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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Robber who wore underwear on head gets prison time ... Secret chapter of 9/11 inquiry released after 13-year wait ... Businesses, drivers mixed on Highway 62 project impact ... Robber who wore underwear on head gets prison time ... Secret chapter of 9/11 inquiry released after 13-year wait ... Businesses, drivers mixed on Highway 62 project impact ... FISHING REPORT Fishing Report: Friday, July 15 Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Jul. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Jul. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: The forecast for the ocean off Southern Oregon today is better for stormwatchers than ocean anglers. A gale warning will be in effect today, with 35-knot winds and 10-foot wind waves. Saturday is better but not great, with 15-knot winds and six-foot wind waves followed Sunday by 20-knot winds and five-foot swells. Beginning today, bottomfishers must stay inside the 20-fathom line to reduce pressure on yelloweyes. The change is at least through September and possibly for the rest of the season to keep from a mid-season shutdown of bottomfishing. The ocean was pretty rough for anglers much of this past week, but good bottomfishing came earlier in the week with strong catches of ling cod and black rockfish common out of Coos Bay and Brookings. Jigging just off kelp beds and on rock humps is good along the South Coast. Anglers can keep one cabezon a day. More anglers are shifting over to ocean salmon fishing now that chinook are around, and the coho season is in full swing. Anglers are doing fairly well with coho, but they're catching far more wild coho than fin-clipped ones around Brookings. Only fin-clipped coho can be kept as part of the two-salmon bag limit. The chinook are deeper in the water column than coho, and they are more prevalent from Brookings south to the California border. Be careful not to stray into California waters. The halibut season out of Brookings is open south of Humbug Mountain. Catches in water around 200 feet deep and due west of the Thomas Creek bridge have been good for charters and private boaters using big jigs or large sardines bumped off the bottom. Tuna fishing was good again last week before the winds picked up. Anglers were running about 25 miles out of Charleston and coming back with four to six tuna per angler. Currents are shifting daily. The ocean and bays are open to crabbing coastwide, and ocean crabbing has improved along the South Coast. During the summer molt, release soft-shelled crabs regardless of size because their meat content is low. Razor clamming is closed south of the Siuslaw River because of domoic acid levels, and razors are now off limits on the North Coast for the annual conservation closure. Bay clams, butter clams and mussels are available coastwide. Before digging, check the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474. Plenty of excellent minus tides are forecast for the South Coast beginning Sunday and they improve daily. LAKE OUTLOOK AGATE: The lake was listed Thursday at 67 percent full and dropping quickly, with anglers starting to lose interest. Fishing is fair for a mix of bass, crappie and perch, but mostly perch around submerged willows. Smallmouth are near the dam, as well. No trout stockings are planned this year. No gas motors are allowed, but electric trolling motors are fine. APPLEGATE: Fishing has been good for a mix of recently stocked, legal-sized rainbow trout and holdover trout running 16-plus inches. The lake hasn't received any new trout since 8,000 legal-sized trout were released in early June. That hasn't deterred anglers, particularly off points high in the reservoir and in the Seattle Bar area. All the boat ramps are open and operational. Trollers and still-fishers off the bank high up in the reservoir are doing well. Bank anglers using worms under bobbers in the Seattle Bar area are seeing consistent action, but mostly for smaller rainbows. The lake was listed at 18 feet shy of full Thursday, and that's making Seattle Bar a little less attractive every day. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to release 325 cfs of water, and that led to another four-foot drop this past week. DIAMOND: The lake is fishing very well for rainbows, with PowerBait and worms out-fishing trolling. Fly-fishing chironomid patterns with long leaders is working well, especially on cloudy days. Use long leaders. The rainbows are spread out. Mornings are more productive, but fishing has been decent all day on cloudy days. Another 300,000 fingerlings were stocked recently and should be avoided until they are of legal eight-inch size. Also be careful when releasing tiger trout, all of which must be released unharmed. EMIGRANT: The lake was listed Thursday at 72 percent full. The 1,000 legal-sized trout stocked there last month have dispersed, but the cove off the ramp or the cool waters of the Emigrant Arm are the best bets. Bass are biting. Fish crankbaits, plastic worms or grubs very slowly around structure on cloudy days. Fishing plastic worms, jigs or grubs is very good in and around submerged willows in the Emigrant Arm. FISH: The lake was at 62 percent full Thursday and dropping faster than it has all season. Another 3,000 legal-sized trout were released this week. Fish PowerBait for a mix of holdover rainbows and landlocked chinook near the Forest Service boat ramp and near springs. Tiger trout as big as 18 inches have been caught, but they must be released unharmed. Fishing around the springs is best. HOWARD PRAIRIE: The lake is fishing well for people in anchored boats using rainbow or chartreuse PowerBait off the bottom near shore or trolling Triple Teasers, Tasmanian Devils and Wedding Ring lures in the old creek channel. Lots of holdover trout in the 16- to 19-inch range are being caught, but rainbows eclipsing 20 inches continue to be caught with regularity in deeper water. The lake has dropped a hair to 61 percent full. HYATT: Trout fishing has slowed, and bass fishing has improved. Anything red works for bass, especially around the Orchard and in the bay near the BLM ramp. Not much size to the largemouth, though. The lake dropped this week to 61 percent full. LOST CREEK: The lake is dropping more slowly now that the July water-release plan is in effect. Fishing is good for the 10,000 legal-sized trout and 1,075 trophy trout stocked there last month. That's the last trout stocking scheduled for Lost Creek until October. Fishing is good with worms in the area where the Rogue flows into the lake above Peyton Bridge. Trollers should start with green Wedding Ring lures with a piece of worm. Landlocked salmon have been holding deeper than the trout. Fish for largemouth in the submerged willows and for smallmouth off rocky points. The lake was listed Thursday at 37 feet below full pool, down about three feet lower than last week. LAKE OF THE WOODS: The lake is fishing very well for a mix of rainbows, brown trout and perch near the resort with worms under bobbers and PowerBait off the bottom. WILLOW: Trout fishing improved after 3,225 legal-sized rainbows and 425 pounders were stocked last month at the county boat ramp. The lake is dropping but water clarity is good. EXPO: The pond near the outdoor stage got 1,000 legal-sized trout last month, and that's the last stocking for this summer. Use worms under bobbers, PowerBait and small spoons slowly retrieved. RIVER OUTLOOK ROGUE: A mix of spring chinook and winter steelhead are bending rods in the upper Rogue, while a few late springers and some early summer steelhead are being caught somewhat regularly by middle Rogue anglers. The Rogue bay has had surprisingly good early fall chinook trolling and would be the best bet if it wasn't forecast to be so windy today. That makes the upper Rogue the best bet, but the lower Rogue's recent run on bright chinook can't be overlooked. In the upper Rogue, the water downstream of Dodge Bridge is getting a lot more attention now that anglers can keep wild chinook as part of the two-fish daily limit. More fish are upstream of Shady Cove, but it has largely been a wild-chinook show with a higher percentage of fish getting released. Those fishing smaller Kwikfish or MagLip lures like 3.5 or even 4.5 will have the best bet for catching either a springer or an early-run summer. Back-bouncing roe and sandshrimp is also a good bet. So far, the early summer steelhead run is a good one. The 206 new steelhead collected Wednesday at Cole Rivers Hatchery is almost twice what the spring chinook count was there Wednesday. The run to the hatchery so far is now at 640 fish, and that doesn't include the 176 steelhead recycled back downstream so far this season. That's the best early return since 2013 and well above the 10-year running average of 348 adults. Flows in the upper Rogue are down to 1,600 cfs this week out of Lost Creek Lake as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is reserving water to release once fall chinook start chugging upstream in about a month. Flows at Dodge Bridge are down to 1,826 cfs and down to 1,785 cfs at the old Gold Ray Dam site and 1,614 cfs at Grants Pass. Flows at Agness will be down to around 2,225 cfs. In the lower Rogue, a few dozen boats a day are hitting the bay and they're really getting into the early-run fall chinook. Reports of three to four fish per boat daily are excellent for this time of year. Trolling smallish anchovies with the Rogue blade rig is best. Fishing is best near the mouth and around the bridge. There appear to be lots of jacks in the bay, as well. Another 2,375 legal-sized trout were stocked this week in several locations in and around Union Creek along the far upper Rogue. These releases will continue weekly through Labor Day. MailTribune.com Writer Posted Jul. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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