They were looking for some of those huge Columbia River walleyes. But they had been walleye fishing before and knew the guide's lament: "Sometimes you catch 'em, sometimes you don't."

But June walleye fishing on the Columbia River from McNary Dam down to Hood River offers the opportunity to hang a walleye of tremendous proportions on your den wall.

I predict that the middle section of that chunk of river -- that portion from the mouth of the John Day River down to the section of river near Mosier, Ore. -- holds the promise of a new world-record walleye. That's the section of the river where Arnie Berg caught the Oregon state-record walleye of just over 19.5 pounds.

In February, Mike Hepper set a new Washington record with a 19.3-pounder he caught above the dam. But Arkansas' 22-pound-plus fish is still the biggest.

I know it's going to happen here because every winter, the tribal commercial fishermen gill-net fish bigger than the current angling world record.

One of these days, someone fishing for salmon or steelhead is going to be trolling a Wiggle Wart through that region of the river and hook a big salmon.

But when that "salmon" comes to the boat, it's going to be -- surprise, surprise! -- a walleye of such tremendous proportions that it's going to make the walleye world set up and take notice.

And I hope that angler is me!