Fishing Report 04-30-2021
Danielle from our Oregon City store and her family had a great turkey hunt earlier this week. Nice job, Ladies! With so many opportunities for outdoor adventure in the awesome Pacific Northwest, sometimes it’s hard to decide which direction to point the truck or boat this time of year!
Fishing report 4-30
Spring Chinook are being caught throughout the Willamette Valley. These fish are spread out and anglers are starting to find some in the upper Willamette tributaries such as the North and South Santiam, and a few fish have been caught in the Clackamas. This year we have had such a dry spring that the fish are spread out and don’t have the normal amount of water to pull them up to stack in Oregon City. This means fish are spread throughout the lower river from the bottom of the Multnomah Channel up to Oregon City. Anglers are finding their best success while trolling herring and triangle flashers, or, with 360 flashers and spinners or Superbaits. Again, these fish are typically suspended throughout the deep slow water of the Portland Harbor, so staggering your depths and keeping your gear in their face is a must!
Summer Steelhead are starting to show their faces as we have been getting sporadic reports of fish being caught throughout the Willamette and Southwest Washington rivers. These great-biting, hard-fighting fish are a fan favorite of Northwest anglers. They will readily chase spinners, jigs, drift fishing gear and bait.
Bottom fishing has been good and anglers that are looking to fill their freezers have been finding success all along the coast. Lingcod have been around in good numbers, and if you couple that two fish limit with the rest of your bottom fish limit, you are set for a good stock of fillets in the freezer. Vertical jigs, curly tail grubs and shrimp flies have all been working well.
Catch and release sturgeon fishing has been a great choice and some anglers are taking full advantage of it. With, at times, fast pace action and nice weather it’s hard to beat a day chasing dinosaurs. Smelt, herring, squid and sand shrimp have all been working well.
Trout fishing is off and running in Washington. The Trout opener was just a few days ago. In preparation, WDFW has stocked many lakes with fat Trout prime for the catching. Bait such as worms, Powerbait, salmon eggs or cocktail shrimp are all great choices when chasing these plentiful Trout.
Smallmouth Bass fishing is getting better by the day and reports are that the Columbia Gorge is starting to heat up. This early warm weather has started the fish moving up shallow to spawn. Soft plastics, shallow diving crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs will entice these hard-fighting fish to bite.
Always be sure to check local regulations at ODFW and WDFW before heading out. Find reports and two most widely used baits, information on the Fisherman's Community page.
