Portland, Oregon Metro Fishing Report – Although water and air temperatures are again creeping upwards, the Willamette River spring Chinook fishery is still carrying on, with some boats scoring good catches recently.
It’s still a 360° flasher and spinner program with the bulk of the catch still coming from the head of the channel just downstream of the St. Johns Bridge. A surge of spring Chinook certainly entered the system when water temperatures cooled about 3° recently, bumping Willamette Falls counts in recent days.
The Columbia River sockeye season opened on June 22nd, but anglers are running on the pessimistic side for this year’s return. Both passage and catches are down so far, when they should actually be peaking. Anglers are hoping they’re just running late, but still getting some opportunities, just having trouble keeping them hooked.
Summer Chinook fishing remains closed and summer steelhead fishing is slow.
Shad fishing is fading in Oregon City on the Willamette, but still fairly productive at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia. It’ll fade soon however.
Upper Willamette Valley Fishing Report by Terry Otto
Springers good to decent in upper river reaches, steelhead very slow. Trout settling into summer patterns. Kokanee improving.
Action in the upper sections of the rivers has been decent to good for spring Chinook. Cooler temps last week made fishing in the lower sections better, but hot weather is in the forecast starting this weekend, and that will warm the lower sections of the rivers, and slow the bite.
Trout lakes have been very good, and kokanee are improving. Warm water fishing is going very well across the upper Willamette Valley, with Council Grove, Fern Ridge, and other warm water lakes producing bass, crappie, and other panfish.
Stocked June 9-13:
Small Fry Lake, Detroit Res, McKenzie River- 1 and 2 above and below Leaburg Dam, Alton Baker Canal, Silver Creek Res, Quartzville Creek, Blue River, Salmon Creek, Santiam River- North Fork 2, Leaburg Lake, Willamette River- Coast Fork.
Stocked June 16-20:
Alton Baker Canal, McKenzie River 2- above Leaburg Dam, Silver Creek Res, Quartzville Creek, Fall Creek- Willamette River, Santiam River North Fork-2, Detroit Res, Leaburg Lake.
You can check the trout stocking schedule here.
Almost 22,000 spring Chinook adults have passed over the Willamette Falls. However, only about 3,000 summer steelhead have passed, and only a handful are passing daily.
You can check the Willamette Falls counts here.
Santiam River, North Fork
Fishing was pretty good for guide Matt Halseth of Matt Halseth Guide Service. His most recent trip in the upper sections produced a limit of 6 adult hatchery Chinook for his 3 guests. “The people that know what they are doing and putting the time in are getting some,” said Halseth. He reported that the lower sections, below Mahama, had been decent after the cooler weather dropped the water temp. When the fish are biting, he reports that most egg techniques will get them. He has found success fishing them with divers, bobbers, and by back bouncing. When he has been traveling between deep holes he has his guests tossing spinners. While he has had some success on steelhead, it’s definitely looking to be a disappointing steelhead year. “There just aren’t many of them around,” he said.
The river did bump up a little following last week’s rains, but it has dropped again to about 1400 cfs. You can check the river gauge at Mahama here
McKenzie River
The McKenzie River is currently experiencing good fishing conditions, with both the lower and upper sections running clear and at normal levels. The river has been producing good numbers of spring Chinook and trout, once again, in the upper reaches. A few summer steelhead have also been taken, but they are few and far between. Salmon eggs fished with the usual springer techniques have been finding a few spring Chinook takers, especially early morning. For trout, summer hatches are happening, including PMDs, Yellow Sally, and Caddis. Anglers are finding success with nymphs, especially in softer water and near structure. Dry fly fishing is also possible during PMD hatches in the afternoon. Gear anglers are getting fish with spinners.
Detroit Lake
It will be stocked this week with about 3,400 trophy sized hatchery trout. As a reminder, anglers are allowed to keep up to five trout, with an additional five fish kokanee bag limit. Also, as a reminder to anglers, fishing for and harvesting Chinook in the lake and the rivers above is prohibited. Halseth reports the kokanee fishing has finally begun picking up. The thermocline has stabilized, the fish are settling into summer patterns, and the schools are getting easier to find. There are still plenty of the larger trout that have been stocked in recent weeks, with the average of these rainbow running around 15 inches.
Cottage Grove Reservoir
The reservoir will be stocked this week with about 3,400 trophy sized hatchery trout. As a reminder, anglers are allowed to keep up to five trout, with an additional five fish kokanee bag limit. The kokanee are settling into summer patterns, and can be taken with most kokanee techniques. Also, summer is a good time to fish for the warm water species. Bass and crappie should have completed their spawn and will be moving into deeper water. Look for both in flooded cover, and on structure. Fishing drop-offs can be an excellent way to find the bass in the summer.
Clackamas River Fishing Report – Clackmas River anglers saw a string of fair days, especially in the lower river, where fish rode the slight rain freshet that caused the river to bump ever-so-slightly. It was a good excuse for fish to move into the lower Clackamas, with many of them now in the upper reaches, where Dog Creek casters are having a crack at them.
It’ll be another hot week for metro anglers so it’s back to basics for spring Chinook and summer steelhead. The steelhead are scarce in number, but there are catchable returns of springers available for the next month for persistent anglers here.
Sandy River fishing, as reported by avid angler Jeff Stoeger – I hope everyone has had a chance to get out and try their luck. The river has risen and is slowly dropping. Currently, it is running at 8.2 feet, clear, and is expected to remain so as long as the weather stays cool. The river temperature has been around 55 degrees, fluctuating with the weather.
Fish are spread throughout the entire river. Fresh steelhead and springers are still entering the river. Springers will continue to arrive well into July, and soon it will be time to focus on coho.
North & Central Coast Fishing Report – North coast anglers got their first crack at ocean salmon (North of Cape Falcon) and although anglers had to work for them, there were some boats that caught limits of salmon, with some Chinook in the mix.
It’s early, and anglers are still searching out higher concentrations of salmon, but larger sized coho were falling for trollers working the north end of the Long Beach Peninsula.
Meanwhile, salmon fishing in the more central ports isn’t all that good. Anglers theorize that the bulk of the coho are further offshore, given recent upwelling events has nearshore waters quite cold, but warming. As the spring trade winds start to subside, salmon should move closer to shore.
Halibut fishing has become a bit more challenging lately, I guess they’re getting a bit fished out. There were some pretty big catch weeks in May, especially out of Newport. At mid-month, 72% of the halibut quota remains for the south of Falcon fishery. There’s a long ways to go.
Spring Chinook are still a thing for Tillamook Bay anglers although some fish squirted upstream on the Trask and Nestucca systems, with just a .5 foot rise on those rivers last weekend. It doesn’t take much after such a prolonged period of low, warm water. Hopefully they survive until spawning time. Water temperatures are often lethal to freshwater adults and juveniles from mid-July to mid-August.
Summer steelhead numbers remain low on the Wilson, Nestucca and Siletz River systems but last weekend would have been the one to target them.
Clam diggers did well this week along Clatsop Beaches. There are a lot of small ones so Clamanotor founder Dale Murff emphasized “targeting the quarter-sized shows,” let the little ones grow up!
SW Oregon Fishing Report – Contributor Jeff Rome reports
Hot summer weather is in store for the weekend! After a brief reprieve to cooler weather last weekend, anglers took advantage of a decent ocean for some epic catches of ling cod, halibut, salmon, and various rock fish. Unfortunately, the weekend winds may have you at dock depending on where you go out of and what day. Further north towards Winchester Bay might be better chances to get out. The fishing has also been great lately.
Lakes like Diamond, Lost Creek, Galesville, Applegate, Hyatt, Howard Prairie, and Fish Lake have been popular and catches have been good. Lost Creek is under a toxic algae alert right now but could change anytime. These higher lakes are not only fishing good right now but are also a good option to get out of the Rogue Valley heat. Bass fishing at lake Selmac has improved.
The lower Rogue River is in transition between the spring and fall Chinook runs. The mid-section got a few summer steelhead catches after the cooler weekend, but this weekend, expect lots of river floaters.
The upper section is still seeing a few springers caught along with lackluster summer steelhead. The dam is starting to decrease flow now that will most likely inhibit any kind of a bite for awhile. Striped bass fishing on the Coquille is still good. Striped bass are biting well on the main Umpqua River as are the small mouth bass on the South Ump. The North Ump got a mini bite on during the weekend and into the early part of the week when a nice bit of rain “sweetened” the river.
Read this week’s SW Washington fishing report.