Willamette Valley Fishing Report – We are still a couple weeks away from productive wobbler fishing in the main stem Columbia. Desperate anglers can still target summer steelhead in the gorge and downstream to Longview. Action has only been fair however. Chinook salmon passage at Bonneville dam remains around 1500 fish a day on average.
Waters of the lower Willamette remains closed for salmon, trout and steelhead. Fishing for smallmouth bass or panfish is the only option.
McKenzie flows are low but fishable with best prospects for trout high on the system. There aren’t fishable numbers of summer steelhead this year.
The low, clear waters of the Santiam system have caused fishing to crawl to a pretty much a dead stop. It’s too poor here to bother with it.
While the Clackamas is open until 2 PM above the I 205 Bridge, it is completely closed from that point to the mouth due to warm water killing most fish if they’re hooked even when properly released. It’s recommended to try elsewhere at this time.
See Clackamas, above.
North Coast Report – The Buoy 10 fishery is starting to reward anglers with more consistency. Chinook salmon have started to show in better numbers and those taking advantage of the tides, are finding fairly consistent success. The spinner bite is starting to improve.
Offshore, out of the Columbia, salmon fishing is heating up for those that are able to get there early in the morning. Although there has been some recent success close to the river mouth, those heading north seem to be finding epic opportunity for both Chinook and Coho Salmon. The Coho are starting to show some size.
River crabbing in the lower Columbia remains good but since the estuary is inundated with boats, it will be hard to find a place of solitude to soak your crab gear. There are also certainly some softshell keeper-sized crab right now.
Further to the south, the south of Cape Falcon fishery targeting Coho is now closed. Look for the next opportunity in September for any salmon, given run predictions are holding true. Many Coho were left on the table. Sport anglers may get some additional opportunity given this fact, for the upcoming September fishery.
Nehalem Bay remains mediocre for salmon trollers this week. Stronger tides kept herring trollers around Wheeler, where persistent anglers could count on some opportunities. This fishery should taper after this week. Fall chinook likely won’t show in good numbers until mid-September.
Central & South Coast Reports – With the ocean hatchery coho season over as of August 9th, offshore boaters are looking forward to catching coho, fin-clipped or not starting September 9th.
Offshore Chinook fishing remains open although results have been spotty. Good ocean crabbing helps tp make the trip worthwhile although sorting of softshells is necessary.
Catches of rockfish have been excellent out of central Oregon ports although ling cod have been a little harder to come by.
Tuna are being taken out of every port with some more productive than others. The distance required to find them has varied this week from 20 to 50 miles.
Razor clamming remains closed on the south coast despite the reopening of north coast beaches.
Ocean crabbing off the south coast is yielding large Dungeness which are mostly hard. Boats launching out of Winchester Bay have been returning with limits. Bay crabbing has also improved and some Chinook are being taken.
Coos Bay crabbing is good and Chinook catches have been improving here.
Catches of Chinook are sporadic but good at times for trollers in Rogue Bay. Occasionally, boaters will troll for hours, give up, then hear of a hot bite that occurs shortly after they’ve left for home. Lower Rogue water temperatures are still warm and nothing has changed to improve the poor results in the middle river. Springers and summer steelhead fishing is fair to good on the upper Rogue.
Bottom fishers out of the Port of Brookings have been scoring mostly limits of both a variety of rock fish and nice ling cod.
Central & Eastern – With the water temperature dropping a little, there are summer steelhead available on the Deschutes. Trout fishing has been slow to fair.
The tricky Metolius is fishing well thanks to naturally cooler water temperatures.
East Lake has been producing trout to fly anglers who are using a variety of patterns.
Odell Lake is producing fair to good number of kokanee to trollers. Anglers heading that way this weekend should be aware of a tournament scheduled for Saturday.
The City of Bend is this year’s location for the International Fly Fishing Fair which will be ongoing through Saturday, August 15th.
SW Washington Reports – Although there are some summer steelhead available in the Cowlitz, anglers targeting steelhead are more likely to encounter good fishing in Drano Lake and the Wind River fisheries. Drano Lake anglers were averaging more than a fish per rod but most were released as they were of wild origin.
Mainstem plunkers are taking a few steelhead on the current minus tide series. Some larger B-run fish are starting to show.