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Willamette River fishing - Portland Oregon,
home to some of the best urban sturgeon fishing, salmon fishing in the
Pacific Northwest. The Willamette river's sturgeon fishing and spring
Chinook salmon fishing is some
04/07/2012 |
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Interested in a guided Willamette River fishing trip?
Call us at
The Willamette River in Portland Oregon is home to some of the best
fishing on the west coast.
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of the best found anywhere. The Willamette flows north from its
headwaters high in the cascade mountains and Oregon's coast range to
Portland where it enters the Columbia river. The section below the
falls at Oregon City is where most of the fishing takes place. The
lower Willamette as we call it is a big river with varied scenery
along its banks. Upriver near the falls its beautiful houses that
line the river banks, it then winds through downtown Portland with
the skyscrapers and urban housing along its banks finally ending up
in the Portland harbor industrial area before entering the Columbia
in northwest Portland. The Sturgeon fishing is for both keeper
sturgeon and giant sturgeon in the Willamette. Because of its
popularity the keeper sturgeon fishing has a tightly regulated
season with only a limited number of open dates for catching and
keeping a sturgeon. Catch and release fishing is allowed when not
open for keeping fish and often is better fishing without the large
crowds that open keeper days bring. The best fishing for sturgeon is
from Nov to May for the keeper sized fish and May, June, Oct for the
giant sturgeon. See video for a big Willamette River giant sturgeon
caught with Willamette River Fishing Guide Dennis Hull
The Willamette is home to large runs of Spring Chinook salmon
locally known as Springers or Spring Kings. These salmon are without a doubt the finest eating salmon
found anywhere. A typical Springer weighs on average around 15-20
pounds but they often go over 30lbs and if your real lucky they can
get a lot bigger than that. The spring salmon fisherman start trying
for the first salmon of the year right after the New Year with the
first fish of the year usually caught around the end of January or
early February. Most Willamette River Fishing Guides start fishing
for the spring chinook in March. The Salmon really start to arrive in good numbers in
March with April and early May being the peak of the run most years.
Many different methods are used to catch Willamette River Spring
Chinook Salmon with the most popular being trolling with herring or
prawn spinners or bouncing a cured prawn along shelfs or structure
along the bottom. Often while fishing for spring salmon steelhead
are caught, see photo to the right of two salmon and a summer
steelhead, they finished the day with about 15 big sturgeon caught
and released. The Willamette river is truly a unique fishery, where
else can you catch salmon, steelhead and giant sturgeon all in one
place and right in downtown of a major city. With the wide variety
of techniques used and different areas to fish its always best to
speed up your learning curve to fish with a qualified guide - we can
help