The Oregon Department for Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has kicked off its annual trout stocking program. The hatchery tankers, filled with feisty rainbow trout, have hit the road, making the rounds like they do every year, initially to small- and medium-sized water bodies all up and down the Willamette Valley, along their way planting trout that you can catch and keep. A reminder, river stocking begins in late April but most valley rivers are open to year-round catch-and-release trout fishing.
Locally, in the southern part of the valley, Alton Baker Park Canal will get 1,250 and the Junction City Pound 1,500 fresh trout. Those were scheduled for delivery the week of Jan. 26. Row River Nature Park in Cottage Grove will see its first trout stocking of the year during the week of Feb. 2, and is scheduled to receive about 1,000 rainbows. Then, through the balance of the spring, into early summer, all three resources are regularly scheduled to get supplemental releases.
I will refer you back to the Nov. 19, 2025 edition of The Chronicle. When I wrote about all three locations, I gave a detailed description of the resources and how best to access the fisheries. For additional trout stocking information, visit MyODFW.com: or visit: https://myodfw.com/fishing/species/trout/stocking-schedule
Mark your calendar
The first Free fishing weekend of 2026 is scheduled for Feb. 14-15, which is Saturday & Sunday of President’s Day weekend. I’ll take a deeper dive into some of the possibilities in my next Angler’s Log. The number of species you can harvest with no need for a fishing license or other harvest tags are numerous and include species that are considered culinary delicacies.
Future Free Fishing Weekends in 2026 include June 6-7 and finally on Nov. 27-28, which is Friday-Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend.
Winter steelhead update
The steelhead season of winter 2025/2026 looked promising in the first days of the year when steelhead first started to appear in mid-December. Back then, rivers all up and down the Oregon coast were flush with water from a series of atmospheric rivers that had swept across our region in December and continued into the first days of January. For the next couple of weeks, the winter steelhead fishing was “good” about everywhere. But after what has become an extended mid-winter drought, catch rates have plummeted significantly in the low, cold and clear river conditions.
Email: [email protected]
