Document text
Anglers asked to comment on bait ban By Mark Freeman Sport-anglers who want to get in their two cents� worth over proposed bait-fishing bans for the Rogue River won�t have to buy a 33-cent stamp or travel to Portland to do it. The Jackson County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing Dec. 20 in Medford to hear comments on the proposed banning of roe, worms and other bait for summer steelhead fishing during some fall months on two sections of the Rogue River. County Commissioner Ric Holt, a vocal opponent of the proposals, said he hopes area residents will take advantage of the chance to voice their opposition. The hearing will be taped and sent to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. The fish and wildlife commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the controversial proposal Jan. 19 in Portland. It is also accepting written testimony through mid-February. "This will give local people a chance to give their input on what we feel is an unjust rule," Holt said Wednesday. "We hope to get the masses heard." Those who favor the proposed bans will be heard as well, Holt said. "Sure they�re invited," he said. "Absolutely." Whatever testimony is taped at the commissioners� hearing will be entered into the legal record and treated much like a letter, said Anne Pressentin, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman in Portland. The six-member commission on Sept. 22 enacted a ban on all bait-fishing in the upper Rogue during August, November and December, sandwiching the current Sept. 1-Oct. 31 flies-only fishing season. The commission also banned bait for those fishing in the Wild and Scenic Section of the lower Rogue Canyon from Sept. 1-Oct. 31. Both restrictions were proposed by some fly-fishermen as a way to protect wild summer steelhead, a fish proposed for threatened species status. Some anglers fear that too many wild steelhead die from injuries suffered when swallowing a baited hook, even though the fish must by law be released unharmed. Bait-fishermen have cried foul, and ODFW biologists are on their side. The agency�s official position is that the changes would provide almost negligible benefits to the Rogue�s wild steelhead runs at the expense of reduced fishing opportunities. Grants Pass tackle-shop owner Jim Broman launched a repeal effort and gathered more than 3,200 signatures on petitions, demanding the commission reconsider the rules. The commission last month set aside the September changes to the Rogue, and agreed to hold the Jan. 19 hearing. A revote will follow Feb. 15, when the commission will either keep the bait bans, pitch them out altogether or enact some modified rules through 2004. In gathering input on a host of angling regulations proposed for 2001, the commission held public hearings across the state last spring and summer as well as at its August meeting in Portland. Such meetings are generally rotated among communities, and this round of regulation proposals did not contain a public hearing in Jackson or Josephine counties. The closest hearing was in Klamath Falls. Pressentin said the ODFW has no plans to hold its own public meeting in Southern Oregon. Larry Baines of Medford asked the county commissioners to hold a public hearing so locals could comment without traveling to Portland. "There�s a lot of people who can�t take off from work and drive up to Portland on the whim of that commission," Baines said. Baines said he hopes the commission hears and seriously considers the input gathered here Dec. 20. "I don�t know if they will or not," Baines said. "But just like Al Gore, it doesn�t hurt to try, does it?" Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.