Fishing spots In Beaverton/Aloha

[Trout Slayer_7]

Looking for a couple new spots to fish in the Beaverton/Aloha area… have been fishing Murray Hill Summer lake Progress lake (before it was closed of course) Bethany And Commonwealth pretty hard. I've heard of Witzig, anybody know what's in there? Just trying to deal with quarantine by fishing!

 

[pinstriper]

One hears about the Bethany ponds. I have never bothered with them. And I avoid Beaverton almost as much as I avoid Portland, on principle.

There are a few canoe/kayak ramps on the Tualatin out in the country where you would find at least as good bank access as at Cook Park, and probably fewer people there. The new park at River Rd. and Farmington, the 99w bridge overpass just south of King City, and Rood Bridge Park in Hillsboro come to mind. The Tualatin is a snaggy river, of course, so adjust your gear and approach accordingly.

By that I mean don't plan on dropping plastics or running Texas/Carolina rigs on the bottom. Pulling a spinner and keeping it shallow will work until you find the snags. Run a bobber with a drop shot below to keep things shallow. Run topwater plugs etc.

 

[Trout Slayer_7]

Thanks for the tips!

 

[bass]

You can get to the banks of the Willamette pretty quickly. I have had good success bank fishing Willamette park (10th street West Linn), Willamette park in Portland, Mary S. Young Park, George Rogers park (I think this is tough to get to at the moment) and almost any other place you can get to the shore and that there are rocks.

I did not know that Progress lake was closed. It looks to be open from the THPRD website.

 

[Trout Slayer_7]

What fish do you catch at the Willamette..If you go on the thprd website at the top there is a COVID-19 alert banner it has a link to the closuers progress lake fishing is listed as closed... Which sucks cause it is close o my house, I was actually there when the game warden came to close it
?

 

[bass]

The smallmouth fishing on the Willamette is amazing. Larger and more fish than the Tualatin (not that the Tualatin does not have its own charm). I have caught a ton of bass along the shoreline of the Willamette. The spots I mention are on the West bank so the bite is awesome right around daybreak and then again in the evening. The spots I mentioned have a long period of shade in the evening. You can catch fish along the shoreline when it's sunny but I think it is easier when the shade is on the water.

You are right about Progress lake. I was not looking in the right spot. I went to the Progress lake page but the closure is only listed under the closures page.

 

[Trout Slayer_7]

What did you catch the smallies on I never have found the trick in the willamette

 

[fromthelogo]

I have caught them using crankbaits and spinnerbaits, but I mainly use soft plastics either Texas rigged, Ned rigged or weightless. Stick baits, tubes, curly tailed grubs - mainly something that imitates a crawdad.

 

[Trout Slayer_7]

Awesome thanks a lot!

 

[bass]

Good tips @fromthelogo

A couple of specific lures that work well are a 3" cinnamon Senko that is wacky rigged. That will catch bass almost anywhere. I fish it with some number of twitches and then a pause. Vary the number of twitches from one to continuous and vary the pauses from long to none. You can cover a lot of different depths with this one lure.

A second lure that is a killer is a 4" swimbait (I usually use white) on a 1/8 to 1/4 oz ball jighead. Just cast and retrieve. If that does not work then add some pauses. Once again you can cover a lot of different depths by changing your speed of retrieve and your rod angle.

Another killer action bait is a spinnerbait (not an in-line spinner). I use two types. One is the normal skirted type with willowleaf blades. The other is the detachable safety pin type spinner harness with a jighead and a plastic twisty tail. The latter lure is very inexpensive and you don't have to feel bad if you snag one up.

Crankbaits work well (especially crawfish colors) but are easy to snag from shore. If you want to fish an action bait an ~4" jerkbait in a minnow color is a good choice and less likely to snag.

For topwater I prefer a stickbait (Zara puppy or Sammy). If there is a chop I like to use something like a Heddon tiny torpedo, whopper plopper or a buzzbait.

Last thing I would suggest is a Ned rig. I like the weedless mushroom heads (makes them pretty rockless as well) with Z-man Finesse TRD baits. The TRDs are super-tough (elastic) but soft, salty and they float. I don't know why ned rigs works so well but they are really killer. I mostly use green pumpkin but sometimes use a minnow color like "the deal".

Best of luck!

 

[fromthelogo]

My favorite ZMan baits in The Deal color are the TicklerZ and the HulaZ. The hula is a larger version of the tickler. Both can be fished vertically to imitate a crawdad or swim them horizontally to imitate a baitfish. They last forever.

I like a 3” Yum Dinger in green pumpkin with a chartreuse tip either wacky, Texas rigged or on a ball head jig.

 

[bass]

Yum Dingers are definitely a good cheaper Senko!

 

[kaidecarli]

It's possible to fish the Murray Hill fountain?