Share your catch
US

Trask River Fishing Report

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

Tillamook's workhorse: the Trask runs winter steelhead and fall kings through dairy-country bends a cheese-tour away from the bay.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Flow
70 cfs
Air / High
57 / 58 F
Wind
WNW 6 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 14302480, 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.

Trask River rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. The river is running 70 cfs, steady over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind WNW around 6 mph, steady pressure near 1026 hPa and a high of 58. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:54 AM-11:54 AM and 10:24 PM-12:24 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Brown troutExcellent

Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

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.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Tomorrow: Similar at 59 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 Trask above Cedar Creek.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 14302480.

8411113770 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 30 years of October 23

At 70 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 14302480 (Trask above Cedar Creek) is at the 11th percentile for the date: below normal. In half of the 30 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 253 cfs; the highest was 3,150 cfs and the lowest 62 cfs.

p10 67median 253p90 1,260

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 14302480; 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 temp57 F
High / Low58 / 41 F
WindWNW 6-7 mph
Pressure1025.8 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain12% cloud, 2%
Sunrise / Sunset07:42 / 18:15
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (gauge)46 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 Trask River this week

The best day on Trask 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 10:24 PM-12:24 AM
Minor period
4:20 AM-5:20 AM
Sun
07:42 to 18:15
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 8 mph
Rain chance
2%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Trask 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.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Brown trout illustration

Brown trout

Spring along Great Lakes shorelines; low light and overcast days in rivers; fall spawning runs

A European trout first stocked in the US in 1883 and now fished in rivers and lakes nationwide; it tolerates warmer water than other trout, and mature stream fish feed mostly at night. Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

When to come: the Trask 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
Smallmouth bass
Brown trout
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 Trask 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. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 59 F, wind to 12 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 68 F, wind to 8 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 73 F, wind to 12 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 license + salmon/steelhead tags. Wild steelhead release; king quotas: check ODFW Tillamook rules.

Access

Hatchery access, Loren's Drift, forks accesses off Trask River Road; tidewater ramps.

About this water

The Tillamook Bay workhorse, Tillamook County, OR. Dairy-country chrome.

Fishing Trask River: the full guide

The bay's steady producer

The Trask feeds Tillamook Bay alongside its famous siblings (Wilson, Kilchis): the workhorse of the five: hatchery winter steelhead (December's early fish: the broodstock program produces), wild fish through March, and fall chinook that stack the tidewater come October.

Winter program

Drift boats work the middle river's slots (side-drifted eggs, bobber-dogged beads): bank anglers ladder the accesses (the hatchery hole, Loren's, the forks): and the river's dairy-valley lower end fishes tidewater tactics: plunked spin-n-glos on the rising tides.

Kings and the fall stack

October-November chinook enter on the freshets (back-bounced roe in the deep bends: fish to 40 in the good years): the tidewater troll (herring behind flashers) meets them first: and coho pulse through behind: the bay system's full calendar compressed into one valley.

Tillamook practicalities

Highway 6 and the Trask River Road ladder access: flows spike fast with coast range rain (our Cedar Creek gauge: fish the drops): and the bay's cheese-country traffic ignores the river entirely. Tillamook town covers logistics: the five-river choice each morning is the local luxury.

Common questions

When do steelhead run the Trask?

December's hatchery fish through March's wild push: fish the rain-drops. The broodstock program keeps early winters honest.

Trask or Wilson?

The eternal Tillamook question: Trask for early hatchery fish and kings, Wilson for wild-run fame. Locals check both gauges and let the water decide.

What is the Trask hatchery program?

Winter broodstock steelhead raised on-river: December's early returns anchor the season. The hatchery hole fishes social: walk downstream for the same fish in quieter water.

Is fishing good at Trask 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

Wilson River6 miNestucca River10 miSiletz River50 miWillamette River50 miLewis River56 miKalama River63 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 14302480 β€” Trask above Cedar Creek
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:00 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 45.4400, -123.7800 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.
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 guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be 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.