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The granite peaks of Oregon’s Blue and Wallowa Mountains form the backdrop for many of this zone’s glacier-carved lakes and crystalline streams. Pack trains are a common sight on steep backcountry trails. Bull trout thrive in this zone’s cold, clear rivers, which also sustain rainbow trout and welcome returning runs of hatchery-reared steelhead. Warmwater fisheries are few, but the John Day River offers world-class fishing for smallmouth bass.

This newsletter provides a summary of Oregon's 2023 sport bottomfish fishery.

This newsletter provides a summary of Oregon’s 2023 sport halibut fishery.

A dozen great rivers pour out of the Coast Range Mountains into tidal bays that welcome runs of salmon and the sea-going rainbow trout called “steelhead.” Bays are the year-round home to marine perch, rockfish, crabs and clams, while other species come and go with the seasons and the tides. In the Northwest Zone a handful of ponds dot the forested slopes, and there are dozens of dune lakes— many stocked with plump rainbow trout, and some that grow their own largemouth bass, perch, crappie and brown bullhead.

Upon taking an adult salmon, steelhead, legal-size sturgeon or Pacific halibut, the angler must immediately enter the codes for the species caught, ocean port or stream, and the month and day of catch. The information from these tags helps ODFW manage the fisheries and estimate total harvest. Currently nearly 40 percent of anglers use e-tagging. Want to switch from paper to electronic? Login to your account and look under your profile to switch.