8
community
august9
2011
Living On a Lake in the Country: Lake or River Fishing?
So Many Choices!
By Gayle Rich-Boxman
I get asked this question
periodically and decided to get some
real answers for all you folks who
have fishing on your wish list and are
interested in living on or near Fishhawk
Lake as your 1st, 2nd or investment
home.
I interviewed one of my fishing
gurus, Ken Bateman (who also happens
to own Vernonia Realty and has lived in
this area all of his life) and tried to keep it
within an hour’s drive at the most from
Fishhawk Lake. Here’s the lowdown:
Trout Season:
May
(usually
Memorial
Day weekend) to October 31st for
Fishhawk Lake and the coastal streams
in the Northwest zone. You can catch
and keep up to two cutthroat trout per
day, 8” or over. Trout can be readily
found in Fishhawk Lake. All along the
Nehalem River is another great area;
the headwaters are located around the
Timber, OR area and it flows in a big
loop (about 90 miles long) and enters the
ocean at Wheeler, OR. From Fishhawk
Lake to Wheeler is only 53 miles and
from Vernonia to Fishhawk Lake there
are also lots of tributaries that have fish
as well. This Nehalem system, which
includes all of the creeks that run into
it, have native fish (cutthroat trout)
Vernonia Rural Fire Department
1 st Annual Golf Benefit •• Four Player Team
Saturday, August 13 th , 2011
Vernonia Golf Club, Vernonia, OR
Registration: 8 am ••
Tee-off: 9 am
•• Cost: $50
This includes 9-holes of golf, BBQ lunch following tournament, and lots of prizes to be won!
* Putting Challenge * Longest Drive * Closest to the Pin * 50/50 Raffle * $10,000 Hole In One Prize *
Download Registration form at: www.vernoniafire.us
All participants must be at least 12 years of age.
vernoniagolfbenefit@gmail.com or contact Randy Carlton #503-791-8309
The Black Bear & Bear Creek Pub
✥ All new state-of-the-art espresso machine
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
✥ Outdoor patio seating
✥ Rotating beer on tap
✥ Open daily at 6 AM
✥ Happy Hour
✥ Free Wi-Fi
✥
Stop by
this
Summer
only; they’re not stocked. As to “how
to” fish, you can bank fish on the whole
Nehalem, or you can troll in a variety of
small boats (drift boat, small pontoon
boats, kayaks, etc.) with lures only.
Steelhead/Salmon fishing:
Catch and release only at
Fishhawk Lake, but consult rules and
regulations
for
other
areas.
Steelhead come up
the upper portion
of the Nehalem
River in late
December through
March. This river
is not stocked with
steelhead, they’re
mostly
native
and you can’t
keep the natives.
If you catch a
hatchery fish, the
adipose fin would
be clipped which
is the small fin at
the lower part of their back. It would be
a rare occurrence to catch one of these
hatchery fish in the Upper Nehalem.
In Vernonia Lake, which is 24
miles from Fishhawk Lake on Hwy. 47
and not far from Portland, you can fish
for trout, bass and crappie and bluegill.
Non motorized boats or bank fishing
allowed. It also gets stocked regularly
with trout. (Check on seasonality)
We are also not far from the
Columbia River where you can do
boat fishing on big water for salmon,
steelhead and you can bank fish, too.
Catch and Retain:
Within an hour of Fishhawk
Lake there are several steelhead streams
that have a run
of hatchery fish.
The
Klaskanine
River is on the
way to Astoria,
past
Fishhawk
Lake on Highway
202. You can catch
Coho, Chinook and
steelhead. Other
steelhead streams
that run into the
Columbia River are
Big Creek Hatchery
on
Hwy.
30
between Clatskanie
and Astoria. The
ide
v
pro rnet
w
n o I n te
e
W DS L
Clatskanie River is another possibility.
This is roughly a half hour from the lake.
Miscellaneous fishing:
The whole Columbia River is
also available for sturgeon, wall-eye
and bass fishing, shad and a variety of
warm water species. You can crab/clam
in some of the small coastal towns:
Seaside, Gearhart, Nehalem Bay. You
can also crab in the lower Columbia at
Hammond Marina. There are many little
bays near the ocean, too, the closest to
Fishhawk Lake would be Astoria, about
an hour’s drive at the most.
For more regulations, please
visit the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife website: http://www.dfw.state.
or.us/
More info about Pacific
Northwest fish: http://www.psmfc.org/
habitat/fishfacts.html
If you want to talk fishing or real
estate, pop in and say hi to Ken Bateman
at Vernonia Realty, 953 Bridge St.
s t o We
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COMPUTER &
INTERNET SERVICES
•Computer Servicing
• Upgrades & Repairs
• Office Supplies
831 Bridge St . (503)-429-0214
• Media Transfers
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503.429.TECH
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866 Bridge Street, Vernonia
