That gravel bottom on which you've been dragging bait walkers and worm harnesses can turn into a corrugated, multi-crevassed basalt rockpile in seconds -- much too quick to retrieve and save your gear or lures. There are places where you can drag crankbaits, weight-forward spinners or worm harnesses downstream and get away with it, but you have to know exactly where you are on the river. And even then, it doesn't hurt to have Mandrake in the boat with you.

Trolling crankbaits upriver is a viable technique that can be used almost everywhere and offers many possibilities. Lures for 12 to 15 feet of water depth are best exemplified by Wiggle Warts, Rapala's Tail Dancers and Bomber Model A's.

To go deeper than that, you'll need lures like Reef Runners, Bomber Long A deep runners, Bagley's deep runners, big Thundersticks, Rapala Down Deeps or Tail Dancers and Rattlin' Rogues. With light lines, the latter will get you to 20-foot depths, maybe more.

The best colors for any given day are the ones the walleye bite on.

If you locate fish on your sonar that are deeper than 18 to 20 feet, then you have a choice of going to bait walkers and 3-foot leaders in front of Wiggle Warts, Bomber A's or small Rapalas, or pulling your lures behind a diving plane. You can also revert to the old-time rig of a bank sinker off a three-way swivel with a couple of feet of light mono, and dragging your lure on 3 or 4 feet of leader off the back swivel.

Lures can be interchanged with weight-forward spinners/worms or worm harnesses, though both of those rigs are best used while trolling downstream on gravel. I've had good luck fishing for walleyes at depths of 20 feet or more by dragging 2-ounce bait walkers on the bottom while trailing floating Rapalas on a 4-foot leader. This works whether you're trolling upriver or down.

On another day in the middle of June, we were dragging crankbaits across the top of a submerged island. This underwater structure lies along the outside curve of a bend in the river near the John Day Dam.

Soon I reached the fish with my 10-foot, long-handled net, and she was in the boat. The scales said this was a nice 12-pound hen -- a beautiful iridescent gold and green Columbia River walleye.

We had several strikes and caught three fish. But for the number of fish that I was reading stacked on that island under the boat, the action was slow.

We moved to another location that has produced fish for me during the early summer and set in again. We were working fish 15 to 20 feet deep using Smithwick Rattlin' Rogues, concentrating our efforts with green and bronze colors.

We picked up a couple of fish, had a couple of short strikes and a slow hour or two of trolling, trolling, trolling. Changing lures to known producers didn't seem to change our luck much.

Deciding it was time for drastic action, I switched everyone over to 6-foot light spinning rods and jigs and jigs with worms. I pretty much stick with Mr. Twister bodies for jigging, but sometimes vary that presentation with Fuzz-E-Grubs or Whistler-type jigs with worms, but no bodies.

We tried all sorts of jigs, mostly with worms. Finally we reverted to dragging worm harnesses downstream for the rest of the day. Everyone had fun and caught plenty of walleyes, with some going to more than 8 pounds. But these were not wallhangers.

While jigging, one client hooked a big walleye. But as often happens with those big, easy-biting walleyes, it came off the hook. Those guys were all from Ohio and weren't looking for eating fish; they can catch all they want back home.