Oregon Fishing Reports for June 28

Willamette Valley/Metro – An occasional flurry of spring Chinook activity is being reported from the Portland Harbor for trollers working spinners and Pro-Trolls during early morning and around high tide. This fishery typically produces into the July 4th holiday, with fish destined for the upper Willamette and Clackamas River systems. Expect another week of opportunity here, especially since the weather looks to be favorable as we enter the early summer season when temperatures commonly spike.

Shad anglers are still working the Oregon City area with a fair degree of success. Sunny skies have promoted good catches here recently, and some spring Chinook are also still falling to trollers between the I-205 Bridge and the locks.

Sturgeon fishing in the Portland Harbor has tapered.

Summer Chinook counts at Bonneville are falling in line with pre-season predictions, but it’s early. Summer steelhead counts remain depressed with few people in pursuit of them on the mainstem Columbia.  Shad counts remain robust with over 6.4 million passing Bonneville to date.

The Sandy should get a late shot of spring Chinook in the near future, the Clackamas remains a disaster and unlikely to improve. Some summer steelhead are available however on both systems. Anglers are already looking forward to a strong fall return of coho, but that’s still three months away.

Moderate weather should keep trout biting in the numerous lakes and ponds around the Portland area. Lakes in the upper elevations are getting the primary focus this time of year however. Check the ODF&W web site for the updated stocking schedule to see your best chance for success for Oregon’s most popular sport fish.

Pro guide Jeff Stoeger (503-704-7920) of O2BFISHN reports, ” Well, this week’s report is on the slow side. I floated the lower river and never saw another boat.  Did see a few salmon moving upstream. Most of the guys are fishing the upper river from Oxbow Park to the mouth of the Salmon River. Most guys are using spinners and sand shrimp under a bobber.”

John Strohecker of Portland with a quality ocean coho from Garibaldi (7/29/18)

Northwest Oregon – Spring Chinook should still be on the table for Tillamook Bay anglers this week. Super-soft tides this week should promote success for trollers working the inside of the north jetty on the last half of outgoing tide. High tide is a fair option as well. Chinook must be fin-clipped to retain through July 31st.

The bigger news has been the offshore coho fishery that got underway Saturday. Although catches haven’t been explosive, coho did entertain anglers from 180 to 220 feet of water when seas and bar conditions allowed. A robust quota should keep saltwater anglers excited well into August.

River fishing for spring Chinook and summer steelhead remains challenging. Despite a change in the weather forecast, a river rise is not in the foreseeable future.

The coho are biting! And so are the sturgeon! Here are some great fishing options with Pro guide Bob Rees for the week of July 3rd – 9th:
Fish for coho, ½ day, just $125.00 per person! Open seats on these days:

July 3rd – 2 seats open
July 4th – 6 seats open
July 5th – 1 seat open
July 7th – 2 seats open
July 8th – 4 seats open
July 9th – 6 seats open
July 10th – 6 seats open

If you choose a day for coho, we can also explore some EPIC catch and release sturgeon fishing after we limit out on coho! To round out your day with an EPIC sturgeon experience, we’ll just charge you an extra $50/person to make it a full day!

Call today (503) 812-9036 or email Bob

The Astoria Report – The coho fishery opened with a bang. Easy coho limits are being taken at the CR Buoy when weather and bar conditions allow. Some anglers targeted Chinook off of the Long Beach Peninsula but came up empty. Coho averaged 3 to 6 pounds, but should put on significant weight over the next several weeks. The lower Columbia’s robust return of coho will be the salvation of our region’s sportfishing this season.

Catch and release sturgeon fishing has been epic on the lower Columbia. The action will only get better into July. Use fresh anchovies for bait and fish between Miller Island and the Astoria Bridge.  

See the full version of Bob Rees’ report by becoming a paid subscriber here.

Central and Eastern Oregon Fishing Reports

From avid angler Tim Moran

Crane Prairie –  Deschutes and Quinn River channels are producing some nice trout.  The bass fishing is still very good.

Wickiup –  Kokanee fishing is a bit spottier but if you find them fishing can be good. Fishing is best the first hours of the day and an hour before dark.

Odell Lake –  The Shelter Cove Boys are reporting fishing as good but slower than a few weeks ago. 

Prineville Reservoir:   Trout fishing is good.  Bass and crappie fishing is too.  Rocky points and creek mouths are good places to look for bass and crappies.

Metolius River – Drakes are coming off sporadically but when they do fishing them is very good. 

East/Paulina Lakes – When the wind is down fishing can be excellent.  Fishing should be really good with the improving weather this coming weekend.   Some nice browns to 22 inches were taken recently.   

John Day River – I spent four days last week floating the river from Service Creek to Clarno.  Bass Fishing was very good with some really nice fish in the mix including a couple that went 19 inches and several from 14 to 17.   The fish seem to be getting healthier every year.  The river was the busiest I’ve ever seen it.  They were parking cars on the road as the boat launch lot was beyond capacity. 

From ODF&W

Chinook fishing on Hood River has been pretty consistent the last two weeks.

Trout fishing on the lower Deschutes has been good, and the crowds have been a little smaller.

Trout fishing has been good in East Lake and Paulina is due to be stocked this week.

Bass fishing has been great in the Crook and Deschutes arms of Lake Billy Chinook. Best kokanee fishing has been in the Metolius arm.

Bass and crappie fishing have been good in Ochoco and Prineville reservoirs.

Several waterbodies are scheduled to be stocked this week, including Badger Lake, North and South Twin lakes, Olallie Lake, Paulina Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Metolius Pond, East Lake and Crane Prairie Reservoir.

Flows in the Grande Ronde and Wallowa rivers are beginning to drop and clear, a good sign that trout fishing should be getting better.

Water temperatures are warming on the John Day, and with flows ideal for floating anglers are catching a good number of bass.

The road to Jubilee Lake is open to vehicle traffic all the way to the lake and fishing should be good for holdover rainbow trout.

Smallmouth bass fishing on the Columbia River has been great.

This is a great time of the year to enjoy the mountains of Northeast Oregon a tour of the forest ponds that were stocked last week.

Because Morrow County will be working on ORV pond #3, it will not be stocked in 2019.

Best bet for fishing in the Klamath Basin will be Fourmile Lake for stocked rainbow trout, Lower Williamson River for native redband trout, Wood River for brown trout and Gerber Reservoir for crappie.

Look for the large mayfly Hex hatch on the Sprague and Williamson rivers – the bugs start coming off about 9:15 p.m.

Fishing has been excellent for redband trout on the upper Williamson near the Rocky Ford area.

Campbell and Deadhorse Lakes will be stocked for this weekend.

Water levels in Deep Creek and the Chewaucan River are dropping – expect fishing for redband trout to start getting really good.

The Owhyee River was stocked recently with rainbow trout.

Ana Reservoir, Fish Lake, Campbell Lake, Thompson Valley Reservoir, Fourmile Lake, Miller Lake and Deadhorse Lake are all scheduled to be stocked this week.

Southwest Oregon

From Pete Heley at PeteHeley.com

The European green crab, an invasive species of concern to biologists has recently been found at several locations along the Oregon coast, including Bandon., Coos Bay and Winchester Bay.

Hopefully, its impact locally will be nominal.

A new law has passed both state house and senate requiring a “waterway access permit” for small non-motorized craft over 10 feet. Canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, rowboats, etc will require a $17 annual permit ($30 for 2 years). The permit is transferrable though so it goes with the operator not the vessel. and goes into effect in 2020.

The Dalles is your only choice for oversize sturgeon as Bonneville to Skamania Island is closed to all sturgeon fishing to protect sturgeon during the spawn.

The ocean finclipped coho season opened with a whimper this Saturday as rough bar conditions severely limited participation. several nice-sized chinooks were caught last week by anglers casting spinners from the bank at Half Moon Bay. The very few boats that managed to reach the ocean out of Winchester Bay did find some coho salmon – almost all of which were unkeepable unclipped fish.

Some pinkfin anglers have commented on the small size of the unborn perch.

This year’s awesome shad fishing on the Umpqua River is winding down and may be pretty much over in two to three weeks.

An increasingly hot crappie bite is occurring off the fishing dock at Tugman Park on Eel Lake. as the crappie finally finish spawning.

The improved striped bass fishing this year is a good example of how important even small improvements in habitat can be.

Southwest – From ODF&W

Selective coho opened on June 22 in all areas of the Oregon Coast. Anglers fishing for salmon and all anglers fishing from boats with salmon on board are limited to no more than 2 single point barbless hooks per line, and no more than one line per angler.

In the Leadbetter Point, WA to Cape Falcon, OR area fishing was very good over the opening weekend with average catch rates of 1.35 salmon per angler with 96 percent of the catch made up of coho. Anglers are reminded that the bag limit is two salmon per day, but no more than one Chinook in this area, and all coho MUST have a healed adipose fin clip.

In the area from Cape Falcon to the OR/CA border the bag limit is two salmon per day and all coho MUST have a healed adipose fin clip. Catch rates ranged from fair to good out of ports from Garibaldi to Winchester Bay. From Charleston to Brookings the weather conditions precluded access to salmon over the weekend. Nearshore surface ocean water temperatures were in the upper 40s F which also tends to put salmon off the bite. Weather forecasts for this week are predicting modest southerly winds, which should allow for surface water temperatures to ease back into the low 50s F, and hopefully put the coho back on the bite.

Some anglers had trouble finding bottomfish last week while others landed some lingcod and black rockfish.

Approximately 230 hatchery adult spring Chinook and 66 hatchery adult summer steelhead from Cole River Hatchery were recycled into the upper Rogue on June 21.

Trout fishing continues to be good in several waterbodies, including Diamond Lake and Cooper Creek, Galesville, Howard Prairie and Lost Creek reservoirs.

Bass fishing should be good in most of the mainstem Umpqua.

Marine perch species are available in coastal estuaries at this time of year. Look for them around pilings, rocks, riprap, and docks. Female redtail surfperch will come into estuaries to release young in the summer.

Anglers are still targeting striped bass in the Coquille basin.

Bass and other warmwater fishing is good in several area waterbodies such as Tenmile Lakes, Eel Lake, Expo Pond and Loon Lake, to name just a few. To entice largemouth bass when the aquatic vegetation gets heavy in the summer, try fishing imitation frog lures or popping lures along vegetation lines or openings in the weed beds.

The Rogue River above Lost Creek Reservoir is stocked with trout every week throughout the summer.

2019 Stocking schedule and Stocking Maps

SW Washington –  The most recent report from WDF&W is from June 9th. You can access it HERE.

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