Hundreds of thousands of summer steelhead begin to make their way into the Columbia River in May. They’re headed to rivers like the Cowlitz, Lewis, Willamette drainage, Deschutes, John Day, Snake and a plethora of smaller systems along the way. From Astoria to Bonneville Dam, we have been putting clients on these fish for over 20 years. Columbia River Summer Steelhead fishing is great fun and it just happens to take place in some of the most beautiful places on earth!
The steelhead run on the Columbia is a combination of wild and hatchery stocks that run in size from 5-20 lbs. They are very aggressive on the strike and often times run us a long way down the river. I fish the lower 50 miles of the Columbia River (usually within an hour of Portland) for steelhead and as a result, many of the fish we catch are still covered with ocean lice and are as bright as a mirror.
As a bonus, we’re often times fishing on large numbers of Chinook and Sockeye at the same time. Yes, it’s a smorgasbord in the fish box on many of my trips. We’ll have representatives from all the species. We’re steelhead fishing, but nobody complains when the fish that comes to the net is a Salmon.
Typically we start fishing for summer steelhead on the Columbia when the fish show up in June, fishing through July in the Portland area.
Contact us to discuss options, ask questions, and choose your fishing trip. A deposit is all that’s needed to hold your date. We’ll send you a trip confirmation email with all of the details. The hardest part of the process is probably waiting for your fishing day to arrive. 🙂
During the summer months I also run trips on the Cowlitz and Lewis Rivers for summer steelhead. If you’re interested in fishing this SW Washington river and would like to know more, visit my Cowlitz River Steelhead Fishing page.