Oregon fishing and BS

Do you mean the Willamette is bigger water as opposed to Clackamas /Sandy? I saw alot of boats this past weekend off 205 and thought they were targeting summer steelhead. Inassume they are after Chinook then? Thanks for the info. Im determined to get my first Chinook or Steelhead.

 

Correct; the lower Willamette is MUCH larger than the Clack and Sandy. There is about a 99.99% chance those boats were targeting Springers. The numbers over the falls is quite low which means the Chinook are still kegged in the lower sections of the Columbia and Willamette. Could be the terrible rain year or just chance. Typically the falls numbers are higher this time of year. I was hammering Chinook over 150 river miles from Portland this time last year. To date there are 0 Chinook in my local hatchery trap.

 

Planned to order a new boat (Lowe 22 bay) this summer but with supply chains jacked decided to put off till least the fall. Decided to grab an xi5 trolling motor for the next boat and get some use out of it on the little Western for this summer. Cant wait to Spotlock and think its gonna rock for Kokanee. Wireless pedal and remote definitely is a cool feature .... technology these days

 

Spent the day at Estacada lake and north fork today…

So here’s a report

Estacada lake SUCKS… didn’t get one bite from my pontoon boat…. Talk to five other boats with the same report except for one had one bite the whole entire morning

Wandered my way up to North Fork left the pontoon boat on the truck… bank fished it was so crazy with bites I couldn’t even keep the pole in the water long enough… 15 fish in hour and I missed a bunch… chartreuse power bait garlic scent

also this was the Maiden voyage testing out the trolling motor… Fishfinder will be installed before my camping trip in June

 

I was going to do Estacada this week, too bad didnt pan out for you. Weve had really hit and miss luck there but usually early in season its been really good for me and the fam. Its the spot I like to hit when I can kick off work few hours early, even if the fishing isnt always great. Most our fish come from the upper 1/2 of the lake for what its worth. Super Dupers and other spoon type baits generally seem to find us more fish there than weddingrings and spinners.

Anyone got any Shad yet? Friends from up north are coming down to fish them Thurs-Sat vis kayak at the falls, thinking ill join at least one day.

 

because it was my first trip with the trolling motor I didn’t wanna head super far away from the launch at McIver park

 

Makes total sense, pontoons definitely don't move back to the launch like a kayak if you push it too far and have a motor issue.

A lot of guys will fish deep around the dam for salmon and steelhead too later in summer. Ive had fee friends pick them up trolling trout but havnt seen lot of success with those I do see trolling the tight circles in deep water.

 

I caught a bunch near the mcIver ramp last year but this was my first time back with boat

 

Awesome. What time of day was it? Were you catching trout?
I was thinking of taking my boat out to north fork on Monday.

 

I got to north fork around lunch time… yea catching trout… very little boats out there… you should kill it

 

Humid wet days make for really good fly fishing this time of year. Maybe because it gets all of the other boats off the water

 

Well I’m counting down the days till I have over East!!

Thursday I’ll be over at prineville reservoir for a few days before heading down to Diamond lake on Monday afternoon. Then on Thursday the 24th I’ll be heading back north to either Timothy or pine hollow to finish off my yearly fishing/camping trip.

Well pontoon is pretty much ready. Fish finder ✅ transducer ✅ trolling motor and battery ✅ taller seat and moved forward ✅ and multiple pole holders ✅

@Captqc I'm tagging you here so you can share in the fishing convo’s

 

Like your additions! What length is your toon?

 

10ft

 

how was your NF trip??

 

Girlfriend and I are looking to get into more dispersed camping this summer. We currently have a standard 4 person tent and all other camping essentials. Hopefully I can leverage a RTT eventually.

Does anyone have any recommendations for dispersed camping areas in the Bend area? We are planning to get out there this weekend. I've been scoping Deschutes National Forest on Gaia and it seems like there could be a lot of spots. Am I overthinking it? Should I just get out there and see what we find?

 

thanks for asking. My wife and I were both too hung over to go boating so we didn’t go out. I did however pull a few smallies out of the tualatin / Willamette confluence today. I was targeting trout (attempting a last gasp) and using a chartreuse trout magnet , I think the rain enduced muddy water made the yellow attractive to bass.

 

This question might be be better asked here

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bend-oregon.405047/

 

My brother and I are still going after springers on the Willamette. They are late again just like last year.

Got this one a few weeks back. Last two trips out we got skunked, going again soon. Did good for trout at Frog Lake with the granddaughter the other day.

 

Well Brownlee isnt what it usually is this year but still a great time witht the Kiddo and my Toyota-Freek Buddy this week. Icing on cake that I viewed aome properties and found my old man a place to retire to. Seems I have a home base for fishing/hunting now until I can find my own place asap.

Crappie were nearly non-existent even for the best local anglers. I pulled one while targeting and one on a crankbait. Catfish seemed plentiful although for the first time I didnt really spend time targeting them with house shopping and all but we got them all bass fishing on variety of hard baits and plastics. Fish were definitely better quality with several bass over 17" and quite a few 12-14" as opposed to the usually plentiful 6-10".