Tualatin River... Worth the effort?

[Fishybill]

A client of mine is in the process of purchasing a large parcel of land in Forest Grove and on the Tualatin. My involvment in the transaction has landed me "lifetime access and fishing rights". I've even been offered the lumber to build a little pier. I no squat about this river except that it does get some steel and some silvers. Should I be excited?

[Fishybill]

Originally posted by Fishybill:
A client of mine is in the process of purchasing a large parcel of land in Forest Grove and on the Tualatin. My involvment in the transaction has landed me "lifetime access and fishing rights". I've even been offered the lumber to build a little pier. I know squat about this river except that it does get some steel and some silvers. Should I be excited?

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[fishnpray]

Fishy-

Ummm...heh. The Tualatin is a bit of a running joke on this board. To tell you the truth, I'm sure it does get it's share of steelhead, but the only real fishing I've heard of anyone doing on it is for warmwater species (ex-bass), or cutts up high.

-Luis

[Gus Orviston]

Steelhead close by would be exiting, and yes the Tualatin, did and does get some fish. I have caught them up at Cherry Grove where the river looks a whole lot different, more like a coastal stream. Not sure how you would target them down stream from there. Is there a pool or a current break you can fish? Heck, don't even know if it is legal to fish anymore, check the regs.

If it is legal I would try, but even in its day I don't think the run was strong. I am sure somebody around knows the numbers. ODFW might even have some guesstimates on run size.

gus

[Wreckless]

The big "T" as we call it, can be a good fishery for beautiful native cutthroat. Depending on how hard you want to work. I believe it's still a no bait, catch and release fishery. I've seen Salmon spawning in October while pheasant hunting in Patton Valley and there used to be some steelhead, but it can be a fun trout fishery.

As far as a "pier" I think the floods would wash out anything that wasn't pretty solid.

My $.02

[Norski]

When I was a teenager many years ago we would skip school and go up to Cherry Grove and drive up to the falls, fish for a hour or too and than go skinny dippen.
We would catch trout but nothing in the line of steelheads.
I now fish with a guy from Cherry Grove that makes a trip over here and fishes the Deschutes, and he said they have a cable accross the road and only fire personal have a key to it.
Now 20 years ago we went there to look around and even than there was a gate, but you can walk in but as I remember it was a hike to the falls, but well worth it as you will be the only ones there, but wate it is the year 2004 not 1965.

[letsfish]

Depends on where the property is .... like Gus said the Cherry Grove area is beautiful trout water and up from that is Lee Falls, an old hippie hangout but a really beautiful short drop in the river. More small stream fishing above(though I haven't personally done it).Basicallly above Cerry Grove is off limits to public, but if your client happed on a piece of this water you would do well to pay it some attention.
A half mile or less below Cherry grove the river quickly settles into the Tualatin that has a muddy bottom and almost no drop in elevation which equals poor water clarity but full of a wide variety fish. From cutt's, to catfish to bass, and all the warm water species in between.I shot carp in the Gaston area in early spring.If you hunt it may be fine duck goose land. Scout it out and have fun!

[SalmonJeff]

maybe if you like crawdads. I would see about the pheasant hunting rather then the fishing it is pretty dead for any salmon and steelhead. I know of a guy who caught a steelhead about 15 years ago but other then that it is pretty much crawdad water.

[NorthRiverRick]

I used to live south of FG very near the Tualatin. Every winter it floods badly in the area you indicated, just like last week. The wood and labor for a dock would be awasted effort, I assure you.

Steelhead and salmon fishing would be difficult in that stretch of river but, as mentioned, the patton valley or Cherry Grove areas would be another story.

Native cutthroats are plentiful and some get to be a fairly good size. Early in the year is always better. The brush along the banks is thick in most places and gets worse as the summer progresses. Try spinners for best success.

Crawdad tails used to be a preferred bait and worked better than anything else. Someone previously mentioned that it may be bait restricted, check your regs.

Speaking of Crawdads...this is a super zipperlip crawdad hotspot. If you use them for bait or like to eat them, get those traps in the water.

Regards,
Rick

[Paddlefish]

Great, fun river, but you may be disappointed if you're looking forward to posting pictures of chrome salmonids.

The river is open for trout, catch and release only, no bait, from late May through October. And if you ever want an opportunity to catch, photograph, and release a gorgeous example of a cutthroat, this system has some beauties.

There is no legal salmon or steelhead fishing. (Here's hoping that the upper Tualatin and Gales Creek regain enough of their earlier healthy run status to allow, at least, catch and release steelheading. :smile: )

A buddy of mine attempted to navigate the Tualatin from end-to-end some years ago. In the Forest Grove-to-Hillsboro stretch he reported half-mile-long log jams. Tough paddling.

It's still a great river, though you'll never mistake it for the McKenzie or Nestucca. Too much accumulated runoff and silt, and only a few inches of drop between Hillsboro and Tualatin. Plenty of warm water opportunities from F.G. downstream, as said before, and not too much traffic.

I think the most successful, long-lived docks seem to be the floating ones which can adjust to the water height variations.

And the crawdaddies? I think you could fish all year for bass with only a diving plug in crawdad colors (ranging from white through yellow and orange and brown to black. ) Every bass on which I've ever performed an autopsy was jammed strictly with little fresh water lobsters. And, yes, Virginia, there are still guys doing commercial crawdad trapping on the Tualatin.

And, if you can tear yourself away from a "catch fish" mentality, (I know; it's hard :depressed: ,) it's a great river for paddling along at dusk, passing within a few feet of great blue herons and startling big tail-slapping beavers.

[Boat Monkey]

I used to live in Tualatin and you may want to do some research on the web regarding pollution levels in the river. Very high nitrogen levels since the entire basin of farm land drains into the river which is pretty sluggish and doesn't flush itself well. They also import the crawdads for the crawdad festival.

[Pitch Pocket]

The lower Tualatin is not a pristeen stream by any means. The slow meandering path through farmland has given it a reputation for a slow moving cess pool. However, in the last decade, the phosphate restrictions and attempts to control runoff from farm properties has cleaned it up quite a bit. It isn't full of algae like it used to be. You can actually see the bottom from the 9th hole at Tualatin during the summer. Plenty of boats fishing the lower river around Cook Park.

[h20dog]

Back in the late 70s and early 80s I caught lots of steel in the Tualitin from the lower falls down into mid Patton valley. It was usually Feb-April. Even got a couple summers.

[Billy Tillamook]

Good for soft mouth brown trout :shocked:

Isn't there a big brown trout hatchery on the river in Hilsburo?

[YaHoeeFishOn]

Scoggins creek , Farmers creek and Gales creek all flow into Tually ? In high school we had a kegger on dairy creek , Where one guys had a steelhead in his car that he caught before party.

[YaHoeeFishOn]

Originally posted by YaHoeeFishOn:
Scoggins creek , Farmers creek , Rock Creek and Gales creek all flow into Tually ? In high school we had a kegger on dairy creek , Where one guys had a steelhead in his car that he caught before party.

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[Fishybill]

So much information! Thanks everyone!

[Fishybill]

Any opinions about the realtive safety of eating fish, including warm water species from this riverin the Forest Grove area? Should I plan on catch and release of everything? Something about angling toxic critters that just doens't float my boat.