First off, the report...Columbia River, between Hood River and The Dalles:

This was my first time ever even targeting these guys on the fly, but we did get into a few...mostly small, but enough to put a really nice bend in the rod. We were fishing intermediate lines with weighted flies (big fuglies with lots of rubberlegs) and varied the retrieve until we found something that worked. Most fish were caught in around 4 feet or so of water and all were caught within a two hour time period (we didn't even get any hits before or after--possible temperature spike?) I forgot to take a water temp as well...The gear guys were definitely doing much better than us, but we were also dealing with a hellacious wind that they didn't have much of a problem with (that, coupled with the fact that they can get their lures in front of many more bass in a given period of time)

obligatory invasive pic:


My questions are for those who have had a bit of success with this, is there a water temp where things just turn on? I know that they are in pre-spawn mode, but I really don't know a ton about their life cycle or the best way to approach this type of fishing. I did LDR a really nice fat female and saw several caught by some of the gear guys...so I know they're there.

Thanks,
Randy