Columbia River Walleye Fishing

The Columbia river that runs through Oregon and Washington is home to great numbers of Walleye! Walleye fishing on the Columbia river brings great opportunities every month of the year! They are a great fish to eat and are a blast to catch! Walleye are found throughout the whole Columbia river but better numbers of walleye are found above the Dalles Dam.

Walleye fishing is great for anglers of all ages, and is a great choice when looking for something to catch and eat. Walleye are a white meat fish that makes fantastic table fare! Walleye are abundant and have no limit on the Columbia so it makes for a great fishery.

Walleye can be caught in many different ways but by far the most popular is trolling. Anglers troll a plethora of things along the bottom in search of Walleye. Columbia river walleye seem to react great to worm harnesses trolled right along the bottom, and also plugs trolled in the more rocky areas along riprap banks! Trolling worm harnesses in my opinion trolling worm harnesses is most effective day in and day out. The worm provides action and a good scent to trick these walleye into biting! In front of the worm typically a bright colored spinner blade or Mack’s smile blade is a great choice. Certain days dulling the color of the blade may help as well! As far as the plugs go, really any colors work! I personally like fire tiger and anything containing a good bit of chartreuse or red.

Walleye can be found in many different areas in the river, deep ledges, shallow flats and even fast rocky areas! Typically I will find walleye in deeper water during the cooler months when the water temps are below 42 degrees. It is not uncommon to find them in water 50 feet and deeper! My Favorite way to target these deep water Columbia River Walleye is to jig for them! I like to jig one ounce jigs in many different colors tipped with a nightcrawler. Once the warmer months are upon us we typically start catching the walleye in shallow water but never count the deep water out as you can catch them deep year round as well. The shallow water is where the worm harnesses really shine. Greens, purples and blacks are all great colors to put in front of your worm harnesses.

(Photo credit: Caleb Wilson, Creative Commons License)