Fishin' Reports

I had an exceptionally fun day last Saturday. James Lebow and I were going to fish Rufus Woods again, and he agreed to let me bring my niece Ellie Coen along. Ellie is a beautiful woman, and it surprises many people that she is, and always has been, a very avid and accomplished angler. We met James at the grocery store at Coulee Dam and then launched the boat at Seatons Grove. When we arrived at the net pens there were several boats bottom fishing with bait on the inside of the pens. We always troll downriver with bottom bouncers and spinners and usually add a couple nice walleye to our catch. We made our first pass and got nothing. James and I were concerned. We weren’t used to this. On our last trip we had three big triploids in the live well after our first pass. Ellie finally landed a triploid, but James and I were still worried. The lack of current was killing us. Finally, at about 11 o’clock the current picked up and Ellie’s rod got hot. She landed two nice walleye and we were able to finish our limits of triploids. Whew. It just proved what I have always said about fishing the Columbia: You have to have current to catch fish.