Smallmouth bass don’t belong in Oregon’s Umpqua River system

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle…splash! 

As I reared back and the fishing rod bent in a tight arc, I thought, “This is a good start!” 

And it got better. 

Seven casts. Seven fish. And 30 minutes of the best smallmouth bass fishing I’d ever experienced. Five of the seven bass were fat footballs in the 2- to 3-pound range and even the two small fish were solid 12-inchers. 

Yet even as I laughed giddily every time another fish blasted my Whopper Plopper plug, I couldn’t help thinking that my “good” and “better” could be another person’s “bad” and “worse.” 

13 small mouth bass lures
Some of Mark Taylor’s favorite smallmouth bass lures and flies (Left to right from top): Heddon Super Spook, Heddon Torpedo; Original floating Rapala, Zoom Brush Hog; spinnerbait, Whopper Plopper; tube lure, soft stickbait; crayfish jig, Kraft Kreelex, fly rod popper. 

Historically speaking 

Smallmouth bass don’t belong in Oregon’s Umpqua River system. And while they’ve been in the watershed for about 50 years now, there are growing calls and momentum for trying to reduce their numbers in the Umpqua and other rivers to help protect Oregon’s struggling runs of steelhead and salmon.

And that movement has created a dilemma for some anglers who, while they may love fishing for steelhead and salmon, also love fishing for smallmouth bass. 

I’m one of them.