Dorman Pond on a fall day in 2014. Chas Hundley//Gales Creek Journal
SALEM – A free fishing weekend will return to Oregon this President’s Day weekend on Saturday and Sunday, February 16 & 17.
On those days, fishing, crabbing, and clamming is free to all residents and non-residents, meaning no fishing licenses or tags, including a Combined Angling Tag or Columbia River Basin Endorsement are required.
Regular rules and regulations apply, such as bag limits, size restrictions, and closures.
Looking for some fishing tips? ODFW puts out a weekly recreation report, found at myodfw.com/recreation-report. The report, updated weekly on Wednesdays, includes a rundown of hunting and fishing prospects, fire regulations and closures, and stocking schedules.
Future Free Fishing dates are June 1-2, August 17-18, and November 29-30.
Stocking Schedule
While it won’t line up for February’s free fishing weekend, local anglers should be aware that Dorman Pond and Hagg Lake are both scheduled to be stocked with thousands of hatchery trout, according to the ODFW trout stocking schedule.
Hagg Lake is scheduled to receive its first shipment of legal-size trout—18,000 hatchery rainbow trout—sometime from February 25 to March 1, with additional dates scheduled throughout the year.
Closer to home, Dorman Pond, located along Highway 6 just past the Highway 6 and 8 junction in Gales Creek, will receive 1,000 legal trout from March 18, to March 22.
Two other scheduled drops will bring the total amount to over 3,000 trout into Dorman Pond this year.
Looking for more information, or other bodies of water? Click here for a full listing of the ODFW trout stocking schedule.
The database incorporates U.S. Army Corps stockings into the ODFW stocking schedule, and can be searched by date, body of water, and fishing zone.
In the Willamette Valley, 5,000 trout (total) are going into Sheridan Pond, Junction City Pond, Walling Pond, Huddleston Pond, Mt. Hood Pond, EE Wilson Pond and Walter Wirth Lake this week, so there are options for those itching to cast a line.
In other hunting and fishing news, the deadline to report all 2018 big game and turkey tags has been extended until April 15, 2019 (from Jan. 31) to give hunters more time to report under ODFW’s new licensing system.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
