Willamette River Guided Fishing Trips
Next, to the Columbia, the Willamette River is the largest river in Oregon offering some of the best fishing that the state has to offer. The Willamette has been known for Sturgeon, Catfish, Salmon, Steelhead, Shad, Bass and more. This is an excellent fishery and Columbia River Fishing Adventures is one of the best Willamette River Fishing Guides in the region has to offer.
Willamette River Sturgeon Fishing
We spend quite a bit of time every year at the mouth of the Willamette targeting 6’ class white sturgeon. These fish are hard fighting monsters that will give you the fight of a lifetime. Keeper Sturgeon can be found on the Willamette upstream from Willamette Falls where retention of sturgeon with a Fork length of 38 to 54 inches may be retained.
Willamette River Salmon Fishing
The Willamette offers up three separate runs of salmon every year with the emphasis primarily being on the Spring Chinook season. Fall Chinook on the Willamette doesn’t get quite as much hype, but there are still enough in number to make it worth the trip, however, fall chinook are not known as well for their table fodder as the renowned spring Chinook which is high fat content and provides excellent quality meat.
Willamette River Coho Fishing
The Willamette also receives a strong run of Coho remnant of a hatchery program that ended in the 1990’s. Often huge numbers of Coho Salmon head over Willamette Falls and branch out to various tributaries. State and federal fishery managers want to tell us that hatchery fish can’t sustain and here’s an example that has managers totally perplexed. As many as 20,000 Coho have gone over Willamette Falls in the last 20 years and anglers above the falls have begun to learn where to target these fish. Again, because of a plethora of other fall fishing opportunities most fishermen, myself included look to fish elsewhere during the time that most Coho return.