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License to Spear: Oregon Opens Its Rivers to Bass and Walleye

On New Year's Day, Oregon made it legal to spearfish for bass and walleye in the state's rivers and streams. It is a win for spearos, and a quiet shot at 2 non-native predators that feed on native salmon and steelhead.

Nick Meyers, Nautical Nick4 min read
License to Spear: Oregon Opens Its Rivers to Bass and Walleye

A diver in a mask and snorkel drops into a moving Oregon river, drifts down the current over a gravel bar, and lines up on a smallmouth bass. As of New Year's Day, that is legal, and the state announced it about as cheerfully as a regulatory agency can. "Want to put on a mask and snorkel this summer to spear bass or walleye? It's legal after New Year's Day, so go for it," the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wrote in its summary of what changed for 2026.

The new rule opens the state's rivers and streams to spearfishing for smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and walleye, the moving water where the method had been off limits. It is a straightforward win for a growing group of divers. It is also something less obvious: a small piece of Oregon's long campaign against 2 non-native predators that eat the juvenile salmon and steelhead the state spends heavily to recover.

What Changed on January 1

Spearfishing for bass and walleye in many Oregon lakes and still waters was already permitted. What the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission did at its September meeting in Ontario was extend that to current-swept water, folding the change into the 2026 and 2027 Sport Fishing Regulations. The rule applies where bass and walleye carry no bag or size limits, which covers a large share of the state.

The department gave 2 reasons, and they sit a little uneasily side by side. The first is demand. Spearfishing has grown into a popular alternative to rod and reel, and the public kept asking the agency to expand it. The second is management: the change "potentially may help to reduce impacts of bass and walleye on native fish."

Why Oregon Wants Fewer of These Fish

Bass and walleye are not native to most Oregon waters. They were stocked or spread into the state's rivers over the past century, and both are efficient predators. In the Columbia River system, walleye stack up in the slack pools behind the dams. In smallmouth strongholds like the Umpqua and the lower Deschutes, bass hold in the same runs young salmon must pass. Those fish eat and outcompete the juvenile salmon and steelhead Oregon works to restore, and every smolt heading downstream has to get past them.

The state is, in effect, pointing a new group of hunters at fish it would rather have fewer of, and letting them call it sport.

What Divers May and May Not Spear

The rule covers bass and walleye and nothing else. Oregon's native game fish remain strictly off the list, and spearing salmon, steelhead, trout, or sturgeon is still prohibited. The no-limit waters where spearing is now legal are precisely the waters managed to hold bass and walleye numbers down rather than build them up.

A diver taking a few smallmouth on a summer afternoon will not empty a river, and that was never the claim. The honest version is that this is a small, cheap, and popular addition to a long list of measures Oregon aims at its non-native predator problem, and the fact that people enjoy doing it is a feature rather than a side effect.

What It Costs

License fees rose for the first time since 2020, climbing an average of 12 to 14 percent for 2026. A separate change introduced a new Ocean Endorsement, $9 for the year or $4 for a day, required for ocean fishing from beaches, jetties, and boats, spearfishing included. That one does not apply to the freshwater rivers the new bass and walleye rule covers. For a diver who already buys a license, hunting smallmouth in a river this summer costs nothing beyond the gear and the swim.

What the change really does is reframe who manages these fish. For years the work of thinning non-native predators in Oregon's rivers belonged to biologists, bounty programs, and anglers with rods. It now belongs as well to anyone willing to hold a breath, drop into the current, and take a shot. Each fish on the end of a spear is one fewer mouth working over the salmon run, and Oregon has decided it is fine with divers enjoying that.

Sources

License to Spear: Oregon Opens Its Rivers to Bass and Walleye | Nautical Nick