McNary steelhead reports?

[Rufus]

  Has the Columbia River turned muddy with all this rain?  Has anyone fished McNary lately?  Would like to know before I drive all the way down there.  Thanks

[Reidus]

Really muddy in tri cities from the yakima. Wasn't paying attention when I just drove through umatilla.

[syoungs]

haven't been down to mcnary, but past experience has told me it wouldn't be worth going, to much going on in the rivers right now.

[Sandberm]

I havnt been to McNary in a few weeks and was thinking about going tomorow until I remembered all the rain we've been having. I'm sure its brown as heck from the Yakima and probably lots of tumbleweeds too.

I wonder in Ice Harbor would be ok though?

[RockChuck]

Lots of logs and debris floating down the Columbia as well

[Sandberm]

Drove down there yesterday afternoon about 2:00 after getting a haircut.

The water can best be described as looking like weak coffee. I'll say 3-5 foot at best visibility. There was one trailer in the parking lot and when I went over the dike I could see a couple boats trolling slowly by the wing wall.

On a sidenote, when I left I stopped for a second at the overlook area a half mile or so from the dam on the drive out. A couple seconds after getting out of my pickup I heard a noise on the cliff that butts up against the north side of the road on the curve. A red fox was on the upper side of the cliff on the rock ledges UNDER the chain fence the dot puts over the rock wall to keep loose rocks from falling into the roadway. He quickly scrambled away as I tried to get in a position to take a quick pic. Thats only the second fox I have ever seen. Kind of cool.

[RockChuck]

Anyone been down there in the last week or so?

[Sandberm]

Anyone been down there in the last week or so?

I went Tuesday afternoon. The first time Id been down there to fish since mid November. The wind was picking up but I thought, what the heck.

When I showed up there was one guy loading up and just one other boat on the water. The water was high but clear with no junk to speak of floating on top. Within an hour the other boat had left and I had the whole place to myself. I ended up catching a non clipped fish about 3pm. Probably a 5 pounder. I had no other hits. I was pulling plugs. Fished for 4 hrs.

On a side note....I find it really odd how this place has diminished in popularity. I remember one time in the late 90's, MID WEEK,standing up in my boat and counting over 90 other boats. Out of curiosity I showed back up the following Sunday to see how many boats I could count on a weekend and I totaled 128 while standing on the top of the dike above the boat launch. There might be 30 now at the peak of popularity.

[Hot Lunch]

Mcnary is losing popularity due to the declining steelhead numbers. There is very few B runs hanging around the big concrete wall and 70% or so of the fish/biters are wild A runs averaging 3-5 pounds. McNary fishes very inconsistently, right now a good day is 10 fish to the boat with 2-3 keepers, a bad day is just a few bobber downs, not a lot to get excited about. About 5 years ago pulling pugs or bobbering one could nearly limit out and the catch was always a nice mix of A and  B runs.

[Mr Mykiss]

wild A runs averaging 3-5 pounds

I almost fell off my chair. I can't believe that a fisherman would actually post this...the truth
I coulda swore that every steelhead someone catches around here is at least 8# and all salmon are either 25 or 30#.
My hat if off to you sir.

[RockChuck]

OK how about tips for ringold? From a boat same setup as mcnary shrimp and bobber or is the water to fast?

[plugger]

A friend was there a couple weeks ago, said the boats were side drifting. they were catching fish. He talked to a guy on the bank that has been doing well, but its hit n miss. Quick limits some days, then nothing the next. Probably do to water height. Tough on the bank when its high.

[ribka]

OK how about tips for ringold? From a boat same setup as mcnary shrimp and bobber or is the water to fast?

god luck bank fishing there



Try pencil lead 8 to 10 inches up try pink, orange, green size 12 white fish fly tipped with a maggot.  4 to 6 inch leader of 12 lb fluro. Needs to be stiffer than main line. Small pink san juan worms work well too on this set up. Change color if no hits in 20 to 30 minutes. I like 14 lb  braid and a 10 lb fluro leader

Slight quarter cast up stream, count to 5 reel up slack, raise rod tip and slowly bounce downstream
m with current.8 ft plus rod work well to keep line off of water. Any hesitation, set hook. Based on experience the smaller flies , lures work better.

[RockChuck]

Thank you! That is great info, I will be giving it a try!