Trask River

The Trask is the Wilson's quieter neighbor, a short rain-fed river that runs out of the Tillamook State Forest into Tillamook Bay. It no longer gets hatchery steelhead plants, though the Trask River Hatchery raises the Wilson's broodstock, so its winter run is mostly wild fish. They come in from December and run through March, with spring Chinook from spring into July and fall Chinook from August.

Five launches cover it from the top: Stones Road, the Peninsula, Loren's Drift, the Lower Trask launch and Carnahan Park in Tillamook. The upper drifts are rockier and float best when the river is up after a storm; when it is low, Trask River Road gives walk-in access. The lower river is slower and deeper, the first water to see fresh fish, and bait is allowed there, so it is shared with gear anglers.

Read the flows at the gauge above Cedar Creek. As a rough guide, set from the gauge's seasons, the Trask fishes from about 400 to 1,500 CFS, and past about 3,000 it is out. Like the Wilson it rises fast in a coastal front and drops back almost as quickly, so the drop a day or two after a storm is the time to be there.