Eating fish from the Willamette river

A
aknomad
Anyone concerned about eating fish caught in the Willamette river due to how dirty the river is? Such as flooding which causes sewage to flow into the river, ect.
 
M
Modest_Man
It depends on the species and where they're caught. Resident fish will have higher levels than migratory species. Fish lower in the systems will have higher levels that those higher up in the system.
 
H
halibuthitman
steelhead and salmon are ok, the signs at different locations along the river state that the bass/carp/walleye and other warmwater fish are too high in contaminants to eat, the swan island shipyard was the largest polluted waterway in America at one time, worse than the East river.. the sulfides and petrolium products and warm water dumped into it in downtown portland used to be so high that the salmon could not swim through it without suffocating due to lack of oxygen... NO resident fish should be eaten out of that river.. ever
 
T
tnffishman
salmon, steelhead are fine, sturgeon (if there is ever a season again) are typically ok as well. I personally wouldn't eat any resident species out of the river below Willamette Falls
 
O
Outdoor_Myers
I've eaten fish out of the Mississippi river before and I'm still alive! just take a few minutes to look over your fish and remember how they fought if they where sluggish return them! if they appear extreme dark return them! what I do after I fillet my fish I soak them in a salt bath for a day or two, then rinse the fillets off and freeze them in a salt bath.
 
troutdude
troutdude
There are plenty of upstream pollutants too: pesticides, herbicides, sewage from upstream towns and cities, street runoff, etc. etc. I've fished it, for 45 years and have never eaten a fish from it...and never will.

BTW, wouldn't sturgeon be a resident fish (and even eat the most toxins by eating stuff OFF the river bed?).
 
J
joem
I have ate Mackenzie salmon and steelhead my whole life and am still kickin
 
H
halibuthitman
Outdoor_Myers said:
I've eaten fish out of the Mississippi river before and I'm still alive! just take a few minutes to look over your fish and remember how they fought if they where sluggish return them! if they appear extreme dark return them! what I do after I fillet my fish I soak them in a salt bath for a day or two, then rinse the fillets off and freeze them in a salt bath.

with the amount of high qaulity fresh fish available year round in lakes and streams and river why on earth would anyone ever go through this much work to eat a fish? is it principle? or a secret desire to feel like you live in New Delhi? can you soak a turd in salt and freeze it in a salt bath? and then serve it to the in-laws for thanksgiving? ANYONE with any basic common intelligence would never eat a resident fish from the water below Oregon City.. upstream... well its still questionable. These are not my opinions or their opinions this is the EPA, FDA, a dozen university studies, an Army corp of engineers study, a wild fish coalition study, any basic boy scout handbook page 4 knowledge... ALL formal inteligence on this subject in the last 100 years says DO NOT EAT FISH THAT LIVE YEAR ROUND IN THE WILLY...... EVER
 
bass
bass
troutdude said:
There are plenty of upstream pollutants too: pesticides, herbicides, sewage from upstream towns and cities, street runoff, etc. etc. I've fished it, for 45 years and have never eaten a fish from it...and never will.

BTW, wouldn't sturgeon be a resident fish (and even eat the most toxins by eating stuff OFF the river bed?).

I agree with you on that one TD. Keeper sized sturgeon (not that you can really keep them any more) are between 10 and 20 years old. Sturgeon, above the falls are surely about as toxic as you can get for a Willamette fish. The lower Willamette sturgeon do have access to the Columbia and ocean so they may have accumulated fewer toxins. However, since little is known about their migratory habits, we are talking about 10-20 years of vacuuming the bottom, with some, a lot, or perhaps all of that time in the Willamette.

I love to C&R sturgeon, but I am not too excited about keeping one!
 
H
halibuthitman
well, unless you hang them by the tail in the freezer and as the tempature drops all the mercury will go into the fishes head.. then you chop the head off, just learned this one from the homeless man who lives in the old chest freezer by the Bird house hole.. if he says it I TRUST HIM!!:rolleyes:
 
F
fishtales
any basic boy scout handbook page 4 knowledge... [/QUOTE said:
The local boys soutcs do trip on the upper willamette every year. Most of what I remember hearing about when they get back is the nice houses and how some of their sewer drains right into the river. pretty gross....

Its like eating a diver duck from that river..i wont do it.
 
P
plumb2fish
My ocean caught tuna was radio-active, I was told to eat small portions of my ocean ground fish and to remove skin and fat before cooking. Can't feed young children fish ect....all of that may be good advise... But never eat a resident Willamette fish...that I do believe...the Willy is Nasty, the algae is blue...
 
O
Outdoor_Myers
Question, since salmon and sturgeon are an endangered species why do cities have sewer/run off pipes dump into pur rivers? Oil leaks, radiator fluids, other unknown chemicals from street runoffs get dumped into our rivers. Sounds to me like a huge problem! We should get a grant to build some treatment plants, divert these pipes to the plants to make our waters cleaner. Also this will increase our economy due to more jobs and good paying wages!
 
18406ej
18406ej
Josh,

Cities aren't supposed to have raw sewage discharge into a river anymore, but with our rains the sanitary sewer systems can be inundated and the sewage "spills". Portland has been working on a "big pipe" project (not sure if it is finished yet) that is supposed to alleviate the overflow problem up there.

The water from storm sewers (curb drainage) is just too vast an amount to be treated, so oils, greases and other fluids that fall from our vehicles are all washed into the rivers. You might have seen medallions epoxied onto the curb above roadway grates or maybe stenciled warnings painted on the curbs that read "Drains to stream", or similar wording. This is supposed to be a reminder for us to not add to the pollutant load by degreasing engines, dumping pesticides or chemicals, or doing any similar wrongs on our driveways or in any place where the drainage ends up in the storm system. Some municipalities are already banning car washing on residential driveways because of this type of pollution.

I am only saying this because it is a pet peeve of mine, but a grant, unless from private funding, is simply a transfer of our own tax money from one point to another. Sort of like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Our own idiotic city council was constantly patting themselves on the back for obtaining "free" project funding from government grants. I am not the only person in town wondering why these "leaders" can be so clueless.

I have been busy but have been following the bear-fueled wedding plans with great interest. I will send you a note as soon as I can. Congratulations on the engagement.
EJ
 
O
Outdoor_Myers
Thanks buddy! I can tell you why the city council is full of idiots is because you are not in their to slap them straight! I still think there is something we can do to halt the polution. I know its not feasable to do it for all drains but maybe highly traffic areas. One reason why i dont drive much, my car leaks oil badly! And i can't afford to get a different car nor fix this one. Thats why i dont fish much or explore.
 
J
JeannaJigs
Ew gross, don't do it. JUST SAY NO. I mean seriously, just going up the columbia when you get to the mouth of the willamette, you can smell it before you see it. It's just disgusting. I have a hard time just knowing my salmon and steel have swam through that dirty poo water for several days before they're in the mckenzie or santiam systems, that's bad enough.
 
P
plumb2fish
I don't even like to use my gear when fishing the willamette. Tough to get that funk OFF.
 
J
JeannaJigs
plumb2fish said:
I don't even like to use my gear when fishing the willamette. Tough to get that funk OFF.

LOL for real, my braid had a funk for sure afterwords after last april, guess the jokes on whomever stole that rod, I never respooled. Oh who am I kidding, I miss that rod and reel and would greatly appreciate it to have the funk back, but I digress. Bottomline, the willy is dirtay.
 
H
halibuthitman
the willy is like a hooker, convenient, easy and produces.. but with risks.. use it when you have to... but don't make it a home river... and only catch and release... and don't fall in love with it because you had a good time- ( I don't know anything about hookers.. just spitballin here.. well, exept in Kamchatka and costa Rica... but that doesn't count )
 
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B
Big3d
Just suck on an old broken outdoor thermometer, after stiring public toilet contents with it, surely safer than willamette fish
 

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