Portland, Oregon Metro Fishing Report
With little to report for Metro anglers, Meldrum Bar remains as a top option once the mainstem Willamette starts to fall, which will be over the weekend.
More hatchery steelhead, largely destined for the Clackamas River, are due to show at Meldrum, and plunking conditions will be ideal into early next week.
Willamette sturgeon fishing remains an option, albeit a poor one as higher concentrations of fish have yet to move into this system for the winter.
Sandy and Clackamas River reports by Jeff Stoeger and Bob Rees
Clackamas River Fishing Report – The Clackamas River is once again running high but is forecast to come into a more manageable level over the weekend. There were, however, a few anglers motivated enough to get out over the holiday stretch when conditions allowed.
Effort was light, and so was the catch, but hatchery broodstock fish are starting to show in greater numbers right now. Hopefully, it’s a sign of good things to come.
And speaking of showing up, wild winter steelhead (174 adults) are not surprisingly outpacing hatchery winter steelhead (9 adults) at the NF facility right now. That isn’t likely to change either.
Late run coho are still coming in fairly strong, but most are near spawning so hopefully anglers are handling incidental catches with care.
Sandy River Fishing Report – Avid angler Jeff Stoeger shares: Special thanks to Dan Drazan for sharing his recent fishing experience. Dan landed a beautiful catch on Saturday using the well-known nightmare jig. He floated from Oxbow to Dabney and observed that the river was in excellent shape. The flow had shifted in several spots, but no hazards were found along the route.
At Oxbow, the boat launch allowed single-boat access. Dan noted that he left his front wheels on the asphalt to make pulling his rig out easier. He had to push his boat over about ten feet of sand at the put in. Downstream from the ramp, there was enough bank space for five or six boats to park.
Dan also mentioned the appearance of a few new channels that seemed promising for fishing. The river level was ideal, showing the desirable “steelhead green” color. At the time of this report, the river had risen slightly to 11.17 feet, and the water temperature was 42.7 degrees.
Earlier in the week, Jack Glass and his clients successfully put three wild fish into the broodstock tank and caught one hatchery fish.
Fish are returning to the hatchery daily, and the upper sections of the river are currently considered prime spots to target. I have plans in place to fish the lower river on Friday and Saturday.
North & Central Coast Fishing Report by Bob Rees
Another high water event put north and central coast rivers on hold for the last two days, but they are rapidly returning to ideal levels for weekend anglers. We’ll get into that in the forecast section.
Although reports are sparse for the last high water event on the larger streams, smaller streams such as Gnat and Big Creek have had some strong catches in recent days.
Our Gnat Creek contact, Mike Hazen, had this to report, “Fishing has been really good the last couple of days. The creek level came up about 8″ and dirtied up a little bit. It really moved a good number of fish into the hatchery area. The few guys that fished today (Wednesday, 1/7) really took advantage and caught fish.”
Big Creek fished the same, it’s an ideal scenario for these Highway 30 streams. Hatchery workers recycled nearly 500 fish back downstream for anglers to have another crack at them. The action has been good under these ideal conditions.
It is getting late in the season and although there’s still some pre-spawn steelhead available, there’s also a lot that are nearing the spawn or may have already done so.
The North Fork Nehalem has re-processed both kinds of steelhead, with 200 good ones headed back downstream for another run at it, while 240 steelhead headed to Vernonia Pond for still water anglers to take advantage of. Coffenbury Lake also received surplus hatchery steelhead as well this week. The NF Nehalem was running just over 50″ on Thursday morning, with a dark brown color to it. There obviously wasn’t much effort associated with that scenario.
The Klaskanine and Necanicum have been much the same. They’ve been a bit too high to effectively fish in recent days, but just prior to that, there had been some good action for maturing steelhead. The Klaskanine hatchery has also recycled fish back downstream in recent days so anglers will have another go at them this week, when flows slow, which is happening at the time of this writing (Thursday night).
All of these rivers will be in ideal shape by Friday (1/9), with the larger systems more ideal by Saturday and Sunday, but again, we’ll detail that in the forecast section.
Prior to the jump in water levels, the Wilson, Trask, Siletz and Nestucca were all putting out fish, some hatchery, some wild. The Nehalem remained too big to productively fish. The water conditions were in good enough shape to attract a fair number of anglers, but not the entire fleet as they await more productive options come February. Still, some of these early returning adults can be fairly bitey, and those that were so motivated got into fair numbers of fish.
Offshore anglers took advantage of the new limits for lucious lingcod. Not that limits were had, but anglers had some good opportunities for some quality fish. Here’s what ODF&W port creel samplers found:
Port by port reports:
Anglers were able to take advantage of some good weather over the holidays.
Depoe Bay: Rockfish catches were near limits with mostly black, deacon, and canary rockfishes. Lingcod catches were good with around 1.5 fish on average.
Newport: The average catch was just over 2 rockfish per angler. A good mix of black, canary, and copper rockfishes and greenling were landed. Lingcod catch averaged just over 1 fish per angler.
Ocean crabbing has gone to pot and bay crabbing has been more challenging as well lately. There are better tides for that this weekend however.
Much more on the site for Chinook Members:
- Buzz Ramsey’s latest post – Bobber Doggin Refresher. Unlock the subtle tweaks that make Bobber Doggin one of the most effective winter steelhead tactics in the Pacific Northwest. Chinook Members can see his post HERE.
- Bill Monroe’s latest post – Is Coho for Christmas one sleigh away? A long-awaited breakthrough may finally open the door to wild coho retention on the Clackamas, and a surprising new “Santa” inside ODFW says the proposal is finally on its way. Chinook Members can see his post HERE.
You can find all the articles from these two professionals on this page.
- The article of the week: YouTube interviews with Jack and Brandon Glass, as well as Dan Fisher of Clackacraft boats. These three prominent guides talk steelhead, electronics and NW Fishing in general. Chinook subscribers can find the article HERE.
All the STS articles are located here.
Not a Chinook Member? Become a Member or Upgrade here.
Members head to the Member’s Landing Page to find everything you have access to.
Central-Eastern Oregon Fishing Report by Terry Otto
High water river conditions persist, but are dropping with fishing improving. Many lakes closed for the winter, but excess brood trout stocked in two lakes.
Best bets for weekend fishing
High flows and turbidity on the lower Deschutes are decreasing, and trout fishing is good.
Surplus brood trout from Oak Springs hatchery were stocked in Taylor Lake and Pine Hollow this week
The Crooked and Metolius Rivers continue to provide excellent winter angling opportunities.
Anglers report excellent dry fly and nymphing opportunities on Fall River.
Anglers report good bank fishing opportunities for trout at Haystack Reservoir, now with brood fish being stocked.
Anglers report excellent kokanee fishing at Lake Billy Chinook.
Trout stocking
Excess brood stock trout were released in Taylor Lake and Pine Hollow, and Haystack Reservoir this week.
Weekly fish stocking will resume in March, 2026
You can check the ODFW trout stocking schedule here.
Weather
The weather is expected to stay dry after some snow late this week. The colder and dryer conditions should work to drop the rivers from their rain-soaked high levels. This should improve fishing in the rivers, and in the lakes that are open.
Seasonal Road Closures
The road to Newberry National Monument accessing East and Paulina Lakes and the Cascade Lakes Highway closed on November 18th. The road to Three Creeks Lake (NF-16) remains open until mid-November but is not maintained for winter travel. For additional information see the Deschutes County Road Department website: https://www.deschutes.org/road
Columbia River
The good folks at the Gorge Outfitters Supply in Rufus report that a few walleye are starting to show up. River conditions have also improved, with the river clearing out. The usual early methods are finding a few fish, including worm harness bottom walkers, and plugs. Anglers can also get them by jigging.
Metolius River
On the Metolius River the fishing is good and definitely worth the trip this week, There were some reports of nymph and streamer success, and there are Blue Wing Olives hatching most afternoons sometime from 1 to 3 PM, and that in most cases you can poke around for some dry fly fishing on a #18 BWO emerger, cripple or dun.
Jeff at The Fly Fishers Place in Sisters suggests anglers carry some October Caddis dries and a few Corn Fed or Weiss’s Hi Viz Caddis to bob in the eddies and pools.
Crooked River
The Crooked River is in great shape for January. Water level are good, and there is not any partial ice cover now. In the lower reaches of the canyon some good dry fly action with tiny dry midges and all over the river with small black Perdigons, Skinny Nelson, Scuds, Zebra and Midge Winkers and the smallest Flashback PT you can tie.
Lake Reports
Lake Billy Chinook
The Metolius Arm of Lake Billy Chinook closed to angling on November 1 and will reopen March 1, 2026. Anglers are reporting excellent kokanee fishing with nice size fish being landed on the Crooked and Deschutes Arms.
Harvest is limited to 1 bull trout over 24 inches under the daily trout limit. Anglers can now keep 5 kokanee in addition to daily trout limit. No bag or size limits on brown trout and bass.
North Twin Lake
Anglers report good trout fishing; however, brown bullhead, which have been illegally introduced to North Twin for a second time following the 2015 rotenone treatment, have increased in abundance. This is a reminder that it is illegal to transport live fish in Oregon without a permit from ODFW. North and South Twin were last stocked in early September.
Eastern Oregon
Best bets for weekend fishing
Trout and whitefish fishing should be good throughout the winter on the Wallowa River.
Steelhead fishing has been good on the Imnaha River and they are starting to be caught in the Wallowa River, too.
Perch fishing has been good at Phillips Reservoir with some large fish caught.
Steelhead fishing is good on the Umatilla River.
Grande Ronde River
Fishing for steelhead has been good when the water clarity and flows have been good. Recent rains brought up flows, but as the river levels drop, fishing should improve again. Swinging flies and drifting nymphs has been effective for fly anglers, and jigs drifted under bobbers works well for anglers using spinning rods or bait casters. Last updated 12/16/25.
Grande Ronde River Below Clear Creek, Near Starkey
Imnaha River
Fishing for trout and whitefish can be good throughout the year in the Imnaha. Both can be caught using a variety of methods.
Steelhead fishing has been good in the lower portion of the river. Anglers can find fish throughout the lower river using a variety of techniques, including casting spinners, drifting jigs, and drifting bait.
SW Oregon Fishing Report – Contributor Jeff Rome reports
If you haven’t already, now’s the time to pick up your 2026 angling license and any tags you’ll need for the season. Most rivers holding winter steelhead are shaping up nicely for the weekend, and with winter steelhead season now “official,” it’s a perfect excuse to break in those new rods, reels, and tackle that showed up under the Christmas tree and have been burning a hole in your tackle box ever since.
Chetco, Elk & Sixes
The Chetco, Elk, and Sixes are all solid bets right now, though you can expect plenty of company at the classic holes. Guides on the Chetco are reporting good numbers of steelhead, with fair to good catch rates mid‑week. Conditions should only improve as the river continues to drop into prime shape for the weekend.
Plugs have been the go‑to, but bobber‑dogging soft beads has also been productive, and plunkers are finding fish as well.
The Elk and Sixes have been quiet in terms of reports — which might mean good action, or it might just mean anglers are keeping secrets. I’ll let you decide.
Rogue River
All sections of the Rogue should be in decent shape heading into the weekend. The mid‑Rogue — from the town of Rogue River down to Griffin Park — would be my top pick for finding winter chrome.
The lower river is still dropping and remains more suited for plunking, but if you’ve got a favorite slot down there, it’s worth giving it a go with whatever you trust to draw a strike.
Millicoma, Coos & Coquille
The Millicoma is another good option. It rises and falls quickly, and this weekend could line up nicely for winter steelhead.
The Coos and Coquille systems may also be worth a look, but I’d recommend scouting upriver stretches to find the best flows and water color.
Umpqua Systems
The Umpqua rivers are finally coming back into shape. Guides working the upper main Umpqua have reported encouraging mid‑week success as flows drop. Both the North and South forks should be in good condition for the weekend and holding fresh winter steelhead.