Oxbow Regional Park and the lower river
The Sandy heads on the glaciers of Mount Hood and runs 55 miles west and then north to the Columbia at Troutdale. Oxbow Regional Park, the Metro park east of Gresham, is the classic lower-river winter steelhead access with a boat ramp and miles of bank, and the lower 15 miles from here down are where most of the winter drift trips happen. No fishing from boats is allowed from 200 feet below the Oxbow ramp upstream, and posted chinook spawning areas in the park are closed September 16 to November 15.
Dodge Park and the Bull Run confluence
Dodge Park, a Portland Water Bureau park where the Bull Run River joins, is the next access upstream and the launch for the Dodge to Oxbow drift. Cedar Creek Hatchery, the source of the river's hatchery winter and summer steelhead, spring chinook and coho, is a few miles farther up near the town of Sandy; Cedar Creek itself is closed near the hatchery.
Marmot and the upper river
Marmot Road runs above the canyon between Sandy and Brightwood, and the old Marmot Dam site is now a BLM natural area with a small campground. Marmot Dam diverted the river for a century and was removed in 2007, reopening the whole upper basin to sea-run fish. The upper basin above the Salmon River confluence, past Welches toward Zigzag, is managed as a wild fish sanctuary: closed November 1 to the last Friday in May, then catch and release with flies and artificial lures through October.
Winter steelhead
Winter fish are the Sandy's main event and the most reliable winter run in the Portland area. They start in November, peak from the last half of January through mid March and hold through April, a mix of Cedar Creek hatchery fish and wild fish that must be released. The Fly Fishing Shop in Welches, which calls the Sandy its home water, puts the typical fish at seven to eleven pounds. Two-hand rods with sink tips and big flies fished slow and deep are the standard approach on a cold, pushy river.
Summer steelhead, salmon and trout
Summer steelhead are mostly hatchery fish entering April through August with a July peak; the wild summer run is tiny and protected. Spring chinook build through April and May and peak in June, and fall chinook and coho follow from September, with coho fishing best in years when early fall rain raises the river. Glacial melt turns the Sandy milky from mid July into September, which the summer fish use as cover.
The river's resident trout are coastal cutthroat and rainbows, not westslope cutthroat, and they are wild; the state stopped stocking trout in the basin in the 1990s. Below the Salmon River confluence the trout rule is 5 hatchery trout, which in practice means all trout are released.
Season and regulations
The Sandy is a rain river. The Marmot gauge averages about 1,700 to 2,100 cfs from December through March per USGS and drops under 400 cfs in late summer; winter storms send it far higher for days. Steelheaders fish it on the drop after a freshet, and this page uses 800 to 2,500 cfs as the winter fishing range. In summer the glacial silt matters more than the flow.
Mouth to the Salmon River confluence: open all year for hatchery steelhead and hatchery salmon, combined limit 3 hatchery salmon or steelhead, all wild steelhead, salmon and trout released, bait allowed, two-rod validation allowed. Above the Salmon River confluence the upper basin closes November 1 to the last Friday in May and is catch and release, flies and artificial lures only, when open. A Columbia River Basin Endorsement is required. ODFW closes the river in-season when returns are poor; check the current ODFW Willamette Zone regulations and the weekly recreation report before you go.