Out in West Lane
Out of Florence, ocean salmon fishing has been good, and that abundance should be reflected in the bay fishing season that kicks off in August. West Lane County also has a number of small streams, mostly in the Siuslaw River basin, with fair to good populations of wild cutthroats.
Fed by groundwater and fueled entirely by precipitation, they are perfect for exploring and tossing a dry fly or small spinner. With cooler water and lower ambient air temperatures, far west creeks are holding up better than many small Cascade creeks and streams.
Falling valley reservoir levels limit access
At Army Corps-managed dams in the Willamette, system-wide reservoir capacity at the beginning of the dry season was about 33% below the target storage level needed for the dry summer months. That was due to last winter’s “snow drought.”
With little or no snowmelt feeding the tributaries, water managers now face a “double-whammy” – they’re forced to release reservoir water early to maintain minimum downstream environmental flows, leaving less reservoir water in storage for the peak of summer recreation season, and some reservoir boat landings may soon be, if not already, “unavailable.”
Low water suspends trout stocking
Sadly, even with reservoir releases, river streamflows across the southern Willamette basin remain well below normal seasonal baselines. The low flows have caused the ODFW to suspend fish stocking at many locations.
Water quality is the determining factor, streams and lakes in our region that still meet those requirements include: Alton Baker Canal, Clear Lake, Leaburg Lake, McKenzie River below Leaburg Dam, McKenzie River above Leaburg Dam, Salmon Creek, and Coast Fork of the Willamette River. For a more complete list, visit: myODFW.com/fishstocking.
Remember, to protect its populations of wild rainbow trout, the McKenzie has some special regulations. “All non-adipose fin-clipped trout must be released unharmed. Bait is allowed only from Hendricks Park/Wayside up to Forest Glen Boat Ramp, April 22 until Oct. 31. Starting Nov. 1, anglers may only use lures and artificial flies.”
The regulation applies to the entire length of the McKenzie River.
Good summer for steelhead
The 2026 Willamette Basin summer steelhead migration is edging up to near 10,000 fish – into the range where knowledgeable anglers begin to target them in the McKenzie and Middle Fork Willamette. On the Willamette, the summer run terminates at the base of Dexter Dam and the fish stack up. Over on the McKenzie, ODFW allows summer steelhead to range above Leaburg Dam, and they are not as easy to find.
Essentially an ocean migrating rainbow, in the river they quickly revert to their genetic heritage. You will often find a clutch of summer steelhead sitting right alongside a group of rainbow trout.
Spring salmon are also available in our local streams with better numbers than recent years. At about 32,000 salmon over the Willamette Falls, I have been impressed by the rate of the migration into July.
There should be plenty of Chinook around through the summer, and fishing should be fair to good below Leaburg Dam.
Environmental evolution
Salmonids require a minimum dissolved oxygen (DO) level of 6 to 7 parts per million (ppm) to maintain good health and activity. Between 7 and 11 ppm, they thrive, particularly in their early life stages, with far better survival and spawning success. Levels below 5 ppm cause severe stress; DO levels below 3 ppm are lethal. Bass, on the other hand, need about 5 ppm to survive and prefer 8 to 12 ppm for active, healthy growth.
They do become stressed and stop feeding when DO levels fall to 3 to 5 ppm, yet can generally withstand short-term heat-induced events that are fatal to salmonids – events that are becoming far more common and the reason why bass have increased in numbers and range across Oregon. I definitely believe that there is a place for bass in Oregon; sadly, they’re becoming invasive, dominating habitats and displacing salmonids – all enabled and facilitated by our warming climate.
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