Photo by David Paul Williams

Angler Steve Bohnmeyer knows fishing will only get better as the winter sun warms the Willamette River.

It was one of those bright, sunny winter days that compel anglers to emerge from their winter lairs and head for the nearest water with fishing gear in hand.

Stymied by zesty winds and deep swells, we shelved our saltwater plans for the day and turned our sights inland. January is too early for the March browns to hatch. But the sudden bump in water temperature, caused by a few hours of sun, hit the trout-feeding switch. We caught just enough fish to sand the rust off our catch-and-release skills and put smiles on our faces.

As the sun dropped behind the hills, it took the day’s warmth with it. And we resolved to learn more about this river and its hard-fighting trout.

CRUCIAL CLEANUP
Oregon’s Willamette Valley was the Promised Land for the pioneers crossing the continent on the Oregon Trail. Drawn by tales of rich soil, heavily forested mountains and sweet-water rivers, they settled into a broad, level valley blessed with a mild climate. The Coast Range protected the valley from the strong Pacific storms that lashed the coast. The Cascade Mountains shunted aside the cold air from the east. The southern end was buttressed by the Calapooya Mountains, while the mouth funneled into the Columbia River.

The Willamette River starts at river mile 187 south of Eugene where the Coast Fork meets the Middle Fork, then flows north towards the Columbia River. The Willamette Basin drains 12 percent of Oregon’s landmass, but it’s home to 70 percent of the state’s population.

Population growth was not kind to the river. In the early 1900s, towns and industry dumped untreated wastes into the river in such quantities that by the 1930s, biologists declared that the river was dead.

After 30 years of cleanup efforts -- in large part due to the Willamette River Greenway Program -- the river was declared safe for swimming in 1972. In 1998, it was designated an American Heritage River.

Michael T. Williams, a niche guide and master fly-tier from Eugene, started fishing the Willamette River in 1958. He says the river’s recovery is slow, in part due to ongoing road-building and logging operations on the mountain tributaries. Logging waste and silt enter the river during each high water. He said that the river is still healthier now than it has been in his lifetime.

Fifty years of reversing pollution and aggressive management policies have allowed anadromous and resident fish stocks to rebound. The lower reaches of the river, below Oregon City Falls, is a mixed-bag fishery, justifiably famous for its “June hogs” spring chinook, but lesser known for sturgeon and warm-water game fish.

As you move upstream, you’ll see the river return to its roots -- a cold-water fishery filled with rainbow and cutthroat trout, mountain whitefish and burgeoning runs of steelhead.

Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has even undertaken a program to restore bull trout populations in the river’s upper tributaries. So far, the results have been mixed. Bull trout have been designated as endangered and protected throughout the river system.