Oregon

Fishing in Oregon

With its lakes, rivers, streams and bays, the state of Oregon presents itself as another fantastic fishing destination in the USA. All the fishing destinations are easily accessible, ideal for families, and easy to try hands on, making fishing in Oregon, a memorable experience.

Top Regions and Hot Spots Included

Coffenbury Lake

Northwest

Coffenbury Lake, Oregon’s most popular dune lake, Big Creek Reservoirs 1 and 2, Lost Lake, Veronia Pond, Hebo Lake, Cleawox Lake, Cape Mears Lake, the Oregon Dune Lakes – Alder, Buck, Carter and Siltcoos, Cullaby Lake, and Tahoe Lake, are well-stocked with rainbow trout, and hold resident yellow perch, bluegills, and brown bullhead, largemouth and smallmouth bass, and steelheads, thus providing high quality fishery. The North Fork Nehalem River is filled with Chinook salmon, coho and wild steelheads in their hatching seasons. Wilson River is a producer of Chinook salmon, summer and winter steelhead and resident cutthroat trout. Yaquina Bay holds perch, herring, sturgeon, fall Chinook, clams and year-round rockfish and crabs.

Tackle: Use larger spoons and heavier line of 10 lb. for steelhead. A common angling technique includes a small round piece of powerbait with a weight about 2 feet above the hook. Small lures and jigs are effective too. Floating baits suspended off the bottom, or baits like worms or salmon eggs suspended beneath a small bobber is useful for trout fishing. Use a 2-3 foot leader above a sliding weight with a pea- to marble-size piece of bait and a small hook. Casting lures like spinners and spoons will also be effective. Worm and bobber, jigs, rubber grubs, and bass lure work well for warm-water fish. Jig with a small bare hook and yarn are best for herring. Leadhead jigs with plastic worms are best for rockfish. Shrimp, mussels, clams, sand crabs, anchovies, herring and squid can all be used as bait for all bay fisheries. Chinook anglers prefer herring as bait.

Southwest

Diamond Lake for renowned trout fishery, several ponds of Denman Wildlife Area for largemouth bass, bluegill, black crappie, green sunfish, carp, brown bullhead, Howard Prairie Reservoirs with stocked fingerling trout, Selmac Lake, Cooper Creek Reservoir, Loon Lake, Tenmile Lake, Saunders Lake, Empire Lake, Fish Lake, Emigrant Lake, and Expo Pond stocked with rainbow trout, and good amount of largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie and brown bullhead catfish are the main lakes of the region. North Fork Rogue River filled with wild rainbow, cutthroat, brown and brook trout, Rouge River with Chinook and steelheads, Umpqua River with smallmouth bass,

Tackle: For Diamond lake trout, trolling is the best method. While anchoring near Salient Creek or Lake Creek, use flies like wooly-buggers, or black ants or powerbait. A simple technique, while fishing in Denman Wildlife Area Ponds, is to use a size 10, 12, or 14 hook baited with worms below a bobber. Casting jigs and small lures is also effective. During hot weather, lead-head jigs, deep running plugs and plastic worms are effective for bass, when they seek deeper, cooler water. For smallmouth bass and shad in Umpqua River, use light gear of 7 ft. rod, 4 to 6 lb. test line. Catch fish with molded plastic worms, or grubs, and baits such as grubs and worms, spinners, poppers or flies, or top water crankbaits. Weight your line with a split shot or a bullet head sinker or two. For steelhead and salmon, use medium to heavy gear with crookies, eggs, spoons, beads, and spin and glows in pink and orange.

Willamette Zone

Fall Creek, Detroit Lake, Henry Hagg Lake, Timothy Lake, pond 3 of the 7 St. Louis Ponds, Foster and Green Peter Reservoirs, Waverly and Freeway Lakes, Alton-Baker Canoe Canal, Timber Lake, North Fork Reservoir, Benson Lake, East and West Salish Ponds, and Walter Wirth Lake stocked with rainbow trout and native cutthroat trout, fingerling rainbow, koknee, Chinook, smallmouth and largemouth bass, yellow perch, bluegills, crappies, bullheads, cutthroats, crayfish, and brook are the major angling attraction, and so also are all the St. Louis Ponds which hold crappie, redear and green sunfish, and channel catfish.

Tackle: For trout, cast and drift when in current; fly fish nymphs on a floating line, or cast dry flies to rising trout. Common techniques for kokanee include jigging with buzz bombs or kokanee jigs and trolling using a flasher with a spinner behind it and a piece of worm or some white corn on the hooks. Crayfish can be caught with traps baited with fish or chicken. Panfish can be caught with bobber and small baited hook or jig.

Central

South and North Twin, East, Davis, Big Lava, and Odell Lakes, and Ochoco, Prineville, Rock Creek and Pinehollow Reservoirs stocked with rainbow trout, and holding natural redband trout, black crappie, largemouth and smallmouth bass, brown bullhead, Atlantic salmon present wonderful fisheries. Crooked River has abundant rainbow trout and whitefish. Lower Deschutes Rivers are full of rainbow, summer steelheads, and spring and fall Chinook and Upper Deschutes holds rainbow and brown trout and mountain whitefish.

Tackle: Powerbait, spinners, small lures and flies are popular in South Twin Lake. Jigging with some cover is the best method for crappie. Crooked River is fantastic for fly fish.

Lake of the Woods

Southeast

Lake of the Woods, Anthony, Yellowjacket, Fish, and Miller Lakes, Spring Creek and Willow Valley Reservoir stocked with rainbow, fingerling rainbow and brown trout and kokanee, and with natural largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappie, yellow perch, brown bullhead       Chewaucan River too is full of rainbow and some brown trout. Brownleee Reservoir has smallmouth bass, crappie and catfish in large amounts. Gerber Reservoir has excellent population of yellow perch, white crappie, largemouth bass and brown bullheads.

Tackle: Kokanee are generally caught by jigging in the deep or by trolling. Brown trout are best caught by trolling lures resembling available prey species. For warm-water fishery, standard techniques like bobber and worms and jigs work best. Soft plastic lures imitating worms, grubs and frogs work well for largemouth bass.

Northeast

McNary Channel Ponds, Morgan, Jubilee, Wallowa, and Magon Lakes, Hat Rock Pond, and Spring Creek are with stocked rainbows and natural bluegill, crappie, bullhead and largemouth and smallmouth bass, and kokanee. John Day River gives abundant smallmouth bass, and steelheads, and is open to anglers year round. Wallowa River, from Rock Creek downstream, gives steelhead smolts which fail to migrate and also wild rainbow trout, bull trout and whitefish.

Tackle: Bait fishing is popular method and standard tackle includes power bait and lures. Kokanee and rainbows are caught from boats with a gang spinner trailed with a wedding ring or other small, baited spinner is most effective. Bank angling with bait and bobber, or pitching spinners is fruitful for trout. The most preferred method for smallmouth bass in John Day River is to cast rubber grubs threaded on lead-head jigs or top-water lures. In the Wallowa River, fly fishing is popular and caddis hatches are abundant, so caddis nymph imitations give more catch, however elk hair caddis dry flies can be more fun. In early season use worms, while grasshopper in later. Brass spinners work well.

With so much of abundance of water bodies and fishes, you surely must have been excited to go for fishing in Oregon!