Tualatin Fishing Report - Skunked...again

Spent Sunday afternoon throwing some flies around the Tualatin.  Launched from Cook Park in Tigard and headed up river to the 99W bridge.  I'm pretty new to kayaking and fly fishing so this was more of a learning experience than anything else.  I'm calling it that as opposed to a totally unsuccessful fishing trip which it really was.  I was hoping to catch a Smallmouth or two as I was told that they do live in here. 

The river has some low spots right out of the park, but soon upriver it get's pretty deep, between 10 and 15 feet for quite awhile.  I did get a couple bites - 1 on an Olive Wolly Bugger and one on a Red Popper near some logs.  Not sure what kind of fish they were though.  The only "Action" I hear of, was one guy that caught a carp from the bank, and some kids on a dock (see picture below) that were getting good action on Perch and BlueGill.  Funny thing is that I didn't see a single fish on my fish finder the whole day.  Maybe Smallies hide too much to show up on a fish finder?  Or maybe that river sux for fishin!

I'm sure it was my technique more than anything.  I tried a couple different color Wolly Buggers, some white, and red poppers.  I even threw in a zonker and some crayfish imitations after somebody told me they trapped a couple.  The fact that no fish showed up though tells me that none of that mattered.

The good news is that the Tualatin river is much nicer than I thought it would be.  There wasn't that much trash, and there were lots of recreation canoeists and kayakers about.  The weather was picture perfect fall weather also - so hard to complain about not getting any fish.

Water temperature was about 66F.  Air temperature about the same.  Maybe it's too cold?  Any suggestions about where I'm going wrong here?

Going to try to attach some fishing porn for those of you that got stuck working around the house on Sunday.

Thanks for the post and welcome to NWKA. Good on ya for getting out there and no worries, it looks like it was a nice day on the yak. Sometimes you have to just enjoy cruisin' in the yak. Sounds like you were doing some good thinkgs so I say just stick w/ it and keep an eye on the finder. You'll get 'em soon enough!

Z

Fishing the Tualatin.  That takes me back.

Try the mouth of Fanno Creek just past the railroad bridge (by the sewage outfall pipe :\ in Tualatin)  When I was a kid we used to catch lots of large mouth there.  Also, there should be some Coho moving thru.  They still get a run up Gales creek.  I'm not sure what the regs are for them so you'll want to check that out before targeting them.  Look for submerged logs and try jigging a weighted zonker strip.
Dang!  Now there's another place to add to my must paddle list....

You know, it strange, I never meter any fish in there either. I usually can find at least one volunteer though.
Just upstream from the park, around the first left bend, is another sewage outfall on the same side of the stream as the launch (0.5 mile from the park) are some fallen trees on both sides of the river. The "channel" drops to about 12'-15' deep here and the bank as well as the middle are good spots.

Although I have not caught a lot of weight in there, the number of fish is usually pretty good. The Smallies have run to a about 3lbs. The area where Spot suggested (in the other direction near the railroad bridge) produced my largest Tualatin fish. Either a very big Pike Minnow or a fair sized Walleye. I not sure which it was, but it pulled really hard and looked to be a good 4 1/2- 5 lbs. I put it back.

The Tualatin (Cook Park) is about 15 minutes form my front door, I think I may give it a shot this evening.