General Portland Area Fishing Info

I was wondering if there is a more general fishing site you guys use for information on the what, when, where, and how of the local fisheries.   I've moved all over the country the last 15 years or so and it seems it always takes me about a full year or two just to break into the local fishing scene as I always seem to be a bit late for one fishery or don't have a clue about the technique for another fishery.

For example, this is what I know so far.

The ocean will be a couple hours away from Portland, probably a bit rougher than NorCal, with similar fish with a few other salmon species swimming around depending on the time of year and Pacific Halibut out deep.  I can probably figure that out.

The inland lakes are a mix of warm water fisheries like bass in some lakes and cool water trout in others.  Again, probably not a big deal for me to adapt to.

Then there are the rivers and estuaries, I think here I'm pretty clueless and have lots of questions.  Multiple salmon species and steelhead, each with one or more seasonal runs depending on the river.  I guess I need to figure out these runs.  Sturgeon in the Columbia, Walleye and smallmouth in the fresher reaches, I saw a previous post about shad.  I'm guessing these are pretty seasonal as well.   I've paddled rivers, but I imagine river flows and tidal currents can be a hassle when trying to fish.   Do you guys use an anchor system?  Is it detachable with a float like the NCKA guys use for sturgeon or rigged more like a drift boat anchor like some of the other NCKA guys have done for steelhead on the Russian River using 10 lb pyramid anchors on their stern?   Or do you just time the current and tides to minimize their effects?

Hey, it's kind of exciting to be a newbie again.

Brian

Welcome Brian,

I'm a newbie to kayak fishing so I'll defer to others for info. on river rigging but I've been fishing the area for longer than I care to mention. 

The local website for fishing is ifish.net.  Jenny runs a great site and the forums are full of information on seasons and techniques.

Ditto on www.ifish.net

-Allen

Thanks for the quick reply.

For some reason every time I did an internet search for Oregon or Portland fishing info, I'd seem to only get Oregon fish and wildlife or charter boat sites.  I think Ifish came up as well, but because the front page was full of chart info (I shouldn't blame them for having sponsors), I skipped it.  But now that I've bothered to take a closer look, it seems to be just the type of site I need at this point.

Brian