Wilsonriverfisher

I wanted to let anyone know who is interested that the tualatin river is actually a great place to fish. I have caught cutthroat trout, squawfish, catfish, bass both largemouth and small mouth, multitude of different pan fry species, and a unidentified fish that was a very very big fish that could break 10 pound test and break it quickly. I have fished it at least once every summer for years now and prefer using a worm either on the bottom or under a bobber. Prepared to get hung up alot, but for a good overlooked urban river that holds alot of different species its worth it. There is very good access all over Tualatin park in Tualatin and they have a decent ramp at tualatin park as well but beware the river gets shallow in places and has many obstacles so a smaller boat is must. There is access at Cook Park in tigard and they have a ramp as well. The best fishery on the tualatin is the mouth of Fanno creek. These in my opinion are the best spots to access and fish the tualatin but you can virtually find spots all over the place on the tualatin. There is another new park in West linn that has good access and West linns Willamette park were you can fish the mouth of the tualatin Also the record oregon white catfish came out of the tualatin in 1989 by wayne welsch and catfish in the tualatin are big i am sure another state record warmwater fish can come from there. I hope this gets somebody to put in a little time on this river and enjoy it as much as I have.

cavdad45

Oh yeah, the Tualatin is a fun warmwater fishery. No doubt.

phillk6751

i fished a lot on Tualatin a few years back....my dad and I lived in apartments right next to the park in Tualatin off Nyberg Ln.

The majority of what I caught out there were Pikeminnow(squawfish), even at night when I was fishing for cats....All I used for those were hot dogs.

I have been dissapointed in the rules surrounding the river now...Back then, I don't recall those fish being closed season until the "salmon, steelhead and trout" season is open....now that's how it is according to the recent regulation books.

I was out there a few months ago not knowing the regulations(by accident), and didn't catch a darn thing on hot dogs.

A week ago I was on the tualatin to test out my slip bobber setup....with just a jig head and no bait/worm/yarn(nothing!) and caught a line which had a crawdad attached to it(tangled in it's legs) which was black! and still alive, none the less! lol

osmosis

I agree wilsonriverfisher, great little river. There are sturgeon, salmon and steelhead in the tualitin which can break 10lb pretty easily. plus some burly carp.

my favorite rig for that river is wading through the river and drift fishing different current breaks and rapid sections/eddies. spinners and jigs work very well also.

I have a question though. are you sure they were cutts and not smolt? I've caught Very few searun trout in that river.

Silverblade

There were native inland cut's in the Tualatin river system at one time at least. Many years ago Dairy creek up stream quite a ways was a fun place to catch natives - don't know about now. Steelhead still run up Gales creek - it's not too much of a stretch to think of Cuts in the Tualatin when the water is cool and clean enough. Sea-runs though, not so sure. I think they occasionally go over Bonneville Dam though, so up the Tualatin isn't too much of a stretch.

osmosis

Think I'm mistaken?
the tualitin river was 150' from my back door for 9 years.
You get to know a river pretty well when it's your own backyard.

at one time, loong ago - maybe. but cutts are extrordinarily rare in that river system and have been for the last 10-15 years atleast..

There are chinook, steelhead, and coho that run up the tualitin. Steelhead in faar fewer numbers than the chinook.

almost every single trout I caught in that river was searun, and over 12 inches. every spring and fall all of those 8"ers are smolt, not trout.

Silverblade

I certainly don't claim any familiarity with the Tualatin itself, my "back yard" stream was Dairy Creek and a small stream running into it a ways out of Banks. I caught some good sized throut (and this was in the late 70's to be sure!) out of both streams, but none were searuns as far as I could tell - or at least their cutthroat colors were in full bloom if they were. Honestly, I am not sure how you tell the difference except that closer to salt water the searuns tend to be much more silver and less colorful. Guess they 'could' have been searun fish though, as could the ones you're talking about. My only point really is that the system used to have a good population of native inland cuts - and good sized ones too at that.

As for smolts I beg to differ. I know how to tell the difference between a cut and a smolt, a rainbow (usually stocked) and a cut, etc. Most of the smaller trout I used to catch were cuts until a bit later, when they used to stock the creek with rainbows. I do remember getting smolts at times, and in fact remember chasing around a salmon in the little creek bordering our property. That fish had to come up a long ways to get there, in retrospect I am very glad it escaped me.

Wilsonriverfisher

the trout were caught at the mouth of fanno creek on the tualatin. I suspect it was actually a rainbow/cuthroat mix I caught two of these in a 5 minute span. They looked beat the heck up. They actually looked like a rainbow/cutthroat hybrid but being so beat up i called it a cutthroat maybe it was. I suspect it was just your normal resident cutt not your typical coastal searun at all.

Silverblade

Even wayyyy back when (1975-82ish) I caught what looked like hybrids between the stocked Rianbows that held over and the native cut's - would not surprise me at all if they were still "doing it".
I would think a sea-run cut that was in fresh water long enough to get all the way up to the Tualatin would darken like Steelhead and salmon do once out of salt/brackish water. I don't know though for sure - about the trout at least.
The fish I used to catch had orange meat like a salmon - I didn't keep many, but did when I thought they'd die anyway. That could be an indication that they were sea-run. I honestly don't know!

osmosis

Not worth aguing over. doesnt sound like you have any info about that river newer than 20-30 years old..
If you didn't know positively what species they were, you should not have kept them even if they were injured, period.

Of course the fish will sexually mature and darken as they head upstream, that is the carotene being redistributed. There is nothing in that river system's diet to provide carotene to the fish so if the meat was not white or damn near they were not residents.