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Due to customer demand for a more modern, easier-to-navigate website, ODFW is introducing MyODFW.com. This new mobile-friendly website was designed with the hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing customer in mind.

A beginner's guide to waterfowl hunting on Sauvie Island - hunting in the North Unit. Part 4 of a 5 part series.

More fish are probably lost because of improperly tied knots than any other single reason. Yet anglers who spend hours practicing their casting or making lures often neglect this simple fundamental. But if tying better knots might help us land more fish, it makes sense to give knot tying a little more attention.

The Columbia Basin Wildlife Areas are a composition of four Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (department) managed wildlife areas located along the Columbia River, in the Columbia Basin. The four wildlife areas (Power City, Irrigon, Coyote Springs and Willow Creek) are within the Columbia Plateau ecoregion. Management agreements for these areas were initially established between 1971 and 1977 between the department and Federal agencies which own the lands. The Columbia Basin Wildlife Areas, which total approximately 1,885 acres, provide an important landbase for the conservation and recreation of fish and wildlife within a highly privatized and altered landscape and…

Bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain goat the rarest game mammals in Oregon today, with less than 100 bighorn sheep tags and 20 Rocky Mtn goat tags offered in 2015. The tags are “once-in-a-lifetime” so hunters who draw them can’t draw them again.

Wipers, a cross between striped and white bass, reach prodigious proportions in the productive waters of Ana Reservoir. Their size (up to 19 pounds) and hard-fighting nature make them a popular destination fishery with many anglers.

Take the Western Native Trout Challenge and you’ll learn about native trout and where to find them, earn bragging rights and rewards, and help the Western Native Trout Initiative (WNTI) conserve 21 native trout and char species in 12 states.

Ask 10 anglers how to fish and you’re likely to get 10 different answers. However, there are a few types of fishing rigs that almost everyone can agree on – they’re both simple and effective. Here are 16 of some of our favorite rigs for warmwater species.

In the spring of 2019, several clients chartered an ocean fishing trip out of Coos Bay. They were promised trophy-size lingcod. They got a demonstration in illegal fishing practices.

An experienced hunter witnessed a mule deer being poached. He was so rattled he forgot who to call and how to report the crime. Here are tips for what to do when you see poaching, then read on for this hunter’s story that bagged him a reward.

A beginner's guide to waterfowl hunting on Sauvie Island- Hunting in the Westside Unit. Part 3 of a 5 part series.

Oregon’s population of about 6,000 cougars occupies a wide variety of habitat across the state, offering a year-round, readily-accessible hunting opportunity.

"I was out hunting near a reserve, and I shot a white-tailed deer. I didn’t know it was a white-tailed deer. The rules don’t say what kind of deer to hunt, they just say a deer, and I shot a deer, but I guess it’s a white-tail. What do I do now?" "Do I have to turn myself in to OSP?" -- recent call to ODFW

Need to figure out controlled hunts, find a place to clam, learn how to fish or get directions to a wildlife area? We've got information on all that and more, straight from ODFW biologists and other accomplished hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers. Header image by Dave Budeau

Each year, thousands of fish are harvested illegally in Oregon. Anglers who wait all year for their favorite salmon or steelhead run shouldn’t face reduced opportunity because of poaching. To report poaching call *OSP or 1-800-452-7888

As temperatures heat up during spring and summer, be on the watch for harmful algae blooms when recreating in Oregon lakes, rivers and reservoirs. Here’s what anglers should know.

Columbian white-tailed and black-tailed deer share the same habitat in some parts of western Oregon. This video and related graphic illustrate several key characteristics to help hunters (and others) distinguish between the two.

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.

Known for its high desert climate, sage-covered canyons, glacial peaks and mountain lakes, this zone is defined by the reach of Oregon’s finest trout stream. The Deschutes River is no bigger than a creek when it passes close by South Twin Lake on its way toward Wickiup and Crane Prairie reservoirs. But it soon gains power enough to grow athletic rainbow trout. The considerably tamer Crooked River offers good practice if you’re just learning how to keep your footing in a slippery freestone stream.

Steelhead have been called the ultimate game fish. These elusive and challenging fish can test an angler’s patience and persistence, but the reward is hooking into a fish that is famous worldwide for its line-peeling runs and spectacular, acrobatic fight.