Fishing the Tualatin

Finally had some luck tonight on the Tualatin.  After a few failed attempts at casting near downed logs and overhanging branches with plastic worms rigged weedless style, I decided to just troll this trip3.  Had this cricket lure that was a shallow diver, golden and black, thought I would give it a shot.  The first fish gave a good fight, was a decent sized fish, I had it stretched out on my paddle for a picture but my assistant (gf), didn't quite capture that one, and i let it go before she could take another.  I measured my paddle and where it went to on it, it was approximately 14".  Is that a squawfish??



 The second fish was a bass, that's a small mouth right??  LOL... I can't find my fishing synopsis right now, and I'm use to just trout =)




The third fish, well that's the one that got away.  Didn't quite net it in time while i was brining it in, it looked like the same as #1, but maybe a bit smaller. 

Nice report.  I've been meaning to check out the Tualatin soon.  There looks to be a lot of good structure in there.  Where abouts do you launch?

Anyway, to answer your fish ID questions...Your first fish is a squawfish (the new politically correct name is now pikeminnow )  and you bass looks more like a largemouth to me.

Brian

Congrats on the first report.. w/ pics even! NICE! Yep, that surely is a largemouth.

Z

Thanks for the identification Brian.  I usually put in at cook park and paddle upstream, I pass Jurgens park and usually turn around at the 99W Bridge, there are so many spots in there.    Last night I focused more on the areas where the herons, and beavers were, they led me to the fish. There is LOTS of structure to fish around, I trolled around them.  I'm still getting the hang of landing the fish on a kayak, it's fun stuff.  Someone told me that the Northern Pike Minnow has a bounty on it, but that doesn't include ones caught in the Tualatin does it?  How does one tell the difference between a small mouth and a large mouth bass?  I was expecting a "larger" mouth lol..

Sqauwfish (northern pikeminnow) do have a bounty on their heads in certain rivers.  We had a thread about it about a month ago..
http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,1233.0.html

Basically they need to be caught on the Columbia or Snake rivers, you need to sign in the morning of your pikeminnow fishing (there are many stations) and check in at the end of the day. They pay about $4 a piece and a bit more if you really catch a lot.  Some people who have it dialed in can actually make a modest living off this.

As for largemouth vs smallmouth.  The mouth is the key characteristic, but you will also notice coloration differences between the two.

Here's a guide to the warmwater fish of Oregon from ODFW...
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/swwd/warmwater.html
and here is an image from the guide (laremouth on top).


The laremouth's mouth extends past the eye when closed, the smallmouth's mouth only makes it mid-eye.   The largemouths tend to have that characteristic horizontal bar while smallmouth tend to have multiple vertical bars.

Brian

FYI- I asked a guy in a motor boat that lives off the Tualatin if he ever kept anything he caught out of there.  He said that he generally released most everything he caught, but he did keep and eat 2 bass a month.  He said the pollution levels aren't bad, it's just the stagnant water.  I think the next bass I catch i'm going to keep and try to eat, hah, after all I've eaten fish out of ponds when i was younger  ..

I had mentioned I was using a cricket lure, the actual lure is a Rebel Crickhopper, I have the Black color

#103 in that image.  It worked awesome, All three of those fish on the same lure =)

Nice, I don't think I've seen those cricket lures before.  They look perfect for my ultralight rod. 
I have however had pretty good success with the rebel crayfish lures.

I have one of those rebel crawfish, it's a Chartreuse-Green colored one.  Haven't caught with it yet.  I've just been buying lures on what i think looks cool. lol, not sure the fish always agree with me

I've just been buying lures on what i think looks cool. lol, not sure the fish always agree with me

Yep, lures are definitely designed to catch the anglers attention and not necessarily fish.  Japanese companies like Megabass have this concept down.. $20+ bass plugs.

Here's a little video of some megabass lures.. it's in Japanese, but still interesting.
[youtube=425,350]DgNTm2lo0e0[/youtube]

Sqauwfish (northern pikeminnow) do have a bounty on their heads in certain rivers.  We had a thread about it about a month ago..

Brian

Personally, I believe there ought to be a bounty on all Bass and Walleye in the Columbia and its tributaries.  Big money Bass companies will never let that happen though.

Personally, I believe there ought to be a bounty on all Bass and Walleye in the Columbia and its tributaries.  Big money Bass companies will never let that happen though.

I'm right there with you.  It seems silly to have a bounty on a native fish and sports fisheries (with regs and limits) for introduced fish that also prey on salmon/steelhead smolt.

Brian

Puddled around the Tualatin this evening from about 6 to 9. Tossed my 8 year old nephew into the front hatch of my Extreeme and launched from Cook park and paddled upriver a couple of turns. The water is high for the Tualatin (almost 2' deep at the "rapid" just up front the launch) and really stinky  with that awful effluent color. Not what you'd want to swim in. Did'nt catch jack but I saw a bunch of surface hits and one really large carp (I think). Good teaching day (the boy can tie up his own rig now!) but not much catching. He was just glad to get away from the four little screaming girls at my house (so was I )

Hmm I was thinking about hitting the Tualatin tomorrow morning with my son, but this report doesn't sound so good.  Any other ideas Wali for near to portland, calm water with a decent chance to catch a fish for my toddler son?

Brian

Hmm I was thinking about hitting the Tualatin tomorrow morning with my son, but this report doesn't sound so good.  Any other ideas Wali for near to portland, calm water with a decent chance to catch a fish for my toddler son?

Brian

The Tualatin is still a good choice for close to home. We didn't catch any fish because we spent most of our time paddling and rigging. Corn kernels on a #8 hook under a bobber should produce lots of panfish in the slow T. The downed trees downstream from Cook Park are usually good for a few. Give me a call and I'll join you. Cook Park is about 13 minutes from my front door.

The other spot that comes to mind is Lacamas and Round Lake in Washington. Pretty close as the crow flies, but a bit of a drive.