Willamette Valley/Metro- For most anglers, this is a good week to troll the isles of the Portland Sportsman Exposition. Promises of a good spring chinook season have most anglers saving their sick days for April.
Sturgeon anglers are encouraged with the increasing water temperature at Willamette Falls, a trend which may improve the sturgeon bite. The fish have been timid biters in the frigid waters, as to be nearly undetectable, especially if it's windy. The lower Willamette is now a few degrees warmer than the Columbia. Sand shrimp and smelt took keepers over the past weekend.
Water temperatures remain too cold to draw smelt upstream. Until the river temperature rises above 40 degrees, smelt will be reluctant to migrate. Cold water temperatures are also keeping sturgeon and salmon from being active in the mainstem Columbia. No salmon or smelt were landed in last weeks commercial openers but gill-netters landed 61 keeper sturgeon.
Snow at the headwaters of the North Santiam will begin melting this week and while part of the snowmelt will contribute to the re-filling of Detroit Reservoir, it will also have the river running high and cold. Fishing has been fair.
Clackamas steelheaders have had a tough week with fish present but scattered and hookups rare in the cold water. Water clarity is usually better above Deep Creek. Eagle Creek has been running a little high with bites few and far between.
Pro guide Kent Anderson (503-550-6303) reports that after fishing several days and taking only a few fish, that the steelhead are scattered and not in a biting mood due to the cold water.
Sandy water conditions have been in and out with the most reliable conditions higher in the system. For all metro rivers, the bite should improve with the predicted warming trend this weekend. River flows are also likely to fluctuate creating challenging conditions on a rising river.
Trout planting will resume next week.
Northwest – The Wilson River was in fine shape early in the week and produced good catches of steelhead on Monday. There are still a few chinook showing in the catches, they must be released unharmed. Navigational hazards still exist on many coastal streams; don’t take any stretch of river for granted.
The upper reaches of the Trask and Nestucca also gave up fish late last week with large baits producing the bulk of the fish. More wild fish are beginning to show in the catches but hatchery broodstock fish will continue to be available in the Nestucca and Wilson Rivers.
Melting snow will likely put the larger coastal river systems out of shape for weekend anglers. Smaller streams like the Necanicum, Kilchis and North Fork Nehalem will be the best bets over the weekend. A mix of spent hatchery fish and fresh wild ones will make up the bulk of the catch.
Effort has dropped on the Siletz River but catches remained fair. Side-drifting continues to produce the best results but a predicted increase in water levels should cool the fishing over the weekend.
While steelheading on the Alsea was very slow earlier this week, participation remained active with anglers lining the banks.
Rough ocean conditions will keep ocean goers in port this week although rockfish will be ripe for the picking when seas subside. Coastal crabbing remains poor.
Southwest – Rivers on the south coast have had periods of brief recovery, but round after round of rain storms have steelheaders seeking smaller streams which drop and clear more quickly.
The Coos and Coquille have been fishing well when in shape but have been running high and muddy this week.
While the Millicoma is also high with marginal visibility, it has periodically allowed anglers the chance for a few fresh winter steelhead.
Elk and Sixes rivers have been blown out for the much of the time over the past few days.
The water level of the lower Rogue was dropping earlier this week but is due to take another hit before the weekend as another storm front moves through.
Chetco flows have been up and down over the past week, reaching flows of 10,000 cfs a couple of times. It was approachable by plunkers on Tuesday this week while at 4,900 cfs, six feet on the gauge at Brookings and dropping. Cold water requires extra patience, although steelhead were taken on Tuesday this week with the better water conditions higher on the system.
Eastern – Fishing for steelhead is slow in the lower Deschutes with cold water causing the fish to be lethargic and most of the summers present are well past their pull date. Redside angling is poor.
Trollers in The Dalles Pool continue to post good catches of steelhead despite cold weather conditions. These are likely a mix of residual summer steelhead and may continue to provide a fishery in the coming weeks.
Pro guide Steve Fleming (1-888-624-9424) reports that as of February 4th the John Day River is frozen shut but once the river temperatures rise, larger bass may become more active but well distributed throughout the river.
Pro guide Rick Arnold (541-480-1570) is also influenced by the cold eastside temperatures as he writes that the weather has been the big factor this winter but that a few diehards are fishing for bulls at LBC and the biggest he had heard about was an 8 LB. fish.
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