I would like to start fishing on Wilson river in Oregon. Sold my boat in Alaska so I have to bank fish. In Alaska we haven't used bobber for our salmon fishing, at least not on Little Susitna river. So could somebody advice me about a rig up for steelhead? How many feet from your bobber to the end of your terminal tackle? How do you find out how deep it is? Just plunk some weight down and see? If you can just refer me to a post where this was discussed would be great! Thanks guys. The water is clearing up so I want to go on Wednesday!! I should I perhaps start with spinners, etc?

Welcome to the board. There is a lot of information on the board, if you use the search feature.

follow this link and it will take you to a quick tutorial on setting up your float rig.

http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/resourcecenter/floatfishing.htm

Depth will vary, but, if you find your float leaning down river, you're dragging bottom, time to shallow it up. You just have to experiment with it to find the right depth.

There is a PP member in your area that may give you some better tips for the local area.

Just remember, if you hear of guys in Oregon saying they caught a 20lber its really 14, 15 tops...

And if you hear WA guys talk about catching salmon hand over fist, they're just pinks or chum.

Pretty much covers it all, right there.

Same reasons they all do.
Load up on river boats and harvest the latest salmon/steelhead techniques/gear.

The wilson is an excellent river for bank fishing!! Where do I start? Ok from the upper deadline of fishing down there are turnouts all along that stream,and usually a LOT of cars parked in them as well. So you will have company being it is an hour out of Portland.


The upper river is canyon water and the lower you go it flattens out. It can be very snaggy in it's upper stretches,so you will have to learn what holes are better suited for jig,spoon,or drift fishing,and the only way to do that is to go and fish hard.




I spent an awful lot of time over on the rivers there and caught a lot of steelhead. The wilson fishes when the guage reads under 6 feet. I have caught fish in it when it was 7 but that is pretty high, anything above 5 I would fish up high and work my way down. As it gets lower I would move downriver and fish lower.



Good luck,this isn't a secret river,and I haven't told you anything that isn't common to many of the rivers on the coast. Good luck!

Bummer dude!

you may as well put your gear in the garage and let it get a head start at collecting dust. Fishing sucks in the lower 48, thats why peeps are rock stars when they're good at it.

whatever you do don't fish the wilson, $hit river, especially after this weekend.......

Welcome.Good luck,
SZ

Wilson River is Combat Fishing, toooooo crowded, try the Nehalem or Nestucca.

AK Kid - Welcome aboard! It's customary, but not required that new members tell us a fishing/hunting related story, as a way to get acquainted. Being from the Great Land, I'm sure you have more than a few interesting stories.....

Also, check out IFish.net. That website covers fishing in the State of Oregon better than this site. But this website covers fishing in Washington State better than any I've seen. Plus, this site is not nearly as strict as IFish. Their rules and mods can be really annoying.

The search function on either website can provide more information on the Wilson Rv than I'll ever need. Good luck!

Alaskakid,

what part of Oregon are you living? A lot of great rivers around these parts. I would be happy to point you in the right direction. By the way I was being sarcastic when refering to the wilson river. It was an epic weekend, particularly saturday. The crowds thin out after the first springers are caught on the willamette...... some of the best fishing along the coast is from now to may.

It ain't THAT bad. Its a good starting point for a guy new to the area,seeing how the highway 6 paralells the whole damn river.

Shhh.....
5.0 on the gauge is where I like it.
Easy access, yes.
Combat fishing, no...unless you're comparing it to fly-out AK fishing.

Since the gauge changed, 5.0 is the new 6.0 and 5.5 is about the top of where it's really good, but due to the slides it has sometime when the color is messed up when the level is perfect.....of course after what I've been hearing about it the last few days you should probably go join the crowds.

JD

Hi guys! I would like to thank all of you who pitched in with your information. It helped a lot! I looked up various fishing holes on Wilson and put it into my GPS, so I will apply all my new-gained knowledge and report it here to you! Somebody mentioned combat fishing, I am used to it from the Russian river up in Alaska!

Thanks Sam and everybody on this thread for your info! You guys are great, I did not expect that many responses. I will slowly process it in my head and make notes and head out on Wednesday if the water is right!! Would you use roe in upper part of the Wilson river? Or just some flies or small gizmos?

Hi Moby: I live in Sherwood so I drive thru Hillsboro to get to the river. I did a "reconnaissance" mission along the river last week and tried to indetify the main holes so I am not too "lost" the first day out fishing. I even found Josi hole, at least a road that leads up to it but I was afraid to go all the way to the river, it looked like I would be tresspassing. Nehalem river I don't know, but Nestucca sounds good except it seemes there aren't many places where the guy could bank fish!?? I lived in Oregon for a while about 20 years ago and caught my first fish ever near the fifth bridge on the big Nestucca. That was a riot, silver, and I did not even know there was such a thing as drag on the reel!! I had it set on freewheel and fish took off like crazy down the stream, but I landed it. I get tired just thinking about it!!That made me a devout fisherman when I got up to Alaska.

And thanks a bunch!

Hi Cohoangler, thanks for your friendly welcome, all of you guys!!

It's getting late but I wil try to squeeze in a fish story here, you 're right I got a lot of them and I do miss my favorite salmon river Little Susitna river outside Wasilla, AK. My buddy and I, we set out for the Lake Creek which is one of the finest chinook/king streams in Alaska. It's a crystal clear water but it was a quite a long trip for us. Down the Big Susitna river, then up Yentna river to Lake Creek. About 3.5 hours in my flat bottom boat with 35hp Yamaha jet unit, one way.

We were on the river about 20 minutes when I got a monster bite! The s.o.b kept running up and down from my boat and finally stayed put in one place. I couldn't budge him! I feared the worst, he probably got tangled around some crap on the bottom. So we lifted the anchor and go down to check it out while I kept reeling in. Sure enough, I could see clearly that he wrapped the line around this old slimy looking branch and he was sitting still. Water was clear and I was thinking...if I could get down there, I could slide that line off the branch with no problem! I told my friend: "Grab my feet and hold tight!" I had to go down about 2.5 feet and sure enough, I slid that fishline off quite easily, while the fishing rod was in the holder!
The fish took off again but I landed it a few minutes later!! It was a buck and it weighed roughly about 35-40 pounds. I got two kings that day, which was a limit then. When I emerged from that cold water and my buddy pulled me up, there was a bunch of German tourists on the other side watching the whole circus. When Pete netted the fish for me, the Germans were cheering like crazy. It was a blast, too bad we got lost on the way home, in a heavy rain in the dark, but that I will share probably next time! Take it easy you guys!! Gotta go to bed!