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New rules to go into effect By Mark Freeman Beginning Monday, sport anglers will be allowed to catch and keep one huge lingcod a day in the ocean, must release all the 13-inch smallmouth bass caught in Applegate Lake and will be allowed to spear all the bullfrogs they want on New Year�s Day without buying a new fishing license. These and several other new sport-fishing regulations go into effect statewide on Monday. A look at the new regulations Here are some of the highlights of the new angling rules that go into effect Monday for anglers in Southwest Oregon. The new regulations booklet detailing these and all fishing rules statewide for 2001 will not be available at license outlets until late January. STATEWIDE Salmon and steelhead anglers may not fish for jack salmon after they retain a limit of adult salmon or steelhead. It is now illegal to keep a fish of any species with a radio tag inserted for research purposes. These research fish have antennae trailing from its mouth or body. No angling license is required to take bullfrogs, a species non-native to Oregon. SOUTHWEST OREGON In all streams open to angling for steelhead except for the Rogue and Applegate rivers, anglers may harvest two adipose fin-clipped rainbow trout (16-20 inches long) per day. At Applegate Lake, length restrictions for bass have been changed. Now, anglers cannot keep any bass between 12 and 15 inches long, and no more than one bass larger than 15 inches can be kept. In the Umpqua River basin, striped bass angling is allowed year-round in the tidewater areas of the mainstem and tributaries such as Smith River. Bait is also allowed in tidewater areas, but it is restricted to single-point hooks sized No. 1 or larger, or multiple hooks size No. 4 or larger. However, Mill Creek below Loon Lake is closed to angling year-round. MARINE ZONE Only one canary rockfish is allowed in the 10 rockfish daily catch limit. The maximum size limit for lingcod has been lifted, allowing ocean anglers to keep one lingcod a day over 24 inches long. The new sturgeon limit is one per day and no more than 10 per year. The minimum length is 42 inches and maximum length is 60 inches. No holding pots or live boxes are allowed by sport-crabbers in the ocean. Also allowed are no more than one daily catch limit per landing and no more than two daily catch limits in possession. But the Oregonians who need to know these rule changes for 2001 won�t be able to get a printed copy of them until the end of next month. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is more than a month behind on publishing its Sport-Fishing Regulations booklet for the new millennium, which officially brings on a slew of new rules beginning Monday. Likewise, the agency�s 2001 Big Game Hunting Regulations booklet also is not yet printed, meaning some cougar hunters could be unaware that their current cougar tag expires Sunday night. Delays in the printing process have pushed back to late January the likely time when the free regulation booklets will be available for hunters and anglers at license outlets statewide. That poses some tough problems for Oregon State Police fish and wildlife officers who are charged with enforcing Oregon�s hunting and fishing laws. Capt. Lindsay Ball, who heads OSP�s Fish and Wildlife Division, says he will direct his 117 OSP field officers to use "very liberal discretion" on new regulations. That likely means issuing more warnings and providing written copies of the new rules to anglers in violation, Ball says. "We�re going to be in education mode and get the information out," Ball says. Ball believes it would be unfair to expect anglers to know the new rules before the booklets are printed, and just as unfair to expect the prosecutors to handle cases from them. "It�s not even reasonable to expect that to exist," Ball says. But the lack of regulation booklets won�t be like a get-out-of-jail-free card for anglers in January. Basic, well-known rules like license and tag requirements and rules banning snagging still will be strictly enforced, Ball says. While the booklets may not be available for another month, anglers and hunters do have access to all the regulations. Electronic versions of the new hunting and angling rules will be available on the agency's Web site next week. The address is: http://www.dfw.state.or.us One new hunting change of note is that the current cougar-hunting season ends Sunday night, meaning hunters will have to buy a new $11 cougar tag as well as a new license to hunt cougars in January. The ODFW used to have cougar seasons that straddled the new year, so tags were valid from August through April, says Don Whittaker, an ODFW biologist who manages the agency�s bear and cougar programs. But the tags have been restructured to be valid for entire calendar years, necessitating the change, Whittaker says. The 2001 season is open Jan. 1-May 31 and Aug. 1-Dec. 31 in most areas of Oregon, but open year-round in the Medford area. Tags have been on sale since Dec. 1. Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.