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37 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, November 26, 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 Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley 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 November 25, 2004 Fishing & Hunting Report River Outlook ROGUE — Low, cold water conditions are hampering catches of steelhead throughout the system, with anglers crossing their fingers in hopes that today’s forecast rains will help raise, color and warm the Rogue. If the rains don’t come through, the best bet will be the Agness area, where a mix of steelhead and halfpounders should keep bait-fishermen busy. If the rains come, however, look for the Grants Pass area and the upper Rogue to come alive with steelhead. The upper Rogue has plenty of summer steelhead and coho salmon for the catching, but catches have been light. The biggest problem is low and cold water; the outflow from Lost Creek Lake was 959 cubic feet per second of 43-degree water. A rain will raise, color and warm the water enough that steelhead and coho will be on the move. The Hatchery Hole is fair to good for steelhead and coho. Catches have been best in the bait section upstream of the Rogue Elk Park boat ramp, and just fair with flies and lures downstream of the ramp. As of Nov. 12, the last updated count by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the upper Rogue had 10,709 summer steelhead and 10,623 coho over Gold Ray Dam. Only 1,412 summer steelhead and about 3,000 coho have reached Cole Rivers Hatchery, so there’s plenty of fish there. That’s excellent, once conditions improve. Advertisement Both wild coho and wild steelhead must be released unharmed. In the Grants Pass area, coho remain stacked in most stillwater stretches, where they can be caught on roe. Coho are notoriously poor biters and even worse under current conditions. A rain will change that. Expect to intercept schools of steelhead and coho in migration lanes and places like shallow water downstream from Savage Rapids Dam, Rainie Falls and Finley Bend. The first few winter steelhead have moved into the lower Rogue bay, but effort and catches remain light. Bans on keeping more than one wild chinook are now off for the remainder of the year downstream of Gold Ray Dam when angling is allowed. Remember, all wild steelhead must be released unharmed for the remainder of the year. For daily flow reports out of Lost Creek Lake, call 800-472-2434. CHETCO — Fishing for fall chinook has slowed as the water levels have dropped and cleared dramatically. Chinook likely won’t move out of the holes until a significant rain comes. Chinook are scattered throughout the system. ELK/SIXES — Fresh fish are moving into the lower Elk River on each high tide, and some decent days of fishing have occurred. Upstream, the water is low and clear and fall chinook catches are poor. The Sixes is fair in tidewater with flies and anchovies, but poor upstream. Upstream fish are spawning and many are of poor quality. UMPQUA — Coho and steelhead fishing is fair around Elkton, and steelhead catches are just fair in the flies-only and all-angling sections. Chinook fishing is closed on the North Umpqua. The South Umpqua is now open to steelhead fishing, but catches are slow amid low, clear water conditions. COOS/COQUILLE — Coho fishing remains good in Coos Bay and fair in the Coquille tidewater. Lake Outlook HOWARD PRAIRIE — The lake is closed for the season. HYATT — The lake is closed for the season. DIAMOND — The lake is closed for the season. LOST CREEK — Trout fishing remains fair to good with bait for shallow trollers. The lake is at its winter low for flood control. The lake’s surface temperature has dropped to 48 degrees, leaving fishing slow for smallmouth bass. The lake is open year-round for trout and bass fishing, with trout anglers out-numbering bass anglers throughout the cold-weather months. APPLEGATE — Fishing for stocked chinook and rainbow trout around 12 inches long is good during midday. Bass fishing is fair near the dam. Anglers can keep up to five rainbow trout, stocked salmon or recycled winter steelhead a day, but only one fish can be more than 20 inches long. No bass between 12 inches and 15 inches can be kept, and only one bass larger than 15 inches can be kept. Ocean Outlook The chinook salmon season is over off the mouth of the Chetco. Anglers, however, can fish for chinook salmon off the mouth of the Elk and Sixes rivers. Effort is light. Anglers are banned from fishing for black rockfish, lingcod, greenling and cabezon, leaving surfperch and a few other species open. Tuna fishing remains slow. Yellowtail rockfish fishing is open outside the 40-fathom line. Crabbing remains slow. Shellfish harvest is open for all species except razor clams on the south and central coast. Hunting Outlook ROGUE — Muzzleloaders and late-season archery hunters are finding black-tailed deer on the move from high-elevation areas toward winter range. A storm front would help push animals around. Blue and ruffed grouse hunting is good as is mountain quail. Look for quail near high-elevation water sources. Pheasant hunting is slow, but some cock pheasants have been found around orchards. Local duck and goose hunting is fair, with the best waterfowl shooting along uninhabited stretches of the Rogue River. Cougar hunters can expect an average year. Cougars are abundant throughout with indicators pointing to stable or increasing numbers and distribution. Hunting cougar is a challenge because these animals are very secretive, but harvest success is greatest adjacent to private land with high deer populations using a predator call. DOUGLAS — Muzzleloaders are having a slower than average season for deer. The deer are migrating in force toward low-elevation winter range. Blue and ruffed grouse hunters can expect a better than average year thanks to above-average production countywide. Same with mountain quail. KLAMATH — Waterfowl hunters hunting over decoys along the marshy areas are faring best. BAKER — Counts were well above average for chukars and quail this year throughout the county except for the upper Powder River, where chukar counts were low. Numbers of Hungarian partridges also appear low. SUMMER LAKE — Relatively poor hunting conditions at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area made for only fair hunter success for waterfowl. Last week’s waterfowl count found more than 16,100 ducks and only 508 geese on the wildlife area. The best success has been for ducks by using decoys. Watchable Wildlife ROGUE — A covered viewing station on the Denman Wildlife Area provides a good opportunity to view waterfowl, egrets, raptors and songbirds. The structure was built by the Oregon Hunters Association and is accessed by a paved, wheelchair-accessible pathway. It is on Whetstone Pond, just north of the ODFW office. 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. 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