Tualitin River

[Dakotan]

I live in Forest Grove and usually fish the Wilson River.....but I can't help but notice that the Tualitin River flows right by town. My brain tells me it looks like a big enough river to host a few salmon and steelhead. So what's the story? Has you ever tried it? If so, any luck? What kind of fish are in the river? Is it worth the effort? It looks like a difficult river to access because of all the blackberry bushes. Thanks for the input.
-Eric

[Bounty Hunter]

Mostly a warm water fishery now.

I think the state record black Crappie and catfish (not sure which kind) have come out of that river.

The local high school kids are the best resources for the hot fishing spots. (according to past posts).

[Bankbound]

I fished down there about 2 years ago in the city of tualatian. My buddies daughter wanter to go "Fwwising" so off we went. No fish just a day for lizzie and her daddy. I did see some kids fishing with frogs...yes live frogs, I know it's not really legal. They said they catch catfish and bass on then all the time. They were too young and having too good a time to stop them...So I'd guess I'd say frog patterns for the warmwater fish and GOOD LUCK finding steelies.

[Pirate]

I can actually walk to the river, so I thought it might be good for crawdads. graemlins/idea.gif They have a Tualatin Crawdad Festival too. Someone told me you can catch crawdads, but you might not want to eat them because of polution. graemlins/berry.gif I never have tried it because of that. :depressed:

[Small Fry]

The Tualatin runs through my back pasture. The used to have a run of silvers but quick the planting back in the late 80s or early 90s. There may be a few left but I think there few and far between.

Now as far as cuts go!!!! Early May is the best time. If you have access to a small boat or canoe float worms under down logs or brush. Fish off the mouth of Dairy creek or Rock creek both creeks have good runs. Check the reg's. My biggest cut 14" came out of the Tualatin many years ago. Crawdads are plentiful and ok to eat. We catch them several time a year and boil em up. I prefer springtime while the water is still cool. If anyone ever wants to put some traps in let me know.

Just my 2 cents

[Mad Mikey]

Wasn't that run of silvers bound for Gales Creek??? It's been too long for me to remember.
I do remember every wide spot on the highway from Doorman Pond up to the Timber Junction filled with rigs during steelhead season back when they planted them in Gales Creek.
Apparently a few fish still come up in the Winter. a few years ago in March I had a couple "borrowed" kids with me and was fishing them at Doorman. I walked acrost the road for a minute and spotted a pair of steelhead in one of the small holes, neat to see, plus they weren't getting boogered by anyone.
A local once told me Gales used to have a wild run of steelhead and silvers, don't know about Chinook though.

[letsfish]

I've lived here for ...well a long time. And took advantage of the river access.Would fish nightly in the late spring and often in early summer. As things warm up the irrigation drains the river, the flow is even more like syrup.It gets a "bloom" of sorts and that algea further takes the oxygen out of the water. Spring I found was great for crappie(April-May)Bluegill in Early summer(You may get a "surprise" warmouth!).This year I puit my canoe in the river for the first time in years. It was Late October, a nice sunny day, I had a blast catch perch.Couldn't get a crappie or bluegill.Bass are in there learn to target them.

As far as salmon and steelhead:
They have no business spawning in that mud, but Dairy creek, Gales Creek, Rock Creek. All should hold native runs I know Gales creek does(March run). One journalist, that use to write for This Week was a Forest Grove native and speculated on running plugs from a boat at the mouth of creek.This is before the more sensitive climate towards native runs.
Coho use to run up the river I don't know if they still do. I had a friend who once did quite well casting spinners below the dam at LO.
Cutthroat :
Like the previous post there is some nice cuts in the river ask the natives old enough to know about it. In short they work up the creeks to spawn in late spring. Those creeks don't have to be large.
Twenty or so years ago I was fascinated with checking out the river and found some of the prettiest trout water on the Tualitin. The river was tree lined, with small stoned bottom. It was from the area of about Cherry Grove upstream. The upstream part is difficult, because of the private ownership. There is a falls up there called Lee Falls really pretty(was on the cover of a phonebook once). Was the place to go in the sixties and hang out I understand, even got to be a hippie hangout. Of course, people brought trash and the property owner shut it down. I understand upstream from that is a hike and more falls that few have seen or heard of. Since you live close to that part of the stream it would behoove you to check out that stretch of the river you never know what you will find out. Ask folks in the area regarding accessibility.

[pearl]

It's been about 3 or 4 years but I had taken my son down to the river in the Tigard area just about this time of year. We were just enjoying a sunny day throwing spinners and plunking for carp ( wanted young guppy boy to earn how to play a fish ) and it happened. A bright winter steelhead about 7 or 8 lbs on a spinner.
We did some bass fishing on the Tualatin 20 years ago.
I have also heard of some pretty good cut throat fishing ???
Might be worth exploring in a canoe or kayak