You may think trout, steelhead and salmon fishing in the Pacific Northwest, but don’t overlook these hot rivers for smallmouth bass action. (Shutterstock photo)
October 20, 2025
By David Johnson
When anglers think of the best fishing in the Pacific Northwest, trout, steelhead and perhaps salmon come to mind first, but the river smallmouth fisheries the region offers are among the best in the world, and often overlooked even by local anglers. Here are nine rivers scattered across Oregon, Washington and Idaho that offer great smallmouth bass angling. Most of the top rivers are either the Columbia, the Snake, or tributaries of those rivers, as these are the places that combine the right temperatures, spawning habitat, and food resources necessary to create excellent smallmouth water.
For multi-day float fishing trips for smallmouth bass, waterproofing your camping gear with dry bags and tarps is a must. (Photo by Steve Johnson) 1. The Mighty Columbia The Columbia River is the fourth largest river by volume in the country, and it carries a tremendous supply of food for smallmouths. A series of dams along the river, as well as tributaries, provide a great mix of food and spawning habitat, and the size and numbers of smallmouth reflect that. Anglers have a fair chance of boating a 4- or 5-pound fish on any given trip, and 6-pounders are as common here as in any river in the world.
The river forms much of the boundary between Oregon and Washington. A core section of smallmouth fishing occurs between Hood River (above Bonneville Dam) and Irrigon, a stretch of more than 135 miles that has many public boat launches, notably at Cascade Locks and the confluence of the John Day River. Access to the water is easy, but anglers should know that the river is also known as a world-class wind surfing destination: big water and big wind make for rough conditions at times, and you need to bring enough boat to that fight. The river does have many backwaters and tributaries that offer some relief from the wind.
Anglers use crankbaits and minnow imitations (shad and rainbow colored) on deeper water ledges and weighted worms rigged weedless in shallower waters. The bass are shallow early in the season, and tend to move to deeper water in the summer and fall—there is always water cold enough here to keep the fish active.
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The BLM ramp at the Clarno Bridge on the John Day River leads to 100-bass days on a 70-mile wilderness float. (Photo by Steve Johnson) 2. The John Day Numbers Game If the Columbia is a best-bet for big river smallmouth, the John Day is arguably one of the best rivers in the world for sheer numbers of fish. When the water levels are good (usually late June and into July) a proficient angler can catch as many as 200 bass a day. On a 70-mile, 7-day float trip from Clarno Bridge to the Cottonwood takeout, I averaged over 100 bass per day on the days I fished. There were stretches where five casts of a green pumpkin Senko yielded four fish, and if only two struck, I just moved on to a “good” spot. They will wear you out before you wear them out.
These fish are not big—the largest I caught was 15 inches long. But the float trips here carry you through one of the more isolated places in the lower 48 states, with impressive desert canyon views, large numbers of waterfowl, chuker, big horned sheep and some mule deer.
On several floats through public land, float-plan registrations are required, and for the John Day River floats, a permit is required for limited entry. (Photo by Steve Johnson) Float-trip anglers should not ignore the level of isolation on float trips on the lower John Day (the upper reaches have trout). Kayaks and rafts are the watercraft of choice, but you should not do the longer floats alone. Bring water filter systems, dry bags, an extra paddle, and literally everything you need for shoreline camping. There are no roads out of the canyon but the river you came in on.
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There are four put-in/take-outs commonly used by anglers on the lower John Day: Clarno bridge to Thirtymile (a 25-mile float), Thirtymile to Cottonwood Bridge (44-mile float), Cottonwood Bridge to Starvation Lake (10 miles of easy water) and finally Starvation Lane to McDonald’s Crossing (another easy 10-mile float). Anglers need a float permit from the BLM .
Clarno falls, the only significant rapid among the John Day floats, changes character a good deal depending on water flow. Boaters wary of conditions, however, can portage around the falls on river left. (Photo by Steve Johnson) 3. The Snake’s Striking Smallmouths The Snake River provides an embarrassment of good smallmouth bass fishing. For size of fish, Brownlee Reservoir and the Hell’s Canyon stretch are top fisheries; for numbers anglers can try the Oxbow reservoir. Idaho biologists did a study that reported an abundant population with a strong age structure from Brownlees to Swan Falls. The smallmouth tagged in this section of the river also travel, with some tagged fish recorded moving over sixty miles, and a few moving more than 150 miles—the longest movement ever recorded for individual smallmouth.
Although the Snake is a big river with big reservoirs, some free-flowing sections are broad and wadable in the summer, yielding some of the better smallmouth stream fishing for anglers without boats, particularly in the Celebration Park area, around Brownlee Dam and near Lewiston late in the season.
Small-boat anglers get the best of both worlds: Many smallmouth floats provide a chance for anglers to beach their boats to thoroughly wade-fish especially good holes. (Photo by Steve Johnson) 4. The Grande Ronde Bonus Better known as a steelhead stream, the lower section of the Grande Ronde in Washington (it empties into the Snake River) has an exceptional mix of numbers and size in its smallmouth population. A 9-mile float from Bogan’s Oasis to the take-out at Shumaker grade will put you on some of the best sleeper smallmouth fishing anywhere. Fish range in size up to an occasional 5-pounder. Anglers fill out self-issued free float permits at any of the many launch sites on the Grande Ronde.
5. The Umpqua Outlier Though the other rivers here are part of the Columbia-Snake river system, the Umpqua River in Southwest Oregon is an outlier. It’s known as an excellent salmon stream, but the food-base combination of lots of crawdads and a big American shad run give the bass lots of food. Dropshot rigs and various worms work well here (and your favorite bait to throw will likely work too). Much of the best Umpqua smallmouth fishing takes place where the river runs through private land, but the river can be drifted, with launches at Umpqua Wayside, Scottsburg Park, Scott Creek, Sawyers Rapids and Alftred S. Tyson in Elkton.
6. The Lower Yakima Spring Break The lower Yakima River punches above its weight in the spring because big Columbia River smallmouths move into the Yakima to spawn, making the section from the Horn Rapids (Snively Road launch close to Benton City) and the Yakima’s entry into the Columbia at the Tri-Cities an outstanding fishery. The Snake also joins the Columbia near here, so each spring the Yakima re-loads. But it also has a strong population of resident fish, making for a good mix of numbers and top-end potential for spring anglers.
This water is easiest to access with kayaks, and a good float exists between the Benton City launch and the Chamna Natural Area just downstream of the I-82 bridge. A fine big-fish option exists at the mouth of the river. Anglers on foot can explore the sections of more open banks on the river between Horn Rapids and Benton City. Spring bank anglers should bring tick protection.
The canyons of the John Day float provide 70 miles of scenery and rugged isolation to enjoy while you catch 100 bass a day. (Photo by Steve Johnson) 7. The Willamette’s Easy-Access Bass The Willamette River is not the best smallmouth river on this list, but as it flows north to meet the Columbia, it splits the Portland metro area, where 53 percent of Oregonians live. Anglers can launch at Willamette Park (West Linn upstream from Oregon City) and by hitting hard structure catch a decent load of smallmouths. Or hit the area just north of downtown Portland, hitting pilings, rock, ledges, any wood around and deep structure after the spring shallow bite. Cloudy water here can favor loud or bright baits. As in the Columbia, bass go deeper after the spawn, but remain active until about November, when colder and higher water slows the bite.
8. Boise River Smallmouth Bass In the shadow of the Snake River’s massive bass fishery, a much smaller river offers Boise anglers another nearby smallmouth option for local anglers with half a day off work to fish: the lower reaches of the Boise River. Below Caldwell, the Boise is warm enough for smallmouth. This small river is good for kayak fishing, with hand-launching at bridge right-of-ways the best approach to getting on the water.
This is what the author’s fingers looked like after a couple of days of lipping hundreds of smallmouth bass on the John Day River. (Photo by Steve Johnson) 9. Pend Oreille River’s Clear-Water Brown Bass Though the local anglers know that there are plenty of bass in the Pend Oreille River from Lake Pend Oreille in the Panhandle of Idaho to the Canadian boarder, the river is something of a sleeper, considering as recently as 2018 Idaho’s state record for catch-and-release smallmouth was set here with a 22-inch trophy (it was eclipsed in 2024 by a Dworshak Reservoir bass). The water here is big, clear, cool and in some places deep, as along this stretch the river is dammed by Box Canyon and Boundary dams.
This is a mixed fishery, so if you are annoyed by occasionally getting bit by hefty largemouth while attempting to catch smallmouth, the river above Box Canyon may not be for you. But it is for normal bass anglers. Spokane anglers looking for a chance to boat decent brown bass are only forty minutes from the upper end of this fishery. In the spring bass of course are shallow, and work deeper after the spawn. Swimbaits, cranks, weighted worms on gravel and rock structure are good choices to find bass. Access is good at several points, including just below the Lake Pend Oreille on both the Washington and Idaho side, and around Box Canyon dam downstream.
