Willamette Report 4/3

[BrionLutz]

Out doing a scouting expedition for some fishing trips this weekend.

Launched at Oregon City. Went up river a bit. Saw 1 caught on the bank and one on the river. River was still pretty muddy up there.

Cruised down to Sellwood Bridge and it was HOT...must have been 30-40 nice fish pulled in in the AM, 7-11AM.

Looked like cut plug herring was the hot ticket, 18" lead and 4' leader line.

[J Archer]

30-40 fish?? seem like a lot of fish to me. how many boats?? :whazzup:

[BrionLutz]

Boatless,

Seemed like even more to me since we didn't get any <grin>. I personally saw 14 of them caught in about 1 hour. The folks with fish in their boats confirmed another 10. Two boats went and dropped folks off because they were limited out.

On the number of boats, I'd say maybe 25?

It was pretty hot and heavy with the boats trolling fender to fender in a small area that seemed to be producing, a shelf about 18-20 feet deep.

It died off after 11AM though folks were pecking away from 11AM to Noon...maybe about 5 more.

There was another group of boats down river from us. They had to see us catching fish and they didn't move up so I'm guessing they were catching further down river also.

Brion

[FINZ]

All right. See you out there Sunday. Fish On.

[BrionLutz]

Finz,

All right. See you out there Sunday. Fish On. <font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">You and 1,000 other people &lt;grin&gt;. We were laughing that that spot was going to be impossible come the weekend.

It was concentrated bumper bumps in horrendous weather, rain, hail on a Thursday...can't image what a weekend would be like. I'd suggest full body armor.

Good thing is that indicated the fish are running pretty strong up the Willamette.

Brion

[ampersat]

oh you're just saying that in hopes of driving everyone to the willamette this weekend so you can get the last few days of the columbia to yourself.

it's still pretty slow up around the mouth of the clack although i've heard they've had some good days. still no nookie for me though.

[J Archer]

Well I guess I will need to get a ride on the river for monday then. I hope by then the bite is still on. hope to see some of you guys out there.

i'll be the guy floating on his back fishing &lt;grin&gt; back trolling.. :laugh: :laugh: :grin:

[BrionLutz]

[ 04-03-2003, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: BrionLutz ]

[BrionLutz]

Ampersat,

oh you're just saying that in hopes of driving everyone to the willamette this weekend so you can get the last few days of the columbia to yourself.<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">.

You sly devil...you are on to me!

I'm lobbying for a last shot on the upper Columbia on Saturday. The 20 fish/126 boats at Chinook Landing seemed light though the Ifisher's seem to be slaying them near Government Island.

There was a mini-hogline of about 6 boats right at the mouth of the Clackamas. Looked like a road-block they were so close together...all good friends I guess.

They didn't look too active. We passed them a couple times during the day and didn't see any fish signs.

What's was the tide at Sellwood bridge today from 7-11AM?

Brion

[ampersat]

i looked at the willamette tides as soon as i saw this post. at 7am, it looked like it was cresting and starting to run out. 11am was the midpoint of the outgoing tide. couldn't see a blip on the graph that would've explained why the bite died off at that point.

maybe they just caught all the fish??

[BrionLutz]

Ampersat,

That makes sense...the bite was from high slack to mid-tide.

My guess is that the fish repositioned themselves as the current and level changed...but where did those crafty critters go?

I noticed some of the Ifisher's speculating on the upriver bite and how early (high tide?) the fish were shallow and then moved out as the tide went out.

Where are the numbers for fish going over Willamette Falls?

Brion

[SnoSldr]

Is this for real??? :whazzup: :shocked: :whazzup:

[Space]

I will confirm the Sellwood report. Wednesday I was on the shelf at 3:30 with 7 other boats. There were 10 fish caught by 4:45. I had 2 keepers, 1 with a fin and 2 more take downs on Prawns. Today (Thursday)by 6:30 a.m one boat with five guys in it had four fish in the boat on Prawns. Things got hot in a hurry and the shelf loaded up. I then left to troll across from Willamette Park and landed three 22# beauties on hole herring. We had two other take downs on Prawns. Lot's of boats and fish aplenty. SPACE FISH.

[Steelie Ben]

Did anyone make it up to Meldrum Bar? If so how were the bankbound people doing? I was gonna go and fish the C on saturday and maybe meldrum sunday if the water keeps dropping.
SB

[FM2]

ok, everyone go to the milky willamette and pass up the last few days on the columbia :rolleyes: :rolleyes: just go look at the water and see how crappy it is, the cr is HOT! :grin:

[BrionLutz]

FM2,

ok, everyone go to the milky willamette and pass up the last few days on the columbia just go look at the water and see how crappy it is, the cr is HOT! <font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">.

I'm lobbying for the Columbia on Saturday but I'd have to say, I couldn't imagine any spot on the CR being as hot as the action we saw Thursday on the Willamette.

40 fish, 25 boats in 4 hours. Granted that's not an official ODFW checker number but pretty close.
What spots on the CR do you think are that hot?

Last Saturday Chinook Landing official ODFW number was 20 fish for 126 boats.

I'm going to look around for spot near the mouth of the Willamette

On the water clarity, it seemed a bit clearer down near Sellwood, the Clackamas water is clear and the sediment seems to fall out a bit on the Willamette from the Clackamas down to Sellwood.

Folks I was fishing with thought the Willamette would be getting clearer and clearer so Sunday when the curtain comes down on the upper CR, it should be good.

The fish are there in the Willamette and that's good news.

Brion

[FM2]

Brion :wink: :wink: :wink: :grin:

[BrionLutz]

FM@,

Brion :wink: :wink: :wink: :grin: <font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Hmm...I can't find those co-ordinates on my map...what spot on the CR is that? &lt;grin&gt;.

Brion

[greenbuttskunk]

I'm hitting the W in about 40 minutes. Got a call from a buddy this morning who's first words were "FISH ON" Maybe I'll have pictures of chrome to show you all on monday.