The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is busily stocking more than 54,000 hatchery rainbow trout into two dozen fishing lakes and streams across the state this week to give anglers a good shot at catching fish this July 4 holiday weekend.
The lakes, ponds, reservoirs, rivers and creeks on ODFW’s stocking schedule this week stretch from the far Southwest Coast to the mountains of Northeast Oregon. In between, there are lots of waters being stocked closer to home, whether you live in the I-5 corridor or are heading into Central Oregon for a three-day adventure.
I’ve compiled a list below that’s organized by angling zone to help you locate prime fishing spots closer to where you’ll be spending the weekend.
A few of these stocked waters include large numbers of rainbow trout, including North Fork Reservoir just southeast of Portland (just up the Clackamas River from Estacada) and the renowned Wallowa Lake near Enterprise and Joseph.
If you like stream fishing like me (I have a river trout-fishing trip planned soon!), look into the McKenzie River near Eugene-Springfield or the North Fork Santiam River above Detroit Lake, both being planted with thousands of trout this week. A couple smaller Willamette Valley streams, the Breitenbush River and Quartzville Creek, are stocked more modestly.
In Central Oregon, the popular fly-fishing destination Fall Creek near Sunriver is again being stocked with larger trout for several miles below the hatchery.
The rest of the waters on my list are a widespread collection ranging from small community fishing ponds to mountain lakes and reservoirs.
Wallowa Lake and another half dozen of the waters east of the Cascades, listed below with an asterisk (*), are getting at least a modest number of ODFW’s larger “trophy” trout in this week’s planting. Those trout measure over a foot in length and come in at about a pound apiece, which is two to three times heavier than the typical stocker rainbow.
Stocked trout are relatively simple to catch.
Still-fishing with bait is the easiest and most popular approach for most trout-fishing waters. Nightcrawlers, PowerBait, and a variety of other natural and artificial baits will fool these hatchery-reared fish.
I like throwing lures such as spinner and spoons, retrieving them through likely looking spots and experimenting with depth and retrieval speed to find what works.
Fly casters also get in on the act, as rainbow trout keep their natural instincts to feed on insects and other small critters even when fed a diet of hatchery pellets.
Finally, here are the waters listed in the most recent ODFW trout stocking schedule. That said, remember that the agency sometimes changes its plans with little to no warning based on water conditions, fish availability, and other factors.
For the majority of the locations listed below, we have a more detailed article about fishing in that lake or river. Click the linked location name to read the article.
Southwest Zone
- Laird Lake, 350
- Rogue River above Lost Creek, 2,500
Willamette Zone
- Alton Baker Canoe Canal, 900
- Breitenbush River, 900
- Carmen Reservoir, 600
- Detroit Lake, 6,900
- Estacada Lake, 1,334
- Green Peter Reservoir, 4,910
- Leaburg Lake, 1,000
- McKenzie River above Leaburg Dam, 850
- McKenzie River below Leaburg Dam, 2,900
- North Fork Reservoir, 7,500
- Quartzville Creek, 1,400
- Santiam River, North Fork above Detroit Lake, 2,000
- Smith Reservoir, 1,000
Central Zone
- Devils Lake, 1,383
- Fall River, 1,000*
- Shevlin Pond, 300*
- Three Creek Lake, 200*
Northeast Zone
- Marr Pond, 550*
- Wallowa Lake, 11,655*
- Wallowa Wildlife Pond (Weavers Pond), 550*
Southeast Zone
- Fourmile Lake, 1,400*
- Ana Reservoir, 2,400