Willamette River fishing guides target mostly Spring Chinook and sturgeon on the Willamette River during the winter and spring months of the year.  After the Columbia River Spring Chinook season closes in early April, the Willamette River starts producing great numbers of Spring Chinook.  We target Spring Chinook on the Willamette River from the mouth of Willamette slough in St Helens Oregon, all the way through Portland and into Oregon City Oregon.

Tactics change drastically between the mouth of the Willamette River, into Portland, 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 Willamette River 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 by Willamette River fishing guides 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, Willamette River fishing guides, and Portland Oregon fishing guides often target Summer Steelhead that are making their way in from the Columbia River. Summer Steelhead are an awesome fighting fish and are often very acrobatic when you lay the hooks into them.  Summer Steelhead, like Spring Chinook are also a great eating fish!

Willamette River fishing guides also target keeper size and over-sized sturgeon nearly year-round. Keeper sturgeon are between 38-45 inches while oversize sturgeon is 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 Willamette River 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, Willamette River Fishing guides have plenty to fish for all through the year! Book your seats today for the best dates. See you on the water!