proved most successful in capturing the attention of smallmouth bass, particularly around rocky areas and within currents. We fished a few rocky points, but most bass catches occurred over long stretches of current with abundant boulders. Break out that downscan and side imaging!

🌱 Weed Beds: The weed beds are in full bloom, offering both challenges and opportunities. When coming across one of my favorite go-to fishing holes, I found huge weed beds that I had not encountered in previous years, so I had to switch up my approach a bit. I started targeting the perimeters and openings of these weed formations, which led to an unexpected catch.

🎣 Crappie Encounter: Bass are always fun, but getting into a congregation of crappie at the edge of this giant weed bed was also a great time. It was a little unexpected, but we were nailing them on a Z-Man TRD CrawZ™ in “The Deal” color. Go figure. We don't have that color in right now, but I'm guessing Green Pumpkin is going to do the trick as well.

🏊‍♂️ Optimal Depths: Fish activity throughout the day seemed to be concentrated within the depth range of 11 to 17 feet.

All in all, it was another good day on the water!