Willamette Valley/Metro – It’ll be another ho-hum week for metro anglers. The Columbia is over, the Willamette may have a few sturgeon for catch and release anglers and although it’s still early, plunkers may get a crack at a Clackamas River bound winter steelhead if Santa says you’ve been good this year. Overall, there isn’t much to look forward to if you’re putting all your eggs in the Willamette Valley “basket,” so to speak.
Some Willamette Valley lakes have recently been stocked with trout and given the low-key publicity trout fisheries have received this season due to the fear of over-crowding, anglers should be able to plan on some decent fishing if they can brave the weather this week. Anglers stand an outside chance at a Clackamas River bound steelhead plunking off of Meldrum Bar if you’ve got nothing else better to do.
Pro guide Jeff Stoeger (503-704-7920) of O2BFISHN reports from the Sandy River, “Hello All. Hello All. This weeks report has fresh steelhead threw out the entire river system. Heard some nice natives being caught as well as some nice size hatchery fish. The fly guys from Oxbow park to Cedar creek have done well with sinking flies. The gear guy’s have found most success by bead fishing using size 12 beads in all colors and also worms 3.5″ to 5″ Jigs and spinners. Fresh bait eggs and sand shrimp either drifted or under bobbers have produced just as well. The river on Tuesday was ideal running just about 10ft.”
The Clackamas didn’t see much effort this week, and justifiably so. It’ll be another several weeks before fishable numbers show up, and given this year’s return for coho, anglers are anticipating a fair to good return. The river is slated to climb fairly significantly over the weekend, further dashing hopes of anglers finding early season steelhead here. It’ll be a better week to prepare tackle versus deploy it.
November was NSIA month, thanks for helping make our fundraising campaign a good one for the sportfishing community! You can still donate to NSIA by going HERE.
December is SOS month, as in Save Our Wild Salmon.
Save our Wild Salmon has been diligently working for over 25 years to recover Snake River Wild Salmon. Once recovered, a more robust Snake River salmon population will give Columbia River anglers unprecedented opportunity to catch hatchery fish in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, not to mention saving an iconic northwest species from going extinct.
The Guide’s Forecast has long been a partner in seeking solutions to the Snake River Salmon crisis and we’re donating 10% of our December sales to this wonderful organization. When you buy any of our products from The Guide’s Forecast, you’re also helping recover these incredible salmon for future generations of anglers so THANK YOU! Ten percent of all memberships, tech reports, webinars, tackle and guided fishing and crabbing trips sold through The Guide’s Forecast will go directly to helping SOS recover Snake River Wild Salmon!
We strongly encourage you to consider a direct gift to the Save Our Wild Salmon organization. You can do that directly by going HERE.
Thank you, and look for more updates on how to help save these salmon and create more opportunity for you, your family and our community as a whole.
North Coast Fishing Report – Reports from pro guide Rob Gerlitz (503-812-4950) indicate steelhead are still available for Wilson River anglers. Rob still has a good string of success going on his home body, catching TGF reader Ed Wagner this wild winter hen on Tuesday. Water conditions were still a bit low, but Rob’s success can be attributed to fishing the water thoroughly with light gear and subtle offerings (single soft beads in this case). Here’s a nice hen that went back to spawn:
Other north coast systems are also producing mediocre results for early returning steelhead although one of the more popular north coast options, the North Fork Nehalem, was rumored to be pretty challenging in recent days.
The upcoming rain freshet should be a game changer however. The North Fork Nehalem, Three Rivers, the Necanicum and Klaskanine Rivers as well as Big and Gnat Creek should all see a fair surge of early returning steelhead this weekend. The smaller streams will fish better in higher water, while the Wilson and Nestucca will fish better early next week. The better fishing for wild and broodstock fish (Wilson and Nestucca systems) will take place in February and March.
The Nehalem does have a rare winter run already, but that will go out after the weekend.
The ocean remains upside down, again shutting down bottomfishers and ocean crabbers. The commercial fleet is striking so ocean crabs remain untouched, but that will likely soon change. Meanwhile, the lower Columbia River remains a good option and softer tides this weekend will make for some good Christmas Day appetizers, but watch Saturdays wind if you go.
Central and Eastern Oregon Fishing Reports – From avid angler Tim Moran: This report is a repeat from last week. Tim just had this to add:
“SE rivers are beginning to ice up.”
Hello All, Sorry about the lack of reporting but I’ve been down and out with hip replacement surgery this last week but I’m back in the saddle (figuratively at least) this week with a winter report from the Cascades to SE Oregon to the SW Oregon’s Rogue River. It’s December – so it’s cold and the days are short but there are fish to be had for the hearty soul!
The Deschutes is hard to beat if you have a day or two to fish and maupin upstream to Warmsprings would be my go -to area, mostly because there is a good chance of catching a steelhead. The run was actually pretty good this year and was underfished due to all of 2020’s issues.
Trout fishing is good in winter too and nymphing takes most fish. I like to fish a larger dark stonefly with a smaller nymph behind it about 16inches.
Over on the Metolius Jeff form The Flyfisher’s Place in Sisters reported good fishing this last week in the sunshine but a turn in the weather is on the way with snow in the forecast! The main hatch this time of year is the BWO and fish were rising to them for about an hour in the mid afternoon.
The Crooked River is flowing at about 40 CFS. Low but fishable. There have been some really nice fish taken here lately with a few documented in the 16 to 18 inch class.
Prineville Reservoir – This place just keeps pumping out big trout!
The Owhyee River – Browns have about finished their spawn but please be careful as redds will be on the gravel so stay on shore or use extreme caution when walking. The fish will be looking for any bugs so small BWO’s or midges will be about at sometime during the day.
Have a great weekend everyone – hopefully you can all get out there and chase some fish!
SW Oregon (Report from Rogue Valley Anglers) From avid angler Tim Moran, a repeat from last week:
Umpqua and Rogue Rivers- Fishing has stayed pretty good on the Rogue, with the afternoons being better then the mornings due to rising water temps getting the steelhead more active. We are mostly running half or 3/4 day trips now, as it’s just not worth it to be out there at 8 AM. We have also seem some of our biggest summer steelhead start showing up like we always do later in the season.
We are starting to turn our attention to winter steelhead though, as they will start showing up in certain spots in decent numbers over the next few weeks. The mainstem Umpqua is always a good bet throughout December, and the coastal rivers will start seeing more fish by Christmas.
We have numerous great guides here at Rogue Valley Anglers Fly Shop, so give us a call to get out there and get your chrome fix on!
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