Trout Fishing at Coffenbury Lake - Astoria, Oregon

While camping at Fort Stevens Sate Park, we fished nearby Coffenbury Lake a couple times for trout. This 50 acre lake is stocked with legal size trout and a few excess steelhead. There is a boat ramp and two picnic facilities with fishing docks. Even though this is a small lake, motorized boats are permitted with a 10 mph speed limit at all times. Even though I had my boat, we decided to fish from shore. We were camped in the O loop, so our sites were very close to the lake.

We first went out on Friday afternoon/early evening. It was partly sunny and relatively calm with only an occasional light breeze. We were using light spinning rods and PowerBait on the bottom. Almost immediately, John hooked into a small legal-sized trout about 9 inches long. We fished for an hour or two, but didn't manage to catch any more fish.

   

The next morning (Saturday) we went out again and began fishing from the shore just before 7 AM. This time we were using bobbers to keep our bait from getting buried in the thick weeds at the bottom of the lake. After only a few minutes, John landed a 10 inch rainbow trout. After that I managed a few nibbles, but no takers. Our buddy Tyler joined us and instantly got bites. Unfortunately, he couldn't get anything to stick and then the action died down. Finally John hooked another fish that had been lightly pecking at his bait for some time. It was smaller, around 8 inches, but still a keeper. We had enough fun for the morning and headed back to camp to cook up the fish for breakfast.

   

Fishing was a little disappointing this trip, but at least John was able to catch a few. We did a lot better this time last year (I actually caught fish) at Coffenbury, but every day is different. Now that spring is here, I will have plenty more opportunities to catch fish.