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Fern Ridge Reservoir Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Fern Ridge Reservoir: a 9,000-acre Corps lake on the Long Tom River west of Eugene, the Willamette Basin's largest waterbody per ODFW.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Lake level
365.46 ft
Air / High
57 / 60 F
Wind
NNE 3 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 14168000, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Fern Ridge Reservoir sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The gauge reads 365.46 ft, easing 1.54 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NNE around 3 mph, steady pressure near 1026 hPa and a high of 60. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:52 AM-11:52 AM and 10:22 PM-12:22 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Tomorrow: Warmer at 66 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Oregon requires a fishing licence from age 12, from $50.00 for residents. What a Oregon licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with ODFW before you keep anything. The season dates for Oregon, read off the agency, are on the Oregon seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Fern Ridge Lake near Elmira, OR.

Water level, last 30 days

USGS gauge 14168000.

365.95366.87367.79365.46 ft09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp57 F
High / Low60 / 37 F
WindNNE 3-11 mph
Pressure1026.1 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain4% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:38 / 18:15
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Fern Ridge Reservoir this week

The best day on Fern Ridge Reservoir this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 5 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:52 AM-11:52 AM and 10:22 PM-12:22 AM
Minor period
4:18 AM-5:18 AM
Sun
07:38 to 18:15
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Clear, 8 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Fern Ridge Reservoir: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

When to come: the Fern Ridge Reservoir calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Fern Ridge Reservoir today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 66 F, wind to 12 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 71 F, wind to 5 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 69 F, wind to 10 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
Only used if we need to ask you about your report. No mailing list, no spam.

Before you go

License

Oregon requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Oregon fishing license. For bass, crappie and panfish limits see ODFW's current Willamette Zone regulations.

Access

Orchard Park and Richardson Park ramps (open per ODFW, Sept. 28, 2026); Lane County Parks manages the ramps. Perkins Peninsula and the dam face are named by ODFW for crappie.

About this water

A 9,000-acre Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Long Tom River 12 miles west of Eugene, Lane County, Oregon; dam completed in 1942.

Fishing Fern Ridge Reservoir: the full guide

The dam and the lake

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Fern Ridge Dam on the Long Tom River between 1940 and 1942: an earthen embankment 50 feet tall and 6,330 feet long, 13 miles upstream of Monroe, with no powerhouse. Its downstream portions were rebuilt in 2005 to deal with seepage through the soil foundation. ODFW describes the reservoir as a 9,000-acre lake 12 miles west of Eugene and the largest waterbody in the Willamette Basin.

What ODFW lists

ODFW's Willamette Zone report lists largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill and brown bullhead at Fern Ridge. Its late-September 2026 update points crappie anglers to the weedy edges on the south side of the reservoir, around Perkins Peninsula and along the face of the dam.

Ramps and lake level

On Sept. 28, 2026 ODFW reported the Orchard Park and Richardson Park boat ramps still open and referred questions about ramps to the Lane County Parks Department. The lake level on this page comes from USGS gauge 14168000, Fern Ridge Lake near Elmira.

Common questions

What fish does ODFW list for Fern Ridge?

Largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill and brown bullhead.

Which boat ramps are open?

ODFW reported Orchard Park and Richardson Park open on Sept. 28, 2026; Lane County Parks has current ramp information.

Who runs Fern Ridge Dam?

The Portland District of the Corps of Engineers, as part of its 13-dam Willamette Valley system; Fern Ridge has no powerhouse.

Is fishing good at Fern Ridge Reservoir right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Siletz River53 miUmpqua River58 miWillamette River59 miDetroit Lake67 miCoos Bay73 miOdell Lake73 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 14168000 β€” Fern Ridge Lake near Elmira, OR
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:15 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 44.1000, -123.3000 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 8, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 8, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.