Portland, Oregon fishing guides fish year-round for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and walleye. Portland Oregon fishing guides not only fish near the city of Portland but also the scenic outskirts of the Willamette River, Sandy River, Clackamas River, and the mouth of the Deschutes River.
Fishing in the city of Portland can be awesome for Spring Chinook Salmon in the month of April and May. Each year Portland Oregon fishing guides target Spring Chinook from St Helens, Oregon all the way to Oregon City, Oregon.
Tactics change drastically between the mouth of the Willamette River, and all the way to the Oregon City Falls. At the mouth of the Willamette River, we fish with cut plug herring and triangle flashers at slow speeds trying to entice a salmon to bite. Farther up the river we tend to use more spinners with 360-degree flashers at higher trolling speeds. Water temp plays a big role in which tackle and bait we use.
After the salmon have moved through the river, most Portland Oregon fishing guides find themselves fishing in Oregon City for the remainder of the month of May. In Oregon City, we completely, change the way we target Spring Chinook. Back trolling and hover fishing cured salmon eggs with sand shrimp seems to be the best bet to catch Spring Chinook in this area. Back trolling is a technique used when fish are staging and hold up for short periods of time before migrating farther up the river. Oregon fishing guides will slowly back their boats down the river waiting for Spring Chinook to smell the bait and then find it and hopefully take a bite.
Around mid-May, Portland Oregon fishing guides often target Summer Steelhead that are just making their way in from the Columbia River. Summer Steelhead are an awesome fighting and often very acrobatic fish when you lay the hooks into them. Summer Steelhead, like Spring Chinook are also a great eating fish!
Portland Oregon fishing guides also target keeper size and over-sized sturgeon nearly year-round. Keeper sturgeon are between 38-45 inches while oversize sturgeon are generally 5 – 7 feet and sometimes reaching 9 feet! The best time to target sturgeon in the Willamette River is from March – June. Many days we target winter sturgeon for catch and release. The catch and release fishery for sturgeon in the Willamette is the finest in the world! You can easily hook 40 to 70 fish per day. Many of which are five foot or better sturgeon!
One of the favorite things Portland Oregon fishing guides like to fish for are walleye. Walleye are considered one of the best eating freshwater fish there are. We target walleye with light tackle while trolling the Willamette River. Generally, Walleye or only good to eat up to 25 inches. Any Walleye bigger than that we like to release them. We commonly find walleye in the Willamette River 5-10 lbs!
One thing is for certain, Portland Oregon fishing guides have plenty to fish for all through the year! Book your seats today for the best dates. See you on the water!
