Halloween Angling on the Columbia: Cohos, Chinooks, and Walleye Galore!

Good morning anglers, Artificial Lure here with your Halloween-day fishing report for the mighty Columbia River in and around Portland. Sunrise was at 7:49 AM, with sunset coming up at 5:58 PM according to Tides.net. Conditions started out with overcast skies and light rain tapering off, typical for late October around here. Gordon’s Halloween Weekend Weather Update is calling for another shot of rain through midday, with highs near 59 and lows around 44, but by the afternoon, expect scattered showers and lighter winds—pretty classic fall weather for the banks and boats. Tidal action on the river is key: Portland’s Willamette River tide today peaks with a 6'10" high at 1:32 AM, a 1'0" low at 11:07 AM, and another high at 3:20 PM, cresting at 7'2". The Columbia entrance at the North Jetty sits at low tide at 2:30 AM, climbs to a 6'2" high at 9:31 AM, drops to 3'0" by 3:09 PM, and rises back up to almost 6 feet at 9:06 PM. If you’re after salmon and steelhead, time your river approaches with the incoming tide, especially in the mid-morning and late-afternoon windows. Fish activity is holding steady as the fall surge continues. As ODFW’s October 30th Columbia Zone update reports, the coho bite has been decent between Bonneville and Tongue Point, with the last boat check showing 86 coho kept and 39 Chinook landed, along with a smattering of jacks and a few steelhead. Bank anglers are getting a slower pick, but boats are still putting fish in the box. The Dalles Pool saw a few coho and Chinook landed, while the John Day Pool put out an impressive 33 walleye for only four boats. In the Portland stretch and below Bonneville, most salmon are hatchery coho and a mix of late-fall Chinook, with wild coho retention closed across the lower Columbia’s mainstem and most tributaries. The rain last week bumped flows and helped fresh fish move through. Now those fish are stacking up at stream mouths and main river channel edges. Cutthroat trout season closes November 1, so today is your last crack at that action. Best lures and baits right now: for coho and Chinook, troll flashy spinners in orange, chartreuse, or pink, or pull cut-plug herring behind a rotating flasher—especially during low light or just after tide turn. Plugs such as Mag Lips in 3.5 size or Kwikfish in copper or silver/green patterns have accounted for several larger Chinook this week. If you’re running bait, nothing beats a well-brined herring or sand shrimp, especially for the deeper channels near Portland docks and at the I-205 bridge. For walleye in the John Day and Bonneville pools, try jigging soft plastics or pulling worm harnesses along breaks and drop-offs. Hot spots this morning: - The mouth of the Sandy River just east of Troutdale: fresh coho are stacking up as those tides rise. - The Multnomah Channel above St. Helens: boats trolling spinners are picking off both coho and early winter steelhead. A quick reminder: sturgeon retention remains closed throughout this reach, and h This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.