This is a listing of easy to fish places, mostly places you pay by the pound. There is one very spendy place in Central Oregon for grown-ups. This listing is mostly for places to take children, although I have gone alone sometimes.
Aurora Trout Farm is off I-5 highway a couple of miles east and just short of the town of Aurora. This is about twenty five miles south of Portland, OR. This is family operated. The ponds have trees around them and hold rainbow from six to twenty-six inches. An average fish is twelve inches, but bigger ones are common. All fish caught must be kept, so a trip can get expensive in a hurry if a couple of two pounders are caught. Price is about $4.25 per pound before cleaning as of 1997, which they do. Cane poles with hook, line, float and worms are provided free. For a dollar you can rent a casting pole. You can bring your own, but they want strong lines and big enough hooks, like at least 8. Nets are provided with long handles. You can go an hour without catching anything sometimes. You cannot see the fish in the turbid water, except when they jump, which they do often. There are two lakes separated by about a two minute walk. The upper lake is fairly private, with seldom more than a few people up there. Sometimes this lake is covered with weeds and hard to fish, unless you are simply fishing worms or bait. Casting on either lake is OK if you pay attention. It is not hard to hook a tree or the heavy grass on the other side of the lake. You also have to be considerate of other people. Fly casting is not normally done. You can use your own tackle if it is strong enough and the owners approve. The owners look for at least eight pound test line and barbed hooks at least 6 to 8 size. You can use four pound test if you have a limber pole, like a micro, or if the people know you. The idea is to not leave fish swimming around dying with hooks in them. There is a dock with a railing to keep little fishers from falling in. You still have to watch them. If things get slow, the owner will toss some pellets of feed into the water, which seems to excite the fish to bite. This is usually not necessary, even though it may take ten minutes before you get a bite. This is good, because you don't have the sense that it is a "done deal." When you leave, your cleaned fish are in a double plastic bag, tied at the top. One of the two most exciting ways to fish this is to cast or jig. Casting a heavy wobbler, like a Li'l Jake's is very productive and the fish fight hard, since they don't like the object. These lures take big and small fish. Jigging off the dock is weird, since you are just standing there, moving your pole tip up and down a little, with a weighted jig on the end. All of a sudden a large or small fish will try to jerk you off the dock. If you have a fly rod or limber rod you have a chance to play the fish. If you are using a cane pole with a fixed amount of line, you are faced with a problem. A two pound rainbow trout does not take to being horsed out of the water that quickly. This is a good place for grandpa and the kids, but the middle generation likes to go too. The trick here, is to get the middle generation to pay, at least sometimes. Sometimes the middle generation likes to go along for a free ride and this can get spendy. Having the middle generation along is fine because they get to teach their own kids how to fish, and have to deal with the thrashing fish in the water and the slimy thing on the bank.
There is a lot of human drama that goes on, especially with young families. Usually there is limited experience in either parent or child, and all sorts of high spirited things happen. Sometimes an excited young mother will haul a fish out of the water and swing it around over the shore, not knowing what to do with it. Her children are usually nearby and in the path of this flip-flopping trout. The tendency is to swing the fish around, about three feet above the ground, right where the screaming kids are. Young fathers are not as patient as you might hope, nor are they always interested in helping the kid catch a fish. They may have not caught one themselves in a long time. The kid can catch the next one, maybe. Meanwhile the kid has wandered off, to check on the other lake, or the other side of the lake, where he can fall in and the parent can't do anything but yell.
This place is open on Fridays and weekends and not in the winter, which is December until the weather gets better. They would be open all year if the demand was there, but only a few people show up from October on.
There is a place out near Carver, on the road to Estacada, but I have not been there. It is well marked. I think it is called Indian Hills.
There is a place of Highway 26 on the way to Mount Hood, just short of Zig Zag, on the north or left side. It is well marked. I was there a long time ago and had a good time. Some friends just went there and found it nice. Lots of trees and a good place for a picnic. Fish cost about the same as elsewhere I think.
There is a place just beyond Newberg, short of McMinnville on the way to the Oregon Coast. It is visible from the highway and well marked. I have not been there.
There is a U-catch place on Highway 26 about halfway to the Oregon Coast out of Portland. This place is well marked, but the trout are in concrete ponds and I have not fished there. I think you pay by the fish, depending on how big it is.
In another place I talk about a U-catch place known as Hornings' Hideaway, north of North Plains. It is hard to tell anyone how to get there, but it is there and some people like it.
You cannot fish in the Bonneville Hatchery trout ponds, at least I have not figured out how. You can buy pellets to feed the monster trout. Men often just stand there as if in a worship service. These trout are bigger than you will ever see this side of the ocean.
These trout are so big, you do not want to fall into the pond, and certainly don't want your child to fall in. These trout probably go over 15 pounds. Maybe 20. They are wide and deep and long and they are big. Really, really big. This is a good picnic area about thirty miles east of Portland, OR up the Columbia River along Highway 30 or I-84 as it is now called. Also see the fish ladder and counting room if there is a fish run happening, as there usually is.
The trout hatchery down the Metolius River past Camp Sherman has a settling pond full of big and little trout that they sometimes open for fishing by young people. I don't know any more about it, but have seen the pond and the fish.
There are free places to go fish, but in today's time/money crunch, they are not good values. It costs a few dollars to get into Henry Hagg Lake in Washington County, at least during the peak times, and your chances of catching anything from the bank are not good, not much better from a boat, which you can rent for a lot of money. There are two good boat launches, but that costs .50 cents extra plus the cost of owning the boat. If you value your time, and count the cost of operating a car, you can fish the trout farms for less money and be somewhat assured of success. Frog Lake or Trillium Lake around Mt. Hood are good, if you want a drive in wilderness experience where you can use your row boat. Also Lost Lake, but that is 2 hours, one way, no matter which way you go. Walter Wirth Lake in Salem is good for a no-motor lake. Chances are all of them will have been recently stocked.
E-mail
Edited Aug 25, 1997