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Nestucca River Fishing Report

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

A Tillamook County coastal river with hatchery-supported winter and summer steelhead, spring and fall chinook, wild coho seasons and sea-run cutthroat.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Flow
68 cfs
Air / High
51 / 54 F
Wind
NW 4 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 14303600, 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.

Nestucca River feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. The river is running 68 cfs, steady over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NW around 4 mph, steady pressure near 1026 hPa and a high of 54. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:54 AM-11:54 AM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

SteelheadGood

Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Chinook salmonSlow

Runs enter the rivers: drift roe or sand shrimp through travel lanes, plunk a wrapped plug, or float eggs in eddies and tidewater.

Tomorrow: Similar at 56 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 steelhead 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 Nestucca River near Beaver.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 14303600.

8511915468 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 41 years of October 23

At 68 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 14303600 (Nestucca River near Beaver) is at the 9th percentile for the date: much below normal. In half of the 41 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 320 cfs; the highest was 3,250 cfs and the lowest 51 cfs.

p10 71median 320p90 1,496

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 14303600; today’s reading is the latest instantaneous value. Classes follow the ones the USGS used on its WaterWatch maps (retired at the end of 2025): below 10th, much below normal; 10th–24th, below; 25th–75th, normal; 76th–90th, above; over 90th, much above.

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp51 F
High / Low54 / 42 F
WindNW 4-8 mph
Pressure1026.4 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain9% cloud, 4%
Sunrise / Sunset07:42 / 18:16
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (gauge)48 F USGS
Water temp (seasonal)~55 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 Nestucca River this week

The best day on Nestucca River this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, 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
9:54 AM-11:54 AM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
Minor period
4:20 AM-5:20 AM
Sun
07:42 to 18:16
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Partly cloudy, 8 mph
Rain chance
4%

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

Species guide

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

Steelhead illustration

Steelhead

Great Lakes tributaries from fall through spring; West Coast rivers have both summer and winter runs

Steelhead are rainbow trout that migrate to the Pacific or the Great Lakes to grow, then return up rivers to spawn; unlike most Pacific salmon they can survive spawning and spawn again. Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Chinook salmon illustration

Chinook salmon

Seasons follow the runs: spring, summer and fall runs on the West Coast, and late summer into fall in Great Lakes rivers

The largest Pacific salmon, caught by trolling and mooching at sea and by drifting and plunking in rivers as adults return to spawn; also stocked in the Great Lakes. Runs enter the rivers: drift roe or sand shrimp through travel lanes, plunk a wrapped plug, or float eggs in eddies and tidewater.

When to come: the Nestucca River 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
Steelhead
Chinook salmon
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 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 Nestucca River 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. Steelhead led the card at excellent. High of 54 F, wind to 17 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Steelhead led the card at excellent. High of 66 F, wind to 7 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Steelhead led the card at good. High of 67 F, wind to 9 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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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 plus a Combined Angling Tag to keep adult salmon or steelhead (location code 69, Nestucca River and Bay). 2026 in-season rules (ODFW): wild chinook 1 per day, 2 per season, August 1-November 30, upstream to the Cloverdale Bridge; all chinook closed December 1-31; wild coho open September 9-October 28 with 1 wild adult per day and 3 per season. Seasons change each year: check the ODFW Northwest Zone regulations and in-season updates.

Access

Upriver, the BLM's Nestucca River Recreation Area along the Nestucca River National Back Country Byway has four campgrounds (Alder Glen, Dovre, Fan Creek and Elk Bend; 37 sites, generally May to October), reached from Beaver on Highway 101 via Blaine Road. Respect private land on the lower river. River flow: USGS gauge 14303600, Nestucca River near Beaver.

About this water

A Coast Range river in Tillamook County, Oregon, entering the Pacific through Nestucca Bay; its tributary Three Rivers hosts ODFW's Cedar Creek Hatchery near Hebo.

Fishing Nestucca River: the full guide

Hatchery fish from Cedar Creek

ODFW's Cedar Creek Hatchery, 1.5 miles east of Hebo beside Three Rivers, a Nestucca tributary, rears the basin's hatchery salmon and steelhead. Its 2023 program plan releases winter steelhead from wild Nestucca broodstock (90,000 smolts into the Nestucca and 50,000 into Three Rivers each April), hatchery summer steelhead, and spring chinook released in late July, plus fall chinook reared for the STEP program.

Steelhead

Broodstock for the winter steelhead program is collected by angling on the Nestucca from mid-December to April, which brackets the winter run. ODFW says summer steelhead returns to the Nestucca begin from early April to early June, with fish arriving through late summer and early fall; its fall 2026 report rated September and October a good time to target them on lures, beads and jigs, with fish present up to Elk Creek.

Salmon and cutthroat

Fall chinook gather in Nestucca Bay and move upriver with rain. For 2026, ODFW allowed one adult wild chinook per day and two for the season from August 1 to November 30 in the river and bay up to the Cloverdale Bridge, closed all chinook angling in December, and ran a wild coho season from September 9 to October 28. Sea-run cutthroat are spread through the basin.

Common questions

Are the steelhead hatchery or wild?

Both. ODFW's Cedar Creek Hatchery releases winter steelhead raised from wild Nestucca broodstock and hatchery summer steelhead; wild fish also return.

When do summer steelhead arrive?

ODFW says returns begin from early April to early June and continue into late summer and early fall.

What tag do I need?

A Combined Angling Tag to keep adult salmon or steelhead; record location code 69 for the Nestucca River and Bay.

Is fishing good at Nestucca River 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

Trask River10 miWilson River13 miSiletz River40 miWillamette River47 miLewis River64 miKalama River72 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 14303600 β€” Nestucca River near Beaver
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 17:45 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 45.3000, -123.8500 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 5, 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 5, 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.