Search myodfw.com

Learn to fish, hunt, shoot or cast at an ODFW class or workshop. There are events throughout the state, and throughout the year. You'll find Hunter Education Safety classes and field days here. Upcoming classes and workshops

Find directions purchasing a tag online or from a license vendor, for redeeming your Sports Pac voucher, and purchasing a tag after the sale deadline. Buy a tag online

During summer drought and high temperatures, fish start feeling the heat. Give them a break by following these warm weather fishing guidelines.

Mud and ghost shrimp are popular baits for salmon, sturgeon and other marine fish. Learn how simple it is to harvest your own.

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. Bull trout thrive in this zone’s cold, clear rivers, which also sustain whitefish and rainbow trout, and welcome returning runs of hatchery-reared steelhead. Chinook salmon travel over 300 miles up the Columbia to spawn in rivers such as the Imnaha and Wallowa. Warmwater fisheries are few, but the John Day River offers world-class fishing for smallmouth bass.

March 26, 2025

The Buoy 10 fishery, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific, offers anglers a chance to catch Chinook and coho salmon fresh from the ocean.

A dozen great rivers pour out of the Coast Range Mountains into tidal bays that welcome runs of salmon and steelhead. Bays are the year-round home to marine perch, rock fish, crabs and clams, while other species come and go with the seasons and tides. A handful of ponds dot the forested slopes, and there are dozens of dune lakes— many stocked with rainbow trout, and some harboring largemouth bass, perch, crappie and brown bullhead.

Abundant rainfall feeds the massive Willamette River watershed, tamed by a system of reservoirs that are stocked annually with hundreds of thousands of rainbow trout. Some of these reservoirs also grow trophy-size largemouth and smallmouth bass, as well as bluegill, brown bullhead and crappies. Smaller lakes and ponds nearer the valley floor provide springtime trout fishing close to home. Salmon and steelhead navigate the Willamette River and its tributaries, many of which are also home to rainbow and cutthroat trout.

Wide open spaces, wild windy places, and extreme temperatures characterize Oregon’s largest, most remote fishing zone. Redband trout are native to its rivers and streams, including the Williamson, Malheur and Chewaucan. Brown and hatchery rainbow trout can grow to trophy-size in many of its lakes and reservoirs, many of which also feature crappie, yellow perch and bass.

There is year-round salmon, steelhead, trout and smallmouth bass in the Southwest Zone. Rainbow trout are stocked in the upper Rogue River and in lakes nestled among fir forests and wind-swept dunes. Big reservoirs provide fishing for trout and for thriving populations of largemouth bass, catfish, perch and crappie. Coastal bays serve as gateways to rich offshore reef fisheries, and miles of public beach allow anglers to fish for surfperch against a backdrop of rugged capes.

More people in Oregon fish for trout than for any other kind of fish. Anglers can experience a lifetime of varied and rewarding adventures fishing for trout in Oregon’s shaded coastal streams, alpine lakes, urban ponds and high desert rivers.

Piloted in 2014, the Tag Team program helps ODFW fish biologists better evaluate resident gamefish, bass, and stocked rainbow trout fisheries. It's also a chance for anglers to participate in fishery management and, perhaps, come away with up to $50.

Buy licenses/tags online and print them immediately from any printer—or choose electronic tagging to carry your documents and tag fish and game with the MyODFW mobile app on your phone. Buy a license

Bass are an increasingly popular game fish even in a state noted for its native salmon, steelhead and trout. Bass often thrive in the urban waters of places like the Willamette Valley where warmer temperatures limit trout fishing in the summer months. Whether you target them in the Columbia or Willamette rivers, a coastal lake or the neighborhood pond, throughout much of the year bass can offer a rewarding fishing opportunity relatively close to home.

Hunters know how easy it is to get focused on taking “the shot.” But a lot of planning and preparation goes into getting there. Use this hunter’s checklist to start planning early, and to remember what you need to carry in the field.

An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza has caused the death of many wild and domestic birds in Oregon. Here’s what hunters and others need to know about the disease.

Always have your camera with you, explore your backyard and 10 more pro tips.

On Free Fishing Weekends, you don't need a license to fish, crab or clam anywhere in Oregon. That's no license, no combined angling tag, no endorsement needed (so no Columbia River Basin Endorsement, Rogue-South Coast Steelhead Validations or Two-Rod Validations are required).