Fishing in Oregon and Washington State

[Angler204fx]

My wife and I are thinking about leaving South Florida, which has been our birth home and relocating to Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington. I fished here all of my life and own a 20ft CC. I would appreciate some input about boating and fishing in that region of the country, both river/lakes and the ocean. Thanks!! Andy

[bobber_boy]

In the ocean there is salmon, chinook and coho, halibut, tuna, lingcod, black bass; you could fish for any of these with your 20' boat, we fish a Parker 21cc and a Northriver 23' sled, we have taken both out 30 miles for tuna and halibut. If you chose portland, you can fish the Willamette and Clackamas for steelhead, salmon, trout, sturgeon. Also, the Columbia has a salmon run, steelhead, sturgeon. There is a lot to fish for up here. Some of the sturgeon can reach 15+ feet! In Washington there is a lot of boating around the seattle area, and the San juan islands is a great place to cruise. The willamette in portland offers a lot of boating adventures.

[81 CC SEAOX 23']

If your into ocean fishing here in Oregon you need a more covered type boat. Even the sled here for the rivers have front covers and dodgers to keep the cold and water off you and the boat. More than just a few are cabin boats whether the back is covered like a pilot house or open with no hatch but closed. My boat is a typical Pacific North West Pilot House throughout Oregon, Washington and Alaska. You may want to go out on a few day trips to check out the type of boats here. Do a bit of searches at dealerships and notice the differences between the boat shows and the type of boats represented at each location. Good luck and nice change for the better in my opinion. We moved from here in 1988 but still travel here and just bought another piece of property in Oregon to have around and stay connected here.

[finadict]

After enduring last week in fog, the prior week in rain and the forcast for this week to be a little of the previous weeks' weather only colder, I would question your sanity about wanting to move up here from southern Florida..... But it maybe just the time of year...

The Seattle area offers better access to saltwater than Portland.... The San Juans are just a few hours away and offer great cruising but marginal fishing... My favorite fishing area is the west side of Vancouver Island and the west side of the mainland north of the northern tip of Vancouver Island... I personally will fish in Wa. state because I refuse to support the state department of fisheries and their incompetent policies concerning sports fishing.... Canada at least puts the sports fishermen on equall footing with the commercial fishing industry and Indian tribes. This is something that Wa. state just doesn't do, the sportsmen continually get the shaft when allocatting the resource.

In short if your reason for moving up here is for the fishing be prepared for short or non-existant fishing seasons. --- Rant on --- this is especially frustrating when you can watch the indians gill net a resource that the sportsmen paid for through fishing license fees while the sportsmen can't fish the area becaused it's closed to protect the resource.. --- rant off ---- If you come up here, welcome

[Bullshipper]

Rough cold ocean water when outside of the bays and protected channels. Good fresh water river and lake fishing, good hunting. Very different property tax laws.

[greyg8r]

...and don't forget, you will also need survival gear and anti-depressant medication during the long, grey winter.

[Chinook]

First off: We don't tan, we rust!

Second: It is not unusual to go weeks without ever seeing the sun.

If you can't deal with the above forget about living here.

You will need to sell the CC and get a windshield boat with either a hard top or convertible with side and rear curtains. That is unless you only plan to fish only a few months of the year or enjoy being in 37* water and even colder air temp for catching springers. One thing to remember is that, regardless of the time of year, you are always in danger of hypothermia. EPIRB and survival suits will help keep you alive until rescued. Lifejackets only help with finding the body. I would strongly advise you take a cold water survival course as well.

For fishing you have the following (partial list):
Salmon (Coho, King Salmon, Kokanee, Chum)
Steelhead
Tuna
Halibut (and a slew of other bottom fish)
Walleye
Bass
Trout (rainbow, bull, lake, brown, etc)
Crappie
Catfish
Sturgeon

[DriftR]

Angler204Fix,
I was born and raised in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. I have resided in my home state for 54 years. As to the comparison or advice in living in Seattle Wa. as compared to Portland Or. I would recommend Portland. Here are the reasons. The traffic in the Seattle area is bad. Very conjested on freeways. The cost of housing in and around the Seattle area is higher than the Portland Metro area. More things to do for the wife in Seattle then Portland but Portland is gaining ground. Portland only has the NBA Trailblazers. The Seattle area has the NBA Sonics, the NFL Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners baseball team. All have, including Portland great arenas and stadiums. Your close to water everywhere in the Seattle area. Lots of boat service centers, boat sales centers etc..
Portland, OR is about 70 miles inland from the coastal area. In the Portland area you have the Columbia River running alongside the Northern state line with the State of Washington. Good boating and fishing on the Columbia. Steelehad, Salmon, Sturgeon, Shad, walleye, Bass run the Columbia. You have close access to the Clackamas River and Sandy Rivers for Chinook and Steelhead. The Willamette River runs right through the middle of downtown Portland. Here you have salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, walleye and some bass fishing. Good cruising on the Willamette out to its mouth with the Columbia River. Your close enough to head to the Deschutes River, world famous for steelhead fly fishing and river driftboating and jetboating. Up the scenic Columbia River Gorge on higway I 84. Also, you can fish for chinook in the Tillamook Bay, Nehalem Bay, Yaquina Bay along the Oregon coast. Don't forget that dungeness crabbing is good in these locals also. The coastal streams close to Portland provide fall and spring chinook action as well as summer and winter steelhead fishing in the Wislon River, Trask River, Kilchis River, Nestucca River and the Siletz River. We don't have the major problems that the State of WA has with its tribal fisheries. However, we do have indian tribal gillnet fisheries and commercial gillnetters on the Columbia River. The Portland area has close access to good deer, duck, goose hunting as well as travelling farther for Elk and bear if your into that. Upland game birds like chukars and pheasants are available within 2 hours or less of Portland. Don't forget that Oregon is the major state for aluminum boat manufacturers. Some are Smoker-Craft, Willie Boats, Northriver Boats, Motion Marine, Koffler Boats, Alumaweld boats and others that I can't remember at this writing. We use jetsleds, driftboats, cabin boats etc. out here alot but that is not to say that the Portland area doesn't have its fiberglass boat dealers as well. Good boat service can be had in Portland from a number of boat shops. Portland has a West Marine store and a Boaters World store as well as many local and regional sporting goods stores that can satisfy any outdoor need you require.
Oregon is a great state to live in and enjoy our scenic beauty. Our offshore waters are cold and can be rough and treacherous as times but they afford us to go after Albacore, Halibut, bottom fish, Chinook and Silver Salmon during the seasons. Come on out and enjoy what thousands of Californians have been discovering for years. Yes it rains here but as the saying goes, "there is no bad weather just bad clothing". Another important point is that Oregon is one of the very few states that does not have a state sales tax. We have property taxes and payroll taxes instead.

[Capn Mike]

Driftr is proud of Oregon, and I guess that's OK...Oregon also has a 10% + state income tax, while Washington has none. Except for the housing costs in Seattle, it flat costs more to live in Baja-Washington, which is why SW Washington is flooded with Oregon refuges.

Really different boat fishing Seattle vs. Portland. Puget Sound, while really deep, is much more sheltered than anything on the Oregon or Washington coast, and regardless of the area, all the advice above about the style of boat is true: while there are a few CC boats around, it doesn't take much more than one hand to count them. Year around boating here means heaters for 6 months. SW Washington/Portland is warmer in summer than Puget Sound, but it's still 45 here as I speak, 41 in Seattle.

I grew up in hot, desert country. I love the wet, grey winters, and fortunatly, so does my wife. But most people don't realize that 2/3 of Washington and Oregon are high desert, agri valleys, wine country and mountains. And the Columbia River flows through almost all of it (in Washington). So don't restrict your searches to the west side.

[pinzino1]

I've lived and fished in the willamette valley (Lebanon, Or.), Newport Or., Bellingham, Wa., and now Tacoma (Commencement bay).

If fishing is number one priority then the Oregon coast (Newport, etc.) is the way to go. It can be wet, cold, foggy, and you'll have a sometimes treacherous bar to cross and then have to deal with true ocean conditions, but the fishing can be great.

For a combination of fishing and cruising you cannot beat the Puget sound and the San Juan islands in particular. Look at a map/chart. You can boat in relatively protected waters all the way from Olympia, wa. through the inside passage to Alaska and see some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere. Countless islands and destinations.

I'm not sure if there is a better place to be than boating in the San Juans during the summer. Year round boating is possible if the boat is set up properly, but the summertime here is unbeatable.

[YankeeBoater]

I haven't lived there, but have visited the Puget Sound and San Juans and done the Inside Passage from Seattle to Juneau and I agree completely. It's protected deep water, beautiful, there are plenty of animals, and plenty to see. While there may be fish out there, personally, I have no interest in going 50 miles out to featureless open ocean to look at an infinite blue plane - bores the **** out of me.