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86 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, June 19, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 17, 2004 Anglers will be put to the test Saturday Outdoor Journal By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune BROOKINGS — It’s been 11 years since Southern Oregonians could motor out of the harbor here in search of the ocean’s hatchery coho salmon, so Jim Welter is offering a primer on how to catch one. Head about four to five miles offshore, Welter says. Tie on a 6-ounce banana sinker or a small diver to get about 10 feet beneath the surface. The bait of choice is small anchovies with flashers, but don’t leave port without a box of long, white grubs. And don’t forget the barbless hooks. Troll faster than you would for the slower, deeper-running chinook and get ready for coho action. "Crank it up, and the coho will run it down," says Welter, a former commercial fisherman and ocean sport-fishing advocate. "They like those little grubs." But don’t even go out there if you can’t tell a coho from a chinook, don’t know what an adipose fin is and don’t read a nautical map well enough to keep from drifting south into California waters, where coho harvest is illegal. Advertisement "They’ll have to sell their boats to pay the fine if they catch one in California," Welter says. These are the lessons that will play out beginning Saturday when the Southern Oregon coast will host its first hatchery coho salmon season since 1993. Federal fish managers this spring added south coast waters to Oregon’s coastal coho season, which will be open from the California border north to Cape Falcon. The southern boundary used to be Humbug Mountain near Port Orford. Fishing will run unimpeded until Aug. 31 or until a 75,000-fish quota is reached. The season is separate from a chinook salmon season for Southern Oregon and Northern California. That season opened May 15 and runs through Sept. 12 without a quota. The daily limit during the hatchery coho season is two salmon (of either kind) a day, and both can be fin-clipped coho. Anglers fishing out of ports such as Brookings and Gold Beach had been banned from all ocean-coho fishing when wild coho in Southern Oregon and Northern California streams were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Wild coho remain a threatened species here. But fish managers now maintain that anglers can target hatchery coho, and release any wild coho they catch, without eclipsing ESA thresholds for protecting wild coho. The Pacific Fishery Management Council did not extend this season into California amid concerns over protecting threatened coho runs there. The new fishery here has created a buzz among anglers fishing the south coast, where only chinook have been their summer targets for years. "Any time you have an opener, you’ll always get an increase in participation," says biologist Steve Mazur from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Gold Beach office. "But it all depends upon the weather." The ocean has been enormously rough this past week, and conditions must settle down before anglers start crossing the normally agreeable Chetco River bar. When they do, anglers will have to release all non-finclipped coho unharmed, while non-finclipped chinook can be part of the catch. In the ocean, coho and chinook can look similar to the untrained eye. Chinook, however, sport blackened lower gums, large dark blotches on their backs and dark spots on their entire tail. Coho, however, have white gums, fewer back spots and none on the lower end of the tail. Already, a few wild coho have been landed illegally at Brookings, and ODFW biologist Eric Schindler hopes anglers keep a close eye on what they catch. "I try to have everybody focus on that lower gum line," says Schindler, of the agency’s salmon program. "If they do that, they’ll be OK." But just how many of these fin-clipped, white-gummed salmon make it back to Brookings or Gold Beach in coolers remains to be seen. The harvest off Southern Oregon is expected to be around 3,000 fin-clipped coho, with the lion's share of the overall quota still likely caught along the north coast. "It’s difficult to figure out who will keep a coho or who will release it to get a chinook," Schindler says. Though Welter knows how to catch chinook, he’ll release any hatchery coho he catches in hopes of keeping only the larger chinook. "Cohos are a rag compared to a 25-pound chinook," Welter says. "I try to avoid them. They steal my bait." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times