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Sandy River Fishing Report

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

Sandy River: a Mount Hood river at Portland's edge, open all year for hatchery salmon and steelhead below the Salmon River.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Flow
270 cfs
Air / High
56 / 58 F
Wind
W 4 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 14142500, 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.

Sandy River feels the season turning: shorter days, grouping fish. The river is running 270 cfs, steady over the week. Today brings a mixed sky, wind W around 4 mph, steady pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 58. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:48 AM-11:48 AM and 10:18 PM-12:18 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: 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 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 Sandy River below Bull Run.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 14142500.

272292311270 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 81 years of October 23

At 270 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 14142500 (Sandy River below Bull Run) is below the 5th percentile for the date: much below normal. In half of the 81 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 663 cfs; the highest was 13,000 cfs and the lowest 242 cfs.

p10 311median 663p90 3,284

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 14142500; 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 temp56 F
High / Low58 / 45 F
WindW 4-5 mph
Pressure1025.1 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain34% cloud, 3%
Sunrise / Sunset07:36 / 18:09
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (gauge)50 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 Sandy River this week

The best day on Sandy 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
9:48 AM-11:48 AM and 10:18 PM-12:18 AM
Minor period
4:13 AM-5:13 AM
Sun
07:36 to 18:09
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 6 mph
Rain chance
3%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Sandy 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 Sandy 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 Sandy River today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Steelhead led the card at good. High of 63 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Steelhead led the card at good. High of 75 F, wind to 8 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 76 F, wind to 8 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 plus Columbia River Basin endorsement (required for salmon and steelhead in the Willamette Zone) and a combined angling tag. ODFW 2026, mouth to the Salmon River: hatchery salmon and steelhead all year, 3 a day combined; no fishing from floating devices from 200 feet below the Oxbow Park ramp upstream; closed to sturgeon.

Access

Oxbow Park boat ramp (boat angling only below it); Sandy Hatchery grounds trail on Cedar Creek.

About this water

A Mount Hood river flowing to the Columbia east of Portland, Oregon; flow from USGS 14142500 below the Bull Run River.

Fishing Sandy River: the full guide

Hatchery runs

ODFW's Sandy Hatchery on Cedar Creek, a Sandy tributary near the town of Sandy, collects adult spring chinook, winter steelhead and coho. Visitors can watch coho spawning peak in early November and winter steelhead collection and spawning in late February and early March, and a trail through the hatchery grounds gives fishing access to the Sandy.

Rules on the lower and middle river

From the mouth to ODFW's markers at the Salmon River confluence, the Sandy is open all year for hatchery salmon and hatchery steelhead, 3 a day combined, with bait allowed and the two-rod validation valid. Angling from any floating device is banned from 200 feet below the Oxbow Park boat ramp upstream. Chinook spawning areas in Oxbow Park are closed where marked from September 16 to November 15, and sturgeon fishing is closed.

Marmot Dam

Portland General Electric's Marmot Dam was removed in 2007, according to ODFW's hatchery plan, which also names the City of Portland's Bull Run dams on the Bull Run River as a cause of lost spring chinook habitat.

Flow

USGS gauge 14142500, Sandy River below the Bull Run River, supplies this page's flow and water temperature.

Common questions

Can I keep a wild steelhead?

No: below the Salmon River the Sandy is open for hatchery salmon and hatchery steelhead only, 3 a day combined.

Can I fish from a boat above Oxbow Park?

No: angling from any floating device is banned from 200 feet below the Oxbow Park ramp upstream.

When do winter steelhead reach the hatchery?

ODFW collects and spawns winter steelhead at Sandy Hatchery in late February and early March.

Is fishing good at Sandy 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

Drano Lake35 miLake Merwin38 miLewis River38 miKalama River48 miDetroit Lake50 miWillamette River52 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 14142500 β€” Sandy River below Bull Run
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 18:45 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 45.4480, -122.2460 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.