Wednesday October 22, 2025
Statesman Journal —
Evan Yarbrough was fishing the Willamette River with his friends outside Eugene when he hooked something big.
At first he thought he was snagged. Then he figured it was a huge carp or sucker fish. But when he reeled it in he discovered a fish he’d never caught before. It was a huge 29-inch, 8-10 pound walleye — a beloved but controversial fish with a mysterious history in the Upper Willamette Basin.
“I was ecstatic,” said Yarbrough, who caught the walleye in early October. “We were all hyped and knew they’re good eats and rare where we were fishing.”
Yarbrough cooked up his catch with an egg wash and flour fish fry.
“It was white like cod and delicious,” he said of the meat. “I would love to catch more.”
He may get his chance.
Large numbers of walleye were flushed into the Upper Willamette system in 2023 and 2024 during extreme drawdowns of Lookout Point Reservoir, where walleye were illegally introduced in the 1990s and spawned into what became a popular fishery.
Since the drawdowns, walleye have exited Lookout Point and started showing up in Dexter Reservoir, the Middle Fork Willamette and even the mainstem Willamette in increasing numbers.
Biologists are watching carefully to see if walleye establish populations in the river system. They could be a big problem since walleye prey voraciously on endangered juvenile salmon and steelhead — more than just about any other fish.
“So far they haven’t reached that critical mass where they become established in the Willamette, but it is something we’re concerned about and we hope they don’t reach that point,” said Jeremy Romer, assistant district fish biologist for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Springfield office.
ODFW is encouraging anglers to do just what Yarbrough did — catch and eat them. There is no bag limit on walleye in the Willamette and, beginning in 2025, anglers can even spearfish for them.
“They are extremely tasty,” said Jeff Ziller, district fish biologist for ODFW. “If you get one in your hands, you’re doing yourself a favor by eating it because you’re going to have a really nice meal and you’re doing the river a favor because you’re not going to have that extra predator out there feeding on the native fish population.
“It makes for great fishing. Go ‘take ‘em out.’”
Oregon’s walleye are tasty but invasive predators
Walleye are not native to Oregon — they’re from the Midwest and Canada. However, they have established populations in the Columbia River in particular, where they’ve become a popular game fish.
Walleye are controversial in the Northwest because while they’re tasty to eat, they’re also an invasive species that can consume more juvenile salmon and steelhead than just about any other fish.
Research has shown walleye to be worse for native fish than even northern pikeminnow, which anglers are paid to catch and kill in the Columbia.
“They are an invasive species and they are having a negative impact on native fish species,” Ziller said. “And once they’re in a system, you can’t really get rid of them.”
“It’s a huge question mark right now,” Ziller added. “What we don’t know is what their potential is.”
Walleye illegally introduced to Lookout Point Reservoir in 1990s
The first sign of walleye in the Upper Willamette Basin — outside Eugene — came in the 1990s at Lookout Point Reservoir.
“A guy brought in a picture, and he was holding up a big dead walleye,” Ziller said. “We looked at it and said, ‘Oh my goodness, I hope it didn’t spawn.”
No such luck.
In 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was lowering the water level of the reservoir when they discovered juvenile walleye, meaning spawning had begun.
Fish biologists believe that some rogue anglers brought in walleye from another location, keeping them in a live well before releasing them, illegally, into Lookout Point.
Female walleye can lay half a million eggs during spawning season, and in the right environment, it doesn’t take long for them to proliferate.
Walleye thrive in Lookout Point beginning around 2015
Beginning around 2015, walleye numbers had grown so large they became a popular fish to target at Lookout Point.
“There was not an open spot in the parking lot,” said Romer, referring to Signal Point Boat Ramp at Lookout Point. “It just took off and there were actually guides guiding for walleye.”
While the anglers did enjoy it, Romer noted that illegally introducing fish can have unintended consequences.
“People shouldn’t be moving fish around where they don’t know what the impacts are,” Romer said.
Drawdown releases walleye into Dexter Reservoir, Willamette
In 2023, the Corps dropped Lookout Point to extreme low water levels for the first time.
It was a court-ordered action, following a lawsuit from three environmental groups. The drawdowns are now something that occurs each year at four reservoirs in the Upper Willamette Basin — Fall Creek, Cougar, Green Peter and Lookout Point. Detroit Lake is likely to become a fifth in 2026.
The idea of drawdowns is to allow endangered juvenile salmon and steelhead to migrate from habitat in the upper rivers and back down through the dams by turning reservoirs into rivers for a short period.
The drawdowns have had multiple side effects. They’ve flushed mud into the drinking water of cities such as Sweet Home and Lebanon, bringing significant issues. Drawdowns also led to the death of tens of thousands of kokanee at Green Peter Reservoir in 2023.
At Lookout Point, the walleye in the reservoirs didn’t die in the drawdowns, but were instead flushed out into Dexter Reservoir and then headed downstream. It’s easy for fish to pass through Dexter Dam and into the Middle Fork Willamette.
In the fish traps below Lookout Point, the number of walleye caught jumped from just a few fish per year, way up to 218 in 2023 and 113 in 2024.
At the same time, anglers have started catching them downstream, while in Lookout Point itself, the once-popular walleye fishery has slowed.
“I’ll just say that the parking lot (for anglers) isn’t nearly as full as it was a few years back,” Romer said.
Will walleye establish in Dexter Reservoir and the Willamette River?
Since the drawdowns, there are a lot more walleye in Dexter Reservoir, the Middle Fork Willamette and the mainstem Willamette.
What isn’t known is whether walleye will establish a self-sustaining population.
“It’s the big question, and the truth is that right now, we just don’t know,” Ziller said. “We know they’re out there, but we don’t know how that will manifest.”
Walleye have established large populations in the Columbia River, but the Willamette is a different ecosystem system, Ziller said.
Ziller said that if the walleye could make their way down to the slower waters of the mainstem Willamette, and move up to spawn, they may be able to reproduce.
“My guess is that unless they have a lake or reservoir, they’re not going to be quite as successful as they were in Lookout Point,” he said. “They do spawn in moving water, but it’s the rearing part that (I am not sure about). Do we have the habitat in the mainstem Willamette to rear a lot of walleye? I don’t think so. Maybe some, but I don’t think a lot.”
Romer added that it might be tough for walleye roaming the Willamette to find each other easily enough to spawn in major numbers. But again, “we just don’t know what we don’t know,” he said.
Where can you catch walleye?
ODFW officials are encouraging anglers to target and eat any walleye that they catch in the Willamette River system.
One hot spot would be the base of Dexter Dam in the spring. Walleye tend to head to “impassible barriers” to spawn, so the base of the dam, where fishing is allowed, is a good spot, Ziller said.
Dexter Reservoir and Lookout Point would also be viable places to target walleye. Beyond that, it would be downstream in the Middle Fork and mainstem of the Willamette.
A spinner and worm is the tried and true method for landing walleye, but anglers have also been landing the fish on classic salmon baits.
Yarbrough caught his hog using a Nedrig and half a Senco.
“I was letting it go as low as I could in one of the deeper pockets in the currents we came along,” Yarbrough said. “… When I saw its teeth I knew I caught a trophy walleye. Best catch of my life so far.”
Why it’s not good to illegally stock fish
Romer and Ziller noted that the situation illustrates why it’s not good to illegally stock fish.
“People shouldn’t be moving fish around where they don’t know what the impacts are, because it makes it difficult on fisheries managers for one thing and also our native fish populations,” Romer said.
Ziller added: “It being an illegally introduced population makes it tough on us because we’re not in control. We can’t control the population. It’s just they are there and what they do is basically what they do.”