Willamette Valley/Metro - With summer steelhead numbers peaking, interest in the gorge is also peaking. It's a race however; as temperatures rise, success will drop. Small spinners and plugs will take fish in the fast water at Bonneville while beach plunkers down to Longview will take fish off of area beaches using spin-n-glos and coon shrimp.
Spring chinook and summer steelhead counts are dwindling at Willamette Falls with the water temperature climbing past the mid-70s. Bass fishing has been good on the lower Willamette. As with most summer angling fare, mornings and evenings have been most productive. Catch-and release sturgeon fishing is receiving slight attention with fair to good results in the Portland Harbor. Salmon and steelhead are primarily concerned with escaping the warm water of the lower river for cooler alternatives upstream.
Hot weather combined with low water creates less than ideal fishing conditions. The McKenzie has been fishing fair early and late in the day, however. In the absence of hatches, try terrestrial patterns, attractors or nymphs fished in deeper water.
North Santiam levels have been on the drop over the past week and are expected to continue in this trend with no rain in sight. With a denser fish population consisting of both salmon and steelhead with the bonus of stable flows, the South Santiam is the better bet for weekend fishing.
As the Clackamas has continued to drop and clear, fishing results have continued to slow. First and last light fishing become the only options in these conditions with the probability of a steelhead hookup greater than that of a springer in skinny water.
The Sandy is fishing fair at best with only mornings and evenings offering the opportunity for some action. Gray-green water conditions are expected on the Sandy at this time of year due to its glacial origins but some fish are being taken regardless by anglers fishing high on the system.
Northwest – With a staging population of salmon at the mouth of the Columbia, ocean salmon trollers are enjoying easy limits on both the south and north sides of the river entrance. One boat reported multiple whales and birds feeding on evident baitfish NW of the river mouth. He attained a 16-fish limit in just under an hour. Chinook were oddly absent however; that should change in the near future.
Sturgeon fishing remains nothing short of awesome. Fresh anchovies is all you need and action will likely remain excellent through July. Keeper range fish have inundated the estuary but no one area is consistent. Targeting fish in the deeper water as temperatures rise should produce remarkable catches from the East End Basin to the mouth of the Skipanon River.
Further south, coho action is picking up but limits are not necessarily the rule. Garibaldi is posting consistent catches but action should ramp up as Columbia River coho migrate up the coast. Chinook are rare in the catch here too but they should start to show in better numbers next month. Offshore and bay crabbing is picking up and crab are starting to fill out a bit more. Halibut fishing out of Garibaldi is fair for those targeting fish in the 150 to 190 foot range.
The Nehalem system is starting to produce more consistent catches of chinook. The soft outgoing tides over the weekend should produce good to great chinook catches in the jaws for herring trollers. Bay crabbing is picking up here too.
Albacore become more prevalent out of Garibaldi this time of year. Good catches were reported when seas permitted but fish remained out of reach for many. Seas may calm by the weekend.
Southwest- Bottomfishing out of Depoe Bay is yielding great catches of rockfish but lingcod remain elusive. Ocean salmon trolling is producing primarily coho with a high percentage of those hatchery fish. Many limits are returning to port on charter and sport craft.
Albacore anglers were frustrated over the past weekend as tuna were nearly 50 miles offshore, a distance at which they are out of reach of most recreational boats.
Salmon fishing and ocean crabbing are producing limits for boats out of Reedsport. The pinkfin surf perch fishery showed no signs of waning on the lower Umpqua over the past weekend.
Offshore boaters launching out of Charleston have been enjoying a variety of options. Crabbing is good and bottomfishing has produced excellent results. Boats venturing 25 to 30 miles out of port have been scoring some seasonally large tuna.
When boats have been able to get out of Gold beach, bottomfishing has been excellent. Most are returning with limits of rockfish, lingcod and Dungeness. Salmon trollers have found chinook and coho on the bite. A few fall chinook are being taken in Rogue Bay but it's still early for these fish. While the lower Rogue isn't offering much to anglers, summer steelhead are being caught by bait fishers on the middle river with best results occurring in the evening. Spring chinook catches are fair to good on the upper Rogue with summer steelhead hitting occasionally.
Local residents are saying the salmon fishing out of Brookings is the best in decades. That's a bold statement but the scores of three and four-salt chinook and hatchery coho which are weighing in at 10 pounds or better at the cleaning tables seems to substantiate it. Best results have come to those trolling anchovies near the Oregon/California border.
Diamond Lake was stocked over the past week to boost catches but the effect was minimal due to warm water. Fish deep for best results.
Eastern – Caddis are hatching on the Warm Springs to Trout Creek drift on the lower Deschutes and large redsides are responding well to imitations. Steelhead fishing remains spotty but should improve in the coming weeks.
While hookups begin to slow on the Crooked River at this time of year, catches will remain steady. It'll be mostly a nymph show throughout the month with Caddis variations most effective.
Water levels on the Wallowa River are finally dropping. The stonefly hatch is about done but Caddis are hatching in earnest.
Good-sized bull trout and rainbows are being taken on the Grande Ronde River now that flows have dramatically moderated. Try large, dark, wet offerings.
Fishing is fair to good at East Lake where fly anglers have been taking mostly rainbows and a few brown trout to 18 inches on nymphs.
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