Fishing Report 05-12-2023
This past weekend Sabrina from our Oregon City store made a trip out to Depoe Bay for some bottom fishing fun! She had a successful day on the ocean and caught more than enough fish to help fill her cooler. Way to go Sabrina!
Fishing Report:
The Willamette Spring Chinook fishery is rockin’ and rollin! The fish have been evenly spread all throughout the river from the Oregon City Falls down to Scappoose. Up until this week, the lower river fishermen have been finding the majority of their success trolling herring and flashers. However, the warmer weather has started to bring the river temp up and 360 flashers with 3.5 size spinners are starting to really work. Fisherman’s Pro, Russ Morrow, has started to notice this switch and recently started to switch some of his rods to spinners and it’s working! He has been using 3.5 size Blue Tipped Cascade Blades and it’s been paying dividends. The Oregon City egg and prawn fishery is in full swing as well, with some of our Pro Staff reporting great success. Fisherman’s Pro, David Johnson, reported that over this past week he had multiple days with 10 plus opportunities! He has been fishing eggs and sand shrimp to find his success.
Up in the Columbia Gorge the Wind River bubble fishery and Drano Lake are finally starting to heat up. We are hearing reports from plenty of boats that limits are becoming a real possibility. This is one of those fisheries that virtually all techniques can be seen working on the same day. Bank fishermen will be casting spinners and Magnum Wiggle Warts, boat anglers will be using triangle flashers and herring, 360 flashers with any type of bait behind it that you can imagine. Small spinners, prawn spinners, anchovies, Brad’s Cutplugs and Superbaits, Spin Fish, Spin Dawgs and even Spin-N-Glo’s. There are also anglers that will start to anchor up farther into the lake and bobber fish eggs, sand shrimp or tuna balls. Whatever technique you prefer, you will more than likely see someone doing it successfully.
Catch and release Sturgeon fishing on the Willamette and Columbia River. These fish are enjoying the slow temperature rise and the bite has been really good. Especially in the Willamette. Squid, herring, anchovies, smelt and sand shrimp are all great bait choices.
Bottom fishing remains good and should continue to get better as we progress through the month. We had some first hand intel from a couple of our Oregon City Employees, McKenna and Sabrina, who made it down to fish out of Depoe Bay recently. They both caught lots of bottom fish, bringing home plenty of meat for the freezer. Shrimp flies, curly tail grubs, swim baits and vertical jigs have all been working well.
Trout fishing is continuing to improve as ODFW continues their plants efforts all around the state. Some of the lower elevation Cascade Lakes have been getting stocked including Davis Lake which received over 4,000 Trout in the past week. Keep an eye on the ODFW stocking schedule to see what lakes have already been stocked and what lakes are on the schedule to be stocked. Trolling is a great option as is fishing bait off the bottom for bank anglers. Bring several bait options and several scent options as you never know what the Trout might want that day.
Kokanee fishing at Merwin and Yale has been good and should continue to be good for quite a while. Fish are starting to spread out in the water column so make sure to stagger your rods until you really dial-in what depth the fish are at. Dodgers with small spinner blades, Spin-N-Glos, bright-colored hoochies and Kokanee Cutplugs have all been working well.
Smallmouth Bass fishing is heating up on the Columbia. We have a lot of snow melt coming our way as the warm weather approaches, but the Bass won’t care. They will be heading up shallow to start the spring spawn. This is when anglers can have very big number days. Tube baits, jigs, lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwater baits will all have a place in the Bass anglers arsenal.
Razor Clamming has been really good at Long Beach and the Spring digs are coming to a close on May 14th.With good clamming recently, many anglers are showing up several hours before the low tide and finding early limits.
