Oregon fishing report

Willamette Valley/Metro- Sturgeon anglers below Bonneville Dam are still struggling to find keepers although boaters working the Portland to Longview stretch are getting into some undersize fish. Bonneville Pool anglers posted good catches again this week but success rates should drop as temperatures do. The quota for this reservoir will certainly get eaten up quick however. Willamette River sturgeon anglers finally got word about their 2012 season. Washington and Oregon came up with an agreed allotment guideline between 1,768 and 2,022 fish. This equates to a modeled 4-day fishery which will take place on February 17th & 18th as well as February 24th and 25th. Effort will be high and it’s likely the catch will be too. Winter steelhead passage will be negatively affected by high water this week as will plunkers at Meldrum Bar as their fishing area goes underwater. McKenzie water levels are expected to be too high for fishing for a week or so. The Santiams will blow out with the storm this week and will be slow to recover. Steelheading has been spotty on the Clackamas with the water dropping well below optimum for best results. Expect the river to be high and muddy by the coming weekend. Fishing has been slow to fair on the Sandy over the past week. Levels are up now but water clarity will be determined as much by the freezing level as precipitation. Northwest – Driftboaters will still taking fair to good numbers of fish late last week on the Wilson River. Although the flows were low, stealthy side-drifters and plug pullers each scored fair results on Friday. Some of the catch was made up of the earlier returning Alsea stock steelhead, which were less than ideal for table fare. The cold snap dramatically dropped water temperatures, slowing the bite north coast wide. River levels remained fishable until mid-week, when the big storm is predicted to take rivers to unfishable levels for several days. Most early season steelhead opportunities will slow, with only darker and near-spawn steelhead available. The exception will be the Wilson and Nestucca systems which should receive broodstock hatchery fish well into April this year. Three Rivers, the North Fork Nehalem and Necanicum Rivers as well as the Highway 30 streams near Astoria will likely produce more spent fish than fresh ones. Wild fish should be available to a lesser degree however. Despite good tides, cold, wet weather kept sturgeon anglers from attempting an outing on Tillamook Bay this week. These fish won’t go anywhere as the food source for these fish remains good through the winter months. Crabbing effort and success were low this week with not much improvement in the near future. Southwest – Ocean bottom fishing has been consistently good for rockfish and good at times for lingcod. Offshore fishing will not be an option this coming weekend with seas predicted to top 15 feet. Steelheading has been good on most rivers despite low, clear water conditions. Storms this week will put most rivers out of shape for the coming weekend. Winchester Bay has been producing good catches of Dungeness but crabbing will suffer from the freshet this week. Sturgeon fishing has picked up in the lower Umpqua downstream of the Highway 101 Bridge but it's challenging to find one small enough to keep as most are oversized fish which must be released. While winter steelhead were nosing into the mainstem and catches have been fair, once the river recovers from rainfall this week, it will be good fishing. Crabbing has been excellent in Coos Bay over the past week but fresh water from storms this week will chase Dungeness back into the ocean and results will suffer as salinity levels drop. Steelheading on the Coquille was good following the last freshet, then slowed as the river dropped and cleared. Precipitation this week will bring fresh fish in for steelheaders to reap as conditions improve in a week or so. Skinny water hasn't deterred steelheaders on the lower Rogue where catches have been fair gut steady although fish have been running on the small side. The high water this week will silence low water complaints for a while. If river forecasts remain accurate, on Thursday, January 19th, the Chetco River will be approaching an angler-unfriendly 40,000 cfs at Brookings. This prediction could be off by a lot but the result will be the same; it's not going to fish in the coming weekend. Low and green at this writing on January 17th, the Elk River will blow out mid-week with heavy precipitation but, along with the Sixes, will recover rapidly and will produce winter steelhead. Eastern – The east side is not predicted to receive heavy rain but temperatures will be cold, sometimes remaining below freezing throughout the day in the week to come. Prepare accordingly. The Dalles Pool put out some keeper steelhead, especially for boaters over the weekend. Action will likely taper in this reservoir as well as the John Day Pool as temperatures drop.