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Bait-ban ruling challenged Legislator will ask for public hearings on Rogue River issue By Mark Freeman SHADY COVE � A local legislator will ask the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to reconsider its rules banning fall bait-fishing on the upper Rogue, saying the commission needs to either defend its reasoning or dump the rules. Rep. Susan Morgan said Thursday she will ask a joint legislative committee she co-chairs to urge the commission to hold a new round of public hearings, then vote again on the rules, set to go into effect next year. If left unchanged, the new rules would allow summer-steelhead fishing only with artificial flies and lures, but no bait, upstream of Gold Ray Dam in August, November and December from 2001-2004. The months would sandwich a current flies-only season of Sept. 1 through Oct. 31 that remains unchanged. The new rules were couched by supporters as a way to protect wild summer steelhead from dying after being caught and released by bait anglers. The rule, and a similar bait ban on the lower Rogue Canyon, were shepherded through the commission by Medford attorney Don Denman, a commission member. The changes were adopted Sept. 22 in Portland despite Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife opposition and a near split in letters for and against the proposals. Morgan, a Myrtle Creek Republican who represents a rural region that includes the upper Rogue corridor, will drag Denman before the Stream Restoration and Species Recovery Committee at 9 a.m. Monday in Salem to hear why the commission opted against biologists� opinions and created new rules that would harm upper Rogue businesses that rely on bait fishermen during slow fall months. "I don�t understand how they came to the decision they came to," Morgan said. "The commission has an excellent opportunity to revisit the issue and make their case for their decision," Morgan said. "And if they can�t make their case, then change the decision." Denman said Thursday that he�s prepared to "describe the process" of how the new rules came to be. The commission is set to decide if a rehearing on the new rules is warranted at its Nov. 17 meeting. A rehearing on adopted sport-fishing regulations is rare but not unprecedented, and Denman said he�s open to hearing from his fellow commissioners whether an upwelling of opposition to the new rules warrant such a move. "I don�t want to have a closed mind either way, and I want to hear what everybody has to say again," Denman said. (But) I don�t have a clue how it�s going to go." Upper Rogue business leaders say the new rules damage an already tenuous upper Rogue winter tourism economy that in recent years has lured restaurants, a large motel and other businesses to Shady Cove. While the town�s economy bursts during the spring salmon-fishing and summer rafting seasons, it limps through the winter with the aid of late-year steelhead fishermen � many of whom won�t fish the upper Rogue in late fall if the bait ban remains, some Shady Cove business leaders claim. "To have even the least bit taken away from our late fall economy is going to be extremely difficult for us," says Director Alma Spicer of the Upper Rogue Regional Tourism Alliance. "We have a lot of people with big stakes in this town. We have to hold them through the wintertime." At issue is the commission�s attitude toward a report in which ODFW biologist Mike Evenson wrote that banning bait for summer steelhead fishing in November and December would result in fewer than three dozen more wild steelhead surviving catch-and-release fishing to spawn. Moreover, Evenson claims the upper Rogue�s wild summer steelhead run is stable, and that the bait ban would chase away anglers and add to the glut of excess hatchery steelhead in the river expressly to be caught and kept by anglers. Morgan, who met with Shady Cove business leaders on the issue Thursday, said she thought Evenson�s report "appeared to give very defensible, well-thought-out, well-planned reasons" for not voting in the bait ban. Either there�s more evidence than has been presented publicly, or "the other option is, they made a bad decision," she said. Since the decision, many anglers have vocally opposed the changes, signed petitions and demanded the commission rehear the issue. Denman said the "outpouring of criticism" had, in his opinion, yielded many new voices but no new issues. "From either side of the coin, I guess I haven�t heard anything that�s absolutely new criteria to consider," Denman said, "but we�ve heard from lots more people." If the commission decides to rehear the issue, it would likely set a public hearing sometime in December or January before re-voting, Denman said. Those who want to hear Monday�s Stream Restoration and Species Recovery Committee meeting over the Internet can log on to www.state.or.us and follow the links. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.