Willamette River fishing - Portland Oregon, home to some of the best urban fishing for sturgeon, salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The Willamette's sturgeon fishing and spring Chinook salmon fishing is some 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

01/02/2012

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