Oregon fishing report

Willamette Valley/Metro - Salmon fishing still an option for Bonneville area anglers, few quality fish remain however. Sturgeon anglers continue to produce only fair catches with bank anglers doing best closest to the deadline and boat anglers tallied a keeper for every other boat over the weekend. Success rates will likely begin to slow.

Sturgeon retention will resume on the lower Willamette Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays starting in November. Once the upper Willamette water level starts to drop, steelheading should remain reliable from Dexter Dam downstream to the Town Run.

McKenzie River level and flow is high but dropping this week. The last day to fish the upper McKenzie for trout is Sunday, October 31st.

The North Santiam will be closed from Niagara to Packsaddle Park starting in January 2011 due to the construction of a new fish collection facility.

The Clackamas and Sandy Rivers were high and muddy at this writing but are expected to be dropping this week. The Clackamas below River Mill Dam remains open for fin-clipped coho but will close upstream after October 31st. The Sandy River remains open for fin-clipped coho year around when historically, it has closed on October 31st.

Northwest – Tillamook Bay has been blustery most recently, keeping anglers at home and waiting for the next opportunity. Prior to the barrage of storm systems, chinook fishing had slowed with only an occasional fish being taken in the west channel and Ghost Hole areas. The Wilson and Kilchis fish are now overdue.

The storm system provided the optimum opportunity for river anglers with flows dropping into perfect shape by Tuesday on the Trask, Wilson and Kilchis Rivers. Traffic was light on all systems but bank anglers were scoring a combination of chum, wild coho and an occasional chinook at the logger bridge on the Kilchis River. The coho continue to run large, making them easy to misidentify, as they look similar to a fresh run chinook. Be cautious in your harvest.

The bay had calmed by Wednesday, providing good opportunity for anglers in the lower bay. If better numbers of Wilson and Kilchis fish don’t show on this freshet, it will signal a problem with the remainder of the season. Herring should take fair numbers of fish in the Ghost Hole and Bay City. Lower stretches of these rivers should also produce results today and tomorrow.

Most of the river accessible to driftboats is closed to chinook fishing on the Nehalem and Nestucca Rivers. Check the ODF&W web site for what limited opportunities exist in these watersheds.

The Necanicum River was also an option earlier in the week but windfall and shifting gravel bars can make this a hazard to navigate. The North Fork Nehalem did get a few more hatchery coho but most of the fish are dark. The first hatchery winter steelhead will likely come in around the first or second week of November.

Sturgeon fishing may improve on Tillamook Bay after the recent rains, sending crab to the ocean and away from anchored baits in the west channel, where most of the sturgeon effort takes place. Bay crabbing should slow on most north coast estuaries with the lower Columbia being the exception.

Southwest – Rain over the weekend raised water levels and muddied the rivers on the south coast. Fishing should improve as waters drop and clear.

Trollers took chinook on the lower Umpqua last week and more fish will be entering this week with the freshet.

Coos Bay anglers are taking good numbers of chinook although pressure is light. The South Coos was particularly productive.

Chinook catches have been good this season on the Coquille with the action yet to show signs of slowing down.

Offshore boaters out of Gold Beach caught a break at the middle of last week, at which time rockfish were taken but ling cod catches were slow. Chinook results are slow in the bay and rain has roiled much of the river. Steelheading remains good on the upper Rogue above the old Gold Ray Dam site.

The Chetco is experiencing a very good return of adult chinook as well as a high number of jacks as recent ODFW test netting revealed. The river is dropping this week after swelling to nearly 7,000 cfs on October 24th.

Rain doubled the volume of the Elk River earlier this week, causing muddy conditions and filling the river with leaves. It will bring in fish, however, and results should be good when water conditions improve.

Opening November 6th, catches of chinook are expected to be very good at the Winchuck River, located just north of the California border.

Eastern – Steelheading has been challenging on the lower Deschutes. Trout fishing has been decent but most anglers are more interested in steelhead.

The John Day Pool troll fishery is heating up and is likely to peak close to Thanksgiving.

Many east side locations will close to fishing at the end of October. Be sure to check the Oregon fishing regulations before hitting eastside destinations.

Crescent Lake is producing Mackinaw to trollers.