Best bets for holiday fishing
Winter steelhead and ice fishing
With a couple of long holiday weekends coming up, there’s plenty of opportunities for anglers to spend some time outdoors:
· Winter steelhead fishing is underway, and with dry conditions in the forecast, many rivers will be falling into fishable conditions as early as this weekend.
o Most north and mid-coast rivers are seeing some early fish, but best bets may be the Alsea, lower Columbia tributaries, North Fork Nehalem, Necanicum and Three Rivers.
o On the south coast, anglers have been catching fish in the Coos and Coquille basins, lower Rogue, Illinois and North Umpqua. Look for water conditions to improve later this week and into next.
Trout and steelhead top the list
Oregon anglers relish the fact they can fish year-round. With the official start of winter just a few weeks away, itâs time to âfish outâ the fingerless gloves, toe warmers and thermal underwear.
Winter whale watching
This year itâs a DYI adventure
Itâs that time of year, when whales travel south along the Oregon coast. While there wonât be a visit to the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center or with a volunteer from the Watching Spoken Here program (due to the Coronavirus), you can still go on your own. An Oregon State Parks has put together a brochure, Oregon Coast Whale Watching, includes a map with the best whale watching sites and tips for whale watching. So, bring a pair a binoculars and scan the horizon slowly to catch a glimpse of these magnificent creatures.