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Washington County Streams? Forest Grove/Gales Creek
- Thread Starter TDH
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Right now Gales wouldn't be worth fishing - the water is waaaaaaaaay low, and honestly the fishing has petered off the last few years 
Only a couple places to hit it up that aren't private land too. There is a public park and pull out off B street as you're headed out of town - park at the pull out and fish there, and follow the creek down stream through the woods - that's a public park to HWY 47 I believe. Just a word of caution - the stream bottom is pretty soupy mud in places around there - so I wouldn't wade, I'd stick to shore.
The Wilson is good. Hit HWY 6 toward Tillamook. First legal fishing water is around MM28 or so - below where Devil's Lake Fork (still can't figure that name out, since there's no Devil's Lake on the Wilson system) joins the South Fork to form the main stem of the river. From there just hit any pull out near the water. You can tell the private places from the public - as private land is posted or the river gets away from the highway. You can fish all the way down to what was locally known as The Guide Shop just downstream of Mills Bridge. There's a county park (pay to play, $4 IIRC) there. Below that it's pretty much all private land except for Sollie Smith boat landing off Wilson River Loop.
Fishing is slow right now with the low clear water on the Wilson too. I fished it for a few hours on Wednesday and got nary a strike (I was fly fishing too, BTW) - I also noted that some of my "tell tale" pools were void of fish, when last I was there they were full of steelhead. I think that the cutthroats and steelhead shot up river with that rain spat last week. We need more rain to bring more fish in from the estuary. The water is still pretty low in a lot of stretches. And it's a bit tooooo clear for the fish not to be spooky.
As for other flowing water in Washington County - you're going to run into the same low water issues, and private land issues. There's some trickles of creeks that run almost exclusively through private land like McKay Crk.
You can hit Dairy Creek up from the park across from Winco on Walnut Street in Hillsboro. There's a trail that runs along the creek for about a hundred yards or so. I fished it for an hour last week after work and landed one cutty, and lost a couple more that came unpinned. That stretch has trout, warm water fish, and carp once in a while. Nothing of big size except the carp. Fun on a light rod just the same though.
If you're up for a walk - I heard they opened access on foot to Lee Falls on the Tualatin again. The problem is parking, the natives in Cherry Grove don't exactly like the city folk coming out and clogging their relatively narrow gravel road. And you've still got a mile or two on foot to walk in to the river up the road passed the locked gate. There are a couple wide spots that people have been parking. I discovered this tidbit of info because I had to tow a jeep out of there a while back - was surprised to see hoards of city folk marching out. I also learned that the land owners were getting pissed because inconsiderate folk were parking in their driveways or blocking their driveways. Guess they figure the home owners won't have them towed and the sheriff won't pop over from Gaston to write citations But the fishing is supposed to be good.
Only a couple places to hit it up that aren't private land too. There is a public park and pull out off B street as you're headed out of town - park at the pull out and fish there, and follow the creek down stream through the woods - that's a public park to HWY 47 I believe. Just a word of caution - the stream bottom is pretty soupy mud in places around there - so I wouldn't wade, I'd stick to shore. The Wilson is good. Hit HWY 6 toward Tillamook. First legal fishing water is around MM28 or so - below where Devil's Lake Fork (still can't figure that name out, since there's no Devil's Lake on the Wilson system) joins the South Fork to form the main stem of the river. From there just hit any pull out near the water. You can tell the private places from the public - as private land is posted or the river gets away from the highway. You can fish all the way down to what was locally known as The Guide Shop just downstream of Mills Bridge. There's a county park (pay to play, $4 IIRC) there. Below that it's pretty much all private land except for Sollie Smith boat landing off Wilson River Loop.
Fishing is slow right now with the low clear water on the Wilson too. I fished it for a few hours on Wednesday and got nary a strike (I was fly fishing too, BTW) - I also noted that some of my "tell tale" pools were void of fish, when last I was there they were full of steelhead. I think that the cutthroats and steelhead shot up river with that rain spat last week. We need more rain to bring more fish in from the estuary. The water is still pretty low in a lot of stretches. And it's a bit tooooo clear for the fish not to be spooky.
As for other flowing water in Washington County - you're going to run into the same low water issues, and private land issues. There's some trickles of creeks that run almost exclusively through private land like McKay Crk.
You can hit Dairy Creek up from the park across from Winco on Walnut Street in Hillsboro. There's a trail that runs along the creek for about a hundred yards or so. I fished it for an hour last week after work and landed one cutty, and lost a couple more that came unpinned. That stretch has trout, warm water fish, and carp once in a while. Nothing of big size except the carp. Fun on a light rod just the same though.
If you're up for a walk - I heard they opened access on foot to Lee Falls on the Tualatin again. The problem is parking, the natives in Cherry Grove don't exactly like the city folk coming out and clogging their relatively narrow gravel road. And you've still got a mile or two on foot to walk in to the river up the road passed the locked gate. There are a couple wide spots that people have been parking. I discovered this tidbit of info because I had to tow a jeep out of there a while back - was surprised to see hoards of city folk marching out. I also learned that the land owners were getting pissed because inconsiderate folk were parking in their driveways or blocking their driveways. Guess they figure the home owners won't have them towed and the sheriff won't pop over from Gaston to write citations
But the fishing is supposed to be good.- Thread Starter
- #3
Thanks for the info- I was trying to find a few places within an hour or so. Wish the water wasn't so low around here, I might just get in rig and make my way towards Tillamook, now I just have to get a day off I might try Dairy Creek too, didn't know about it.
Never too sure around here, which water has fish in them or not.
I might try Dairy Creek too, didn't know about it. Never too sure around here, which water has fish in them or not.
