River Mill Dam is the ceiling
For salmon and steelhead anglers the Clackamas ends at River Mill Dam above Estacada, built in 1912. Everything below it, down to the Willamette at Clackamette Park in Oregon City, is open all year in ODFW's 2026 rules for hatchery salmon and steelhead, 3 a day combined, and bait is allowed. Wild salmon and steelhead may not be kept anywhere in the Willamette Zone. You may also keep 5 hatchery trout a day in this reach. Boats are off limits between River Mill Dam and ODFW's markers about 100 feet above the Clackamas Hatchery water intake, so the top of the river is bank fishing.
Above the dam, Estacada Lake has a dock and a trout season from May 22 through October 31, with any trout over 20 inches counted as a steelhead, and the water from 275 feet below the Faraday fishway up to North Fork Dam is closed. As of September 24, 2026, ODFW's in-season update page listed no changes for the Clackamas, but Eagle Creek's lowest reach, from SE Dowty Road to the Clackamas, was closed from late September through October in both 2024 and 2025 to protect coho in low water. Eagle Creek itself is open all year for hatchery salmon and steelhead from its mouth to markers 200 feet below the hatchery ladder outlet, with leaders limited to 18 to 36 inches from August 1 through December 31 to stop snagging. Check the ODFW regulation updates page before an October trip.
Two steelhead runs, one hatchery
The Clackamas Hatchery, opened in 1979 near McIver, raises spring Chinook and winter steelhead, rears coho and acclimates summer steelhead, and ODFW's visitor guide has adult winter steelhead in the ponds in March and April and spring Chinook from June into October. Guide Jeff Hickman, writing for the Gorge Fly Shop, says steelhead are in the river every month of the year, favors December through June, and calls May and June under-rated. His other point is the useful one for trip planning: the Clackamas is not glacial, so it stays fishable when glacial rivers nearby are blown out.
Summer fish and spring Chinook carry the river through July and August, and ODFW's August 26, 2026 report expected coho to pick up in the lower river in September. On the swing, Hickman runs a larger fly on a light sink tip early in the day and a smaller fly on a heavier tip once the sun is on the water.
Clackamette to McIver
ODFW's list of places to fish near Portland is a fair map of the lower river. Clackamette Park at the Willamette confluence has the most bank. Cross Memorial Park and High Rocks in Gladstone come next, then Bonnie Lure Park, Carver Park with its boat launch near the mouth of Clear Creek, and Barton Park, a county park with a ramp and campground reached by turning at the Barton Store off Highway 224. Milo McIver State Park, which ODFW calls a popular launch for drift fishing, is the upper put-in for boats. Clackamas River Road gives more bank access between the parks.
Above Faraday: a forest river
Upstream of Faraday Diversion Dam the Clackamas becomes a different river, running through the Mount Hood National Forest. Congress made 47 miles of it Wild and Scenic on October 28, 1988, from Big Spring down to Big Cliff, 20 of them scenic and 27 recreational. The Willamette Zone default applies up here: wild trout are catch-and-release, the season is May 22 through October 31, and only artificial flies and lures are legal. Bull trout may not be kept, salmon and steelhead are closed all year, and there is no fishing from a boat or from the west shore along the Three Lynx Powerhouse. Treat it as summer trout water fished on foot, with dries and small nymphs.
What Estacada tells you
USGS 14210000 at Estacada is the gauge ODFW itself points anglers to, just above McIver. No shop publishes a steelhead range for it, so the 1,000 to 4,200 cfs on this page is the spread of monthly means since 2010, from about 1,030 in July to 4,160 in January. Winter steelhead months sit near the top of it: about 3,970 in December, 3,540 in February and 3,910 in March. Late summer falls under it, roughly 800 in August and 900 in September, so a reading well under 1,000 is late-summer low water, and a winter reading far above the monthly figure is rain still running off. On September 24, 2026 it read 643 cfs.