Willamette Valley/Metro – With metro area fisheries entering summer doldrums, anglers are looking west to coastal fisheries to satisfy their itch. Moderate temperatures however have kept trout fisheries on the table, and the Columbia River summer steelhead run is peaking for metro area anglers.
The summer steelhead run is down from even last year’s dismal returns however, and less than half the 10 –year average. Peak season still affords some opportunity, but study the regulations carefully to ensure your within guidelines. Sauvie Island is a popular bank angling destination.
The Clackamas and Sandy Rivers continue to challenge summer steelheaders and most anglers have written off the poor spring Chinook return. Fish early with small baits or spinners to stand a chance at one of these fish.
Warm water fisheries for metro area anglers are plentiful. ODF&W has great resources to better understand those opportunities at: https://myodfw.com/articles/warmwater-fishing-north-willamette-area.
Pro guide Jeff Stoeger (503-704-7920) of O2BFISHN reports, ” This week we saw the weather have some impact on the water color. The river is running steelhead green early in the morning and then changing into silt green after the temperature jumps. Most of the action is taking place in the upper river. The Oxbow Park to Cedar Creek reach is holding most of the fish. Fishing early in the morning is your best bet and use scent when the river changes in color.”
Northwest Oregon – Although anglers had a tougher time finding coho out of Garibaldi when ocean water temperatures spiked, it remains the best opportunity for those seeking good options for success. Trollers working 160 – 220 foot of water northwest out of Garibaldi should experience good catches in the coming weeks. Large schools of Columbia River bound coho migrate up the coast, right past Garibaldi well into September.
Bottomfishing remains productive near Three Arch Rocks although most of the charter fleet heads north to fish off of Arch Cape and Cannon Beach this time of year. Lingcod fishing is hit or miss, but sea bass action remains excellent.
Halibut fishing has been stifled, mostly due to rough seas in the early season. That has equated to additional opportunity with a July 18 – 20 three-day opener slated for this week. Wouldn’t you know it, after an unprecedented string of calm ocean days, the seas are expected to pick up for this opener. Nearly half of the all-depth quota remains intact and 83% of the nearshore quota.
The Astoria Report – Although anglers have been having to work for coho limits, persistent anglers are getting those kinds of opportunities. Last week’s storm blew out the Chinook from the Long Beach Peninsula, but the coho are of a nice grade with an occasional fish reaching 10 pounds already. Some boats have been targeting coho in 400 to 500 foot of water, but there are schools scattered throughout, from 65 foot westward. The fishing will only improve by the week, making Astoria the most likely destination for serious salmon anglers. The Buoy 10 season opens on the lower Columbia on August 1st.
Catch and release sturgeon fishing remains excellent for those that find the fish. Double-digit opportunities for fish ranging from 3 to 7 feet are common.
Crabbing is fair in the ocean and river out of Astoria, the ocean crab will soon enter the molting stage however.
Razor clam digging closed on July 15th, but will re-open again in late September. No sign of offshore albacore, but commercial boats are getting them way offshore. Usually, the albacore are within reach of the sportfleet by this time of year.
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Central and Eastern Oregon Fishing Reports
From avid angler Tim Moran
Crane Prairie – Trout fishing is good and fish are still being caught near the channels. ass fishing continues to be very good with several fish in the 2 to 4 lb range being caught.
Hosmer Lake – It’s a damsel and zebra midge show on Hosmer right now and fishing has been very good.
Wickiup – The reservoir is starting to drop fast now with summer weather returning. Bass fishing has taken most of the attention away from the kokes and browns this week as several reports came in with pictures of some nice bigmouths caught in the reservoir.
Prineville Reservoir: No word on Prineville this week but it’s been holding up well for trout fishing and all warmwater species all year so don’t expect that to change.
East Lake – East Lake fishing is holding up well and continues to produce browns and rainbows. The hatches are coming off in the morning and evenings as well so bring plenty of Calibaetis imitations to match what’s coming off. If the wind comes up drift with an intermediate sink tip and a San Juan worm. It can be deadly and will keep you wind casting frustration to a minimum!!
Paulina Lake – Same as last week – Fishing for browns and rainbows has been very good. It’s a calibeatis show so bring plenty to match the hatch.
Lower Deschutes River – BWO, PMD’s and cadis are all popping on the lower D. With the cooler July fishing has been great!
John Day River – Bass fishing is great and will be until it cools off or there is a major thunder shower event in the canyon. The flow is low (380 CFS) so pontoons are about the only way of getting down river. This is also a great time to locate spots to walk into the river and walk and fish. Just be aware that you don’t trespass when getting out.
Owyhee River – The river hadn’t gotten too much attention on our radar due to a cold spring and high flows that lasted into June but the river is now stabilized and is fishing well. The fish are big here 16 to 25 inches and your flies are small (18 to 22) so 5 and 6x tippet is the norm.
It’s going to be a great weekend with warm dry weather so hopefully, you can get out and enjoy the rivers and lakes that are fishing well!
Check out much more detail from Tim on the paid subscriber’s page or become a paid subscriber HERE!
From ODF&W
Big Lava Lake offers a good opportunity for 14- to 16-inch rainbow trout.
Recent sampling on the Crooked River captured some trout up to 18-inches, with good numbers of fish up to 12-inches.
It’s not too soon to hit the lower Deschutes for some early summer steelhead action.
It’s a big week for trout stocking in this Zone. We’ll be putting fish in North and South Twin lakes, Shevlin Pond, Sprague Pit Pond, Century Gravel Pond, Irish Lake, Deep Lake, East Lake, Three Creeks Lake, Paulina Lake, Fall River, and Taylor Lake.
In the Grande Ronde River, anglers are catching good-size trout in the roadless section and bass in the lower river between Troy and the WA state line.
Trout fishing has been good on the Wallowa River with fish taking stoneflies and caddies patterns below the surface.
Bass anglers should consider the John Day and Columbia rivers for some weekend fishing.
Taylor Green Pond has been stocked with legal and trophy-size trout and fishing is good.
McNary ponds provides a great opportunity for bank anglers and small non-motorized boaters, to catch some warm water fish, the ponds have a good population of large and small mouth bass, walleye, crappie, bluegill, yellow perch, and brown bullhead.
Walleye fishing has been good in the John Day pool of the Columbia River.
Fish and Wallowa lakes are scheduled to be stocked this week.
Fish Lake in the Wallowa Mountains has been stocked with more fish than in recent years, so anglers can expect fishing to be very good.
Phillips Reservoir has been stocked with approximately 14,000 legal-size and 4,500 trophy-size rainbow trout this year. ‘Nuf said.
The trail to Blue Lake in the Gearhart Wilderness is open and fishing was excellent this past weekend.
Campbell and Deadhorse Lakes will be stocked this week and fishing should be good.
This time of year, trout fishing on the Blitzen and Chewaucan rivers should be good.
Deadhorse Lake, Fourmile Lake, Twin Lake, Campbell Lake, Miller Lake and Eagle Creek are all scheduled to be stocked this week.
Data regarding the current ocean selective(finclipped) coho season has been updated through July 3rd and 16.3 percent of the quota has been caught and kept with fishing success running at .85 retained salmon per angler/trip. The most successful port so far has been Depoe Bay with 1.22 kept salmon per angler trip.
By far the busiest port has been Newport with 6,400 angler/trips. Garibaldi has been the second busiest salmon fishing port with 3,373 angler trips and Winchester Bay has been the third busiest with 3,073 angler/trips.
The updated(through July 3rd) resuls for all ten ports in our zone are: Garibaldi(3,373 angler trips – ..53 retained salmon per angler); Pacific City(1,985 angler/trips -.92 retained salmon per angler); Depoe Bay(2,449 angler trips – 1.22 retained salmon per angler); Newpor(6,400 angler trips – .97 retained salmon per angler); Florence(0 angler/trips); Brookings(869 angler/trips – .30 retained salmon per angler); Gold Beach(32 angler/trips – .00 retained salmon per angler); Bandon(24 angler/trips – .63 retained salmon per angler): Charleston(315 angler/trips – .76 retained salmon per angler);Winchester Bay 3,073 angler trips – .90 retained salmon per angler.
As for chinook salmon catches, Newport leads with 905, followed by Depoe Bay with 440. Pacific City with 152 and Winchester Bay with 130.
Brookings continues to produce more keeper coho salmon than chinooks.
Fall chinook salmon usually start entering the lower Umpqua River around the first of July and several good-sized chinooks to 34 pounds were landed last week.
Almost all of the commercial crabbers have quit for the year and as a consequence, recreational ocean crabbing has shown some improvement.
Fishing local beaches for surfperch continues to be slow. Fishing has also been slow for spawning pinkfins in the Umpqua River above Winchester Bay.
It appears that there hasn’t been any improvement in salmonid returns in the decades-long severe drawdown “experiment” on Fall Creek Reservoir.
It seems that the Corps of Engineers managed to trade a decent to good warmwater fishery for essentially nothing and it seems they are more than willing to make similar trades on Lookout Point Reservoir and other Lane County reservoirs on the Willamette River system.
Umpqua River smallmouth fishing continues to be very good and should remain so through September. Fishing the Smith River for striped bass have also been good, but most of the recent catches have weighed less than three pounds. At least one striper weighing at least 20 pounds is caught each week.
Smaller stripers are also dominating recent Coquille River striper catches.
Umpqua Bait in Winchester Bay is still selling live sardines for striper bait.
Fishing for bullhead catfish and yellow perch is only fair on Tenmile lakes.
It appears that the ODFW has not followed through on looking into installing aerators to prevent another die-off of big bass in Lake Selmac.
Southwest – From ODF&W
Ocean salmon fishing has been very good compared to recent years.
Ocean salmon fishing for Chinook salmon from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mt is open. The ocean opened to fin-clipped coho salmon on June 22. Chinook must be a minimum of 24-inches long and coho must be at least 16 inches. Fishing for salmon has been okay with Winchester being the most productive ports on the coast. Anglers have been averaging one fish per person. As of July 14, ocean salmon anglers have caught 26.3 percent of the fin-clipped coho quota.
The Nearshore Halibut season is open seven days a week in the Central Coast Subarea. As of July 7, there is 83 percent of the Nearshore quota remaining. As of July 6, there is still 48 percent of the Spring All-Depth quota remaining for the Central Coast. The next open All-Depth halibut days will be on July 18-20. The Southern Oregon Subarea is open seven days a week for halibut. There is still 90 percent of the quota remaining for the Southern Oregon Coast halibut season.
Anglers willing to do a little walking can find some great cutthroat trout fishing on the upper reaches and tributaries of the Chetco and Pistol rivers.
Anglers continue to catch 12- to 16-inch trout on Howard Prairie Reservoir. Wind drifting, trolling, still-fishing and fly-fishing are all producing fish.
Summer steelhead numbers are increasing in the middle and upper Rogue. Now would be a good time to hit the water.
Bass fishing continues to be good in the mainstem and South Umpqua rivers.
Bass fishing also continues to be great in several ponds and reservoirs.
Striped bass continues to be very good on the Coquille and Umpqua rivers.
Fish Lake and the Rogue River above Lost Creek Reservoir are scheduled to be stocked this week.
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