Columbia River Fishing Forecast: Shad, Bass, and Walleye Abound in Early Summer

Artificial Lure here with your Columbia River Portland fishing report for Saturday, June 21, 2025. We’re off to a classic early summer start on the Columbia. Sunrise this morning hit at 5:22 a.m., with sunset coming at 9:02 p.m., giving us a long window to wet a line. The skies over Portland today are overcast, temps hovering in the high 60s to low 70s, and a south breeze picking up by midmorning. According to the latest tidal charts, expect a substantial morning incoming tide, peaking just after 9 a.m.—prime time for targeting most species, especially shad, bass, and sturgeon in the metro section. The shad run is firing on all cylinders, with schools thick below Bonneville and all the way down to St. Helens. Plenty of boats are reporting fast action—think double-digit catches per rod, especially at hot spots like the Willamette-Columbia confluence and Meldrum Bar. Chartreuse and silver shad darts or small spoons are still the top picks—don’t be afraid to move until you land on a school, as these fish will be stacked in fast water seams. Walleye fishing is another bright spot, especially up around the John Day Pool, but closer to Portland the Multnomah Channel and mouth of the Willamette are dependable. Drifting nightcrawlers on a worm harness or trolling deep-diving crankbaits in perch or firetiger patterns is producing limits for persistent anglers. Bass anglers are having a heyday with the river warming up. Smallmouths are actively chasing shad, so swim baits that mimic young shad, like Keitech FAT Swing Impact in Smallmouth Magic or Ghost Rainbow, are putting up big numbers. Early morning topwater—think Whopper Ploppers and poppers—are getting explosive strikes along rocky ledges and outside weed beds from Hayden Island down to Sauvie Island. Twenty to fifty fish per day is not uncommon if you stay mobile and work the structure. Chinook retention is closed for adults in the Portland stretch this summer due to a low forecast, but hatchery jacks are open and showing up in small numbers, mostly up around the airport and Troutdale. If you target steelhead, remember regulations allow only one hatchery fish per day right now, but a few bright hatchery fish have been caught this week. Best bets are drift fishing cured salmon eggs or shrimp under a slip bobber in the fast runs near the mouth of the Sandy and Lewis rivers, or trolling small spinners (blue and silver, or orange and gold) in the main river. For bait, steelheaders are scoring with cured salmon eggs, sand shrimp, and occasionally nightcrawlers, especially when fished at first light or just before dusk as the sun gets low over the west hills. If you’re looking to maximize the action, hot spots today are the rocky shorelines below the I-205 bridge for smallmouth, the shad lanes below the Willamette mouth, and Meldrum Bar for a shot at both shad and early steelhead. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe for your daily dose of river intel. This has been a Quiet Please pr This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.