Did you fish the mouth of the slough? That whole area runs all or nothing. I was talking to the Jigmeister recently and we came up with a bunch of waters that do that. Sorry it was a "nothing" day.
My grandson fished the Walla Walla Walla (never know when to stop) and caught several cats, but nothing big.

Nope, I was at the end of E. Cochran road, fishing into the river by the barges. Should have been OK, as there were weed beds, lots of bait fish jumping in the shallows (come to think of it, it might have been crappie or bass in there chasing them around), and some current. Not familiar with the area, so I couldn't find the slough. There seemed to be a lot of private property there near the tank farm and something else south (some sort of plant). I saw the slough on Google maps, but couldn't figure out how to get there (plus I forgot to print out the Google map and take it with). It was a nice evening, and except for the drunk a$$holes in the boat who came in really close and severed my line with their motor (and didn't apologize), it wasn't an unpleasant experience.

I actually went down to the Walla Walla River mouth Thursday evening to assess that fishery, and couldn't figure out where everyone was fishing (with respects to all the good reports on this site, that is). I keep hearing that it is perhaps the best catfish fishery in the state. In the park near the 730 junction, it was a mob scene - there had to be 75+ cars full of young Hispanics fishing there. The mouth of the river looked promising, but the railroad and tank farm there all have no trespassing signs, and I couldn't figure out how to cross over out there without trespassing (will have to use my pontoon boat to go down the mouth, I suppose). That large shallow area just upstream of the mouth looks incredibly good for catfish.

Sounds frustrating. Carp is a tough bait to use. Cut sucker, crawdads, chicken liver and even Spam work well. Are you a salmon or steelhead fisherman? I have had GREAT succes using salmon hearts! Crazy but true. The liver doesn't stay on very well. I take the salmon carcass and cut it into bait pieces then vaccuum seal it. It works really good. Even those less than glamorous fall kings in the Yakima. I hope this helps in some way. Best of luck and tight lines!

pac

Heh. Maybe even channel cats can't stand the taste of carp. I figured I'd finally found a use for the foul things, other than bowfishing entertainment....