He judges high water by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Vancouver gauge on the Columbia River. “Anything over 10 feet in height, I consider ‘high’ water, and I’ll change my tactics more towards anchoring and back-trolling. Anything less than 10 feet on the gauge, I’ll be trolling more.” “When running plugs, I like to back-troll areas that are in 6 to 9 feet of water. Flat-lining plugs like the Mag Lip are perfect for this, and I’ll be looking forward to trying the new 4.0 this springer season.” When back-trolling, Glass likes to work his plugs right along ledges. “My shoreline rods may be as shallow as 4 feet, while my channelside rods may be deeper than 12 feet,” he says. Glass is also not afraid of trying different techniques. “If we do end up with some high water, I’m going to do some back-trolling with a diver and bait, running whole anchovies, herring or prawns. I may even try using some planer boards to get a wider spread behind the boat,” he says. If water conditions do allow for trolling herring, Glass will have a variety of brined baitfish onboard. “I usually take at least three different brines with me, and also fish a herring straight out of the package – sometimes I come across a perfect herring not missing any scales and it’s just too good-looking to put in the brine. I really like chartreuse baits on rainy and darker days, and blue baits fish good all the time. It never hurts to keep some bait dye onboard; if you hear that a certain color is working, it only takes an hour with today’s dyes to cure up a bait.” While Glass has had success with rotating flashers, like Pro-Trolls, he will probably stay away from them this spring. “These spring Chinook really hug the bottom and trolling that big flasher that close to the bottom could end with a lot of lost gear,” he warns, adding, “If I was to fish these nwsportsmanmag.com | MARCH 2017
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