A nice collection of hiking/day drives that I write about from around Oregon. So many nice places to visit in Oregon. And yes most of them will involve fishing. I have added the closest towns to many of them so it is easier to find them on a map.
Coast
- Cape Arago (Coos Bay)
- Coquille lighthouse (Bandon)
- Face Rock Creamery (Bandon)
Coast Range
- Dean Creek Elk viewing area (Elkton/Reedsport)
- Kentucky falls (Florence/Reedsport)
- Siuslaw river (Florence)
- Smith River Falls (Reedsport)
- Whittaker Creek (Florence)
Willamette Valley
- Dorris Ranch (Springfield)
- McKenzie River (Springfield)
- June Mountain (Dextor)
- Silver Creek south falls (Silverton)
West side of the Cascades and foot hills
- Blue Lake (Oakridge)
- Bohemia Mining District (Cottage Grove)
- Elk Creek Trail (Blue River)
- Goodman Creek (Dexter)
- Hidden Lake (McKenzie valley)
- Linton Lake (Old McKenzie Highway)
- Salt Creek Falls (Oakridge)
- South silver creek falls
- Spirit Lake (Oakridge)
- Fishing and Hiking McDowell Creek falls (Sweet home
Central Oregon and Eastern side of the Cascades
Several great books for the local areas
Hiking Waterfalls in Oregon: A Guide to the State’s Best Waterfall Hikes
Day Hiking Bend & Central Oregon: Mount Jefferson/ Sisters/ Cascade Lakes
100 Hikes / Travel Guide: Central Oregon Cascades
100 Hikes / Travel Guide: Oregon Coast & Coast Range
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We recently went fishing/float tube at hidden lake and followed your info. Very helpful and extremely accurate. Caught lots of 6-10” trout. Coming from Eugene and looking for another quality place to visit? Linton lake possibly…
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Linton Lake is a great place to go. It is a fairly flat hike, and I have seen some very large brown trout swimming around in there. If you walk all the way around the lake there is a small waterfall just up the valley from the lake also.
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Fantastic and thank you. Anywhere else you might recommend? Heard gold lake is also good?
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Gold lake is great for fly fishing. There does tend to be a lot of people there. On the road up to it there is a short hike to a pair of lakes that might be worth the walk (Marilyn Lakes). Smaller fish but less people. Odell at the top of the pass is great to fish for rainbows. If you are in float tubes just be careful of the wind. It can go from glass calm to high wind in 15 minutes.
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Do you have any suggestions for creeks rivers within two hours of Eugene? Probably use spinners for that.
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Salt creek above the falls is good with spinners, Just a bit brushy. There are some nice rainbows and cutthroats in the Willamette from Dexter lake all the way to Harrisburg. Odell creek is catch and release but has a ton of small fish in it. the Creeks above Blue reservoir and Hill Creek reservoir used to have some decent fishing. When you went up to hidden lake if you didn’t try the river there you should. I have caught a lot of nice fish there in the 15″+ range over the years
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Have you done any smallmouth fishing on the umpqua or do you primarily fish trout? I have heard some sections can be fantastic!
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It has been years since I fished there but there were a huge amount of small mouth just at Elkton.
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