Fishing at Canby Pond (2024 Stocking)

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Canby Pond is among a handful of youth-oriented fishing spots near Portland, open to anglers 17 and younger.

The pond also is open to people of any age who hold a state-issued Oregon Disabilities Hunting and Fishing Permit.

Trout Fishing

The one-acre pond is most popularly fished soon after a hatchery truck dumps in a fresh load of rainbow trout.

The greatest number of plantings typically occur each spring, often starting in about March and perhaps continuing with multiple stocking trips into May.

Watch the stocking schedule (linked below), because the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife also may plan one or more fall plantings, quite likely in October, that will bring the fishing right back to life.

Canby Pond is also a popular spot for ODFW to host special fishing events, usually in conjunction with a generous planting of trout.

Stocked trout often bite baits such as scented doughs (i.e., PowerBait), nightcrawlers, and salmon eggs.

These trout also, at times, can aggressively strike lures that you cast out and retrieve, such as spinners and spoons.

Trout also will strike artificial flies, either fished with fly fishing equipment or with conventional rods and a casting bubble.

If you’d like more detail about the common methods for catching stocked trout, check out this article: Trout Fishing: Basic How-To Techniques and Tips.

Brood Trout

We also should note that Canby Pond is one of the spots where ODFW will occasionally stock huge trout that they used to brood new generations of rainbow trout.

These retired broodstock trout typically weigh between 5 and a whopping 15 pounds, so they are more the size of salmon or steelhead than your usual park pond planters.

Brooder trout are most often planted during the cold season and often just once per year.

As an example only, the most recent stocking of these fish in Canby Pond that we noted was 70 huge trout put into the pond in early January.

It’s best to keep an eye on ODFW’s weekly recreation report (linked below) to discover a brood trout stocking because these events aren’t necessarily planned out far enough to include in the annual trout stocking calendar but are listed in the updated reports and occasionally in news releases found on the ODFW website.

When fishing for brooder trout, it might be worthwhile to switch to heavier gear than you would normally use for typical trout.

At least grab a heavier bass or trout rod with 8-pound or heavier line, and heavier steelhead gear would not be out of the question.

Fishing techniques used for smaller trout (see that trout fishing article linked above) should also work on the brooders.

Also remember that these big fish would be subject to the general rule that only one trout over 20 inches may be kept per angler per day.

Bass and Panfish

Canby Pond also is home to additional game fish, including largemouth bass, crappie and bluegill.

These non-native species can potentially be caught all year but do tend to bite best from spring through early fall.

Bass Fishing

Canby Pond isn’t a premier bass fishery in Oregon, but there are some largemouth bass that anglers catch sometimes.

Bass can be eager biters of lures that look like their typical prey, which includes smaller fish, crayfish and worms.

Popular bass lure types include soft plastic grubs and worms, fish- and crayfish-shaped crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and topwater lures that look like wounded fish or swimming frogs.

Find more bass fishing tips in our simple guide.

Crappie Fishing

Crappie mostly feed on small fish, and crappie jigs are designed to imitate very small minnows.

From the bank, especially for inexperienced anglers, it’s often easiest to fish with a crappie jig suspended under a bobber.

Just cast out and slowly work it back to you, stopping and twitching it now and then to mimic the irregular path of a minnow.

Cover lots of water until you catch a crappie. In particular, look for branches or other structures where crappie like to hide out to ambush their prey and get your jig close to that structure.

These are schooling fish, so where you find one you might also catch others.

Learn more: How to Catch More Crappie (Tips and Techniques) and Best Crappie Fishing in Western Oregon.

Bluegill Fishing

Bluegill and other sunfish are insect and worm eaters, so garden worms, mealworms and crickets or grasshoppers are great baits.

Bluegill often are easiest to catch with a bit of natural bait on a smallish hook, often fished beneath a bobber.

Bluegill also will strike flies and small lures such as poppers and spinners. They are especially aggressive if guarding a nest close to shore during the spring.

Even outside of the spawning season, but in the warmer months, you very well may find bluegill very close to shore or near any type of cover you can find.

We suggest you keep casting to different areas until you locate them because they will usually bite within a few minutes if you drop some bait into their immediate neighborhood.

Learn more about how to catch bluegill and sunfish.

Where is Canby Pond?

The pond is located in Community Park (River Park) on the southwest side of Canby near the east bank of the Molalla River, in the vicinity of Safeway. It’s open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The park is a fairly natural setting where you can also picnic and barbecue while the kids fish. There is playground equipment and a ball field in addition to the pond.

To reach it from Highway 99E (a.k.a. Pacific Highway, a.k.a. First Avenue), turn south on Southwest Berg Parkway and travel a few blocks to the park entrance.

2024 Canby Pond Trout Stocking

Stocking ScheduleTotal
Mar 11 – 15459*
Mar. 25 – 29981*
Apr 1 – 5402*
Apr 15 – 19459*
Apr 29 – May 31,472*
Sep 30-Oct 4300
Oct 7-11300
Oct 14-18300
*These stocking dates include 167-536 trophy-sized rainbows.
Stocked fish are legal-sized rainbow trout unless otherwise noted. Stocking schedules are subject to change for a variety of reasons. The ODFW Weekly Fishing Report linked under Oregon Resources below may provide updated information.

Find more fisheries regulated for young anglers here: Small Fry Lake Fishing and Mt. Hood Community College Pond Fishing.

Find more fishing spots in Clackamas County

Oregon Resources

ODFW Weekly Fishing Report
ODFW Trout Stocking Schedule
Oregon Fishing Regulations
National Weather Service