Portland/Metro Fishing Report – With Willamette spring Chinook on the wane (but not entirely over) and warm air and water temperatures in the forecast, metro opportunities won’t be outstanding this weekend. Mainstem Columbia salmon are on the slow-down, while steelhead numbers, although still down from previous years, are starting to percolate.
Summer steelhead remains an option for another week but anglers are still struggling for consistent success on the mainstem Columbia and soft tides this week won’t help bank anglers.
Anglers still seeking late-season springers should look to the mouth of the Willamette, where trollers are still getting a few early morning opportunities.
The Sandy has plenty of fish present, just not may motivated enough to bite. The upper reaches, away from the splash and giggle crowd is the better idea.
The Clackamas is better for summer steelhead seekers, but hatchery returns are the best since 2016 according to the district biologist.
Willamette Valley trout options are also slowing in the heat, high lakes offer the better options this time of year.
Find the full report and forecast for Members on the Sandy and the Clackamas from this page here.
North Coast Fishing Report – Freshwater opportunities are slowing but summer steelhead are still an option for Wilson and Siletz bank anglers. Most anglers are looking to the salt for offshore coho, bottomfish and now albacore.
Ocean coho fishing is excellent, and weekend weather and tides look favorable for an easy take. Weak tides should make for safe bar crossings, but watch late morning winds so you don’t get trapped fighting wind waves back to port.
Ocean crabbing has turned soft, as in a pile of soft-shelled Dungeness crab is out there. Be selective in what you take, there’s very little return on your investment if you take home limits of soft-shelled crab. Remember, razor clam digging is now closed until October 1st.
ODF&W has once again relaxed halibut regulations. With the quota largely under-utilized, more days have been added to the Columbia and central coast sub-areas. Check the press release HERE.
The Buoy 10 fishery is over a week away but lower Columbia catch and release sturgeon fishing remains excellent. Hopefully the fall return mimics the spring and summer Chinook returns; fingers crossed for an under-prediction, which could lead to more sport angling opportunity.
See the full report and forecast for Members right here.
Central Oregon Fishing Report – Contributor Glenn Zinkus reports:
Glenn is on fishing hiatus this week so this is a repeat from last week:
Weather Outlook Across Central and Eastern Oregon:
Seasonal weather and temperatures look to be with us through the weekend, with another warmup during next week with much of the region going into the low to high 90s. Friday through Sunday will top out in the low to mid-80s through Sunday for much of the region, with a spike into the low to high 90s beginning next Monday and through much of the week. Sunny skies will dominate the region.
Weekend temperatures in the Lower Deschutes canyon will be in the high 80s, and high 90s or 100 next week.
Temperatures at the Cascade lakes will top out in the 80s through the weekend, and high 80s and low 90s next week.
ODFW News – Angling Restrictions
Deschutes River: ODFW announced, “With another low run of summer steelhead forecast, angling closures for steelhead, bass and salmon will be in effect for parts of the Deschutes River this summer starting as early as June 1.
The closures are in keeping with the Deschutes River steelhead fishery framework that fishery managers presented earlier this year due to continued low forecasts for Threatened summer steelhead runs to areas upriver of Bonneville Dam in the Columbia and Snake River Basins.
Last year’s upriver steelhead run to Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River was the lowest since records began in 1938, resulting in the first steelhead fishing closure on the Deschutes since 1978. Encounter rates from sport anglers that catch and release wild summer steelhead are typically high in mid-Columbia tributaries like the Deschutes, where fish stage before migrating to spawning areas throughout the Deschutes and Columbia Basin.
Pre-season forecasts for 2022 are similar to last year’s returns, so closures are necessary in these mixed stock fisheries even though anglers may be targeting hatchery steelhead.”
The good news amongst the bad is that the trout fishery will remain open.
At the time of this writing on the evening of 7/13, there have been 8,576 unclipped steelhead over Bonneville as of 7/12, raising hope that we may likely surpass the 9,900 minimum required by July 31 to reopen the Deschutes to steelhead. Over the past one week, there is an average of 476 unclipped steelhead passing Bonneville each day.
As I said last week, I won’t go so far as to speculate on whether we will approach the 23,100 fish needed to reopen steelhead on the Deschutes for the entire season. Stay tuned!
Lower Deschutes River:
The Lower Deschutes is steady near the dam, with flows of 3760 CFS in Madras and 4530 CFS at Moody. Water access is good.
Temperatures on the lower portions of the river are in the 57 to 59 range at Madras and 66 to 71 degree range near Moody.
There is consistent dry fly-topwater action on the Deschutes with PMDs, PEDs and caddis in quiet back eddies and during the “evening bites”. Caddis hatches have been getting better and better.
And yet there is a lot more for Members. Check out Glenn’s detailed reports and forecasts right here for Chinook and Steelhead Members both!
SW Oregon Fishing Report – Contributor Jeff Rome reports:
Anglers are looking to find a cool place to fish while Summer temps into the low 100’s 🥵in the Rogue Valley make the coast and upper higher lakes the best choices. However, the weekend outlook for the ocean doesn’t look promising due to windy conditions but surf perch or trolling the Rogue bay would also be good options. The upper Rogue above Lost Creek dam would be a good choice as well as Diamond and Lake of the Woods. Good numbers of stocked trout await.
Trout fishing still remains great at Applegate, Lost Creek, Galesville, Hemlock, Lake of the Woods and above Lost creek dam. Other coastal lakes are another cool choice as the bass have been biting on the Eel, Empire, Tenmile lakes and the Coquille.
On the upper Rogue, Springer catches have continued to impress along with best of decade counts at the hatchery. Some fish are on the darker side but some looked like they had just “screeeeeemed” up!
The lower Rogue (bay) saw another “best so far” catches of Fall Chinook last weekend with 36 fish days. The bite tapered off earlier this week, but is expected to improve with water temps rising which keeps fish holding longer in the bay.
Summer steelhead throughout the Rogue system are being caught in better numbers now that the flow has decreased. Side drifting worms and tossing silver spoons or panther martins spinners are producing as well.
Winchester Bay is also producing nice salmon catches as well as bottom fish and crab.
Cutthroat trout are in both the Elk (upper) and Winchuck rivers near Brookings and is another cooler option at the coast.
Surf perch action is still good on lots of the deeper indents on the beaches and the South jetty in Brookings and up by Winchester bay.
Be safe, be nice and enjoy!
Jeff’s detailed report, multiple lake updates, and forecast in this week’s version for Members!
SW Washington by Ian Carter
Things are winding down with Salmon in our portion of the Columbia. Steelhead fishing on the Lower Columbia continues to be excellent. Tuna have been caught and Ocean Chinook is on fire.
REMINDER, please verify the regulations before fishing any body of water.
BEST BET – Lower Columbia below Cowlitz for Steelhead
Lewis Report
Things are slow on the Lewis. Fishing pressure is very light and virtually nonexistent. The only boats rolling through town are heading to the reservoirs. Steelhead have yet to show in any significant numbers. WDFW creel checks showed NO REPORT. As a reminder, when fishing the Lewis from the forks to the mouth the Steelhead retention limit is one. That area is also closed for any retention of Steelhead for the month of August. Retention above the forks you are good to keep three per day, year-round.
The gauge level at Ariel has lowered to 2.4ft. and holding. Water flow is mostly steady and is currently 2,030cfs. It is still some 25% below the median. NOAA’s gauge in Woodland is 10.29ft. I plan on fishing the Lewis on Monday and will report next week.
Kalama Report
Korey at Bob’s Sporting Goods indicated that a few steelhead are being caught, he didn’t have any specifics. Angler checks by WDFW reported NO activity. Fishing pressure has dropped way off.
For those of you who utilize the Camp Kalama RV Park, bring some extra cash. The launch fee is now $20. The park was recently taken over by RV Inn Style Resorts.
Cowlitz Report
The river went through a transitional period this week. On July 14th the river levels were dramatically dropped from 5,500cfs to 2,200cfs. Fishing success for Steelhead tapered off for some.
Dave’s Guide Service cell: (360) 201-9313 tells me that fishing seems to be slowing down on the Cowlitz the last few days. There have been lots of boats in the upper river.
WDFW angler check data reported that Cowlitz River I-5 Br downstream – 47 bank rods kept six steelhead. Cowlitz River Above the I-5 Br – 39 bank rods kept 25 steelhead. 22 boats/72 rods kept 100 steelhead and released one jack.
Steelhead counts are doubling every week. Last week, Tacoma Power employees recovered 246 spring Chinook adults, 42 spring Chinook jacks, 439 spring Chinook mini-jacks, 434 summer-run steelhead adults, and one cutthroat trout over five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
Columbia Gorge and Tributaries
The tributaries have little to report right now and participation is low. WDFW reported nothing for the Wind, Drano, and Klickitat. Chinook counts at Bonneville have dropped off and Steelhead are remaining consistent. The Sockeye are done for our neighborhood. I haven’t heard any reports for the Columbia Gorge area this week.
Reservoir Report
All three Lewis River reservoirs are fishing well. Merwin received a bonus stocking of 1,300 trout in the 1.3lb range. They were left over from the Merwin Special Kids Day fishing event put on by WDFW. There were over 200 kids that enjoyed this event. Due to Covid restrictions the event has been on a two-year hiatus.
The fish are all much deeper and will continue to be as the summer progresses.
Columbia Summary
As they seem to be everywhere this summer, the mosquitoes are especially atrocious at Willow Grove. Sportsman’s Warehouse in Kelso is holding a Fall Chinook Seminar on Tuesday July 26th at 6:00pm. Speakers are Cameron Black with Gone Catchin’ Guide Service and Blair Johnson with BGS Guide Service. It’s free and no registration is required. Contact Nathan for more details, his number is 360-423-2600. Nathan says the Columbia is fishing excellent for steelhead and suggests fishing below the Kalama River and better yet, closer to and even below the County Line Park. Steelhead fishing on the Columbia is the best it has been in years.
Coastal
Reports out of Westport indicate limits of Chinook coming between the 260-300 line. A report comes from All Rivers & Saltwater Charters about their first Tuna trip of the season that also included Salmon. “We headed further offshore after we caught salmon first thing in the morning and after a few hours of trolling through some ugly green water it cleaned up a little and we started catching doubles and triples. We only had about 2 hours on the grounds by then but managed to 6 Albacore and lost few others! Right on time, and close to 45nm! Once we can get some other boats out to help locate the best areas it’s looking like we’ll be in good shape!
Other Area Lakes
Reports from Silver Lake indicate that Crappie fishing is good when you can find them. They are apparently showing up in strange places, like the middle of the lake. Water clarity is not very good. Top water fishing for Bass should improve. The Bass are becoming wise to the fishing pressure.
Weather and Tides Outlook
The SW Washington weekend Columbia tides are trending for early morning high tides flowing out until midafternoon for the St. Helens reporting station and vicinity.
As the weekend progresses the temperatures are forecasted to rise. Lows in the mid 50’s and highs by 90 on Sunday. Saturday looks very pleasant with a high of 80 degrees. That should hopefully keep the wind down for at least through Saturday.
Please contact me by email or text with any questions or comments. You can also find me on Facebook or Instagram @washingtonhomes.realestate