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69 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, April 12, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental 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 Email Story to a Friend April 1, 2004 Applegate closing to all angling spawns debate By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune APPLEGATE — Jason Smith drove his motorcycle here Saturday from Medford to get a soda and view a piece of that special encounter played between fish and fishermen each winter throughout the Northwest. Dimpling the green Applegate River water at the Highway 238 wayside were dark shapes — winter steelhead, lounging in a pool while they wait to spawn later this month in the rocky riffles just upstream. On granite streamside boulders stand a hodgepodge of fishermen, some casting flies while others offer worms and roe, all to the steelhead below. Nearby stood Smith, soaking in the scene beneath a warm afternoon sun. "Did you see those four right over there," Smith says to a passerby while pointing to the shadows. "I like watching the fishermen catch them when they do, but I like watching the fish just as much." If Smith takes another motorcycle ride to the Applegate this Saturday, there will be plenty of looking at steelhead but no touching. Advertisement Like dozens of coastal streams, the Applegate closed to all angling Wednesday night even though it is awash in thousands of uncaught hatchery-raised steelhead. It’s a phenomenon that hits Applegate anglers annually, and likely will remain that way for the foreseeable future. While state biologists have proposed extending next year’s winter steelhead fishing seasons through April as a way of getting anglers to catch and keep excess hatchery fish, they made no such proposal for the hatchery fish-rich Applegate. Concerns that anglers will follow wild steelhead from places like the green pool near the town of Applegate up to spawning gravel beds means the Applegate likely won’t become one of those steelhead streams where angling may get extended. Having anglers intentionally or accidentally harassing spawning steelhead is not something the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wants to accept, let alone encourage. It’s the latest example of a situation where, when the needs of fish and fishermen clash, the fish will get the nod. "The river’s low and clear enough that you can see exactly where those fish are when they’re spawning," says David Haight, an ODFW fish biologist in Central Point. "There would be fish spawning in places where people are fishing. "It’s not something we’re supporting." Extending the season could be a boon for local anglers as well as the Grants Pass and rural Applegate communities that cater to out-of-state anglers impressed with the unique angling experience the Applegate has to offer. Andy Muzzio and three friends made their annual pilgrimage from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Applegate last weekend to fly-fish for steelhead on the last March weekend for years. They know the best Applegate fishing is always in the season's waning hours, and they would relish a chance to extend that experience into April. "I don't see how it could hurt the Applegate," Muzzio says. "There are way more fish up there and way fewer people fishing for them. That's the other reason we drive seven hours to get there." The Applegate already is something of an anomaly among Oregon steelhead rivers as a relatively small stream with a large hatchery program and odd regulations. About 150,000 Applegate winter steelhead smolts are raised annually at Cole Rivers Hatchery and released as mitigation for wild steelhead spawning habitat lost with the building of Applegate Dam in 1980. Yet the river flows primarily through private land, so public access to public fish is limited, compounded by a rare rule that bans any fishing from boats or other floating devices. The winter steelhead season of Jan. 1 through March 31 is virtually backward. When it opens, there rarely are any winter steelhead in the river, with only scant catches of wild spawned-out summer-run steelhead available. Winter steelhead normally don't enter the river until February, with the run peaking anywhere from March 15 to April 15, according to Chuck Fustish, an ODFW biologist who studied the river intensely in the 1980s. There are no good estimates of the Applegate's fish returns, but Fustish believes the run to be 75 to 90 percent wild (all catches of which must be released unharmed by sport-anglers). Hatchery steelhead, created from the Applegate’s own wild fish, that are not caught or spawn in the wild are collected at an ODFW trapping facility at the base of Applegate Dam. It’s these features that ironically help make the Applegate less attractive for an expanded angling season than streams like the South Umpqua, Tenmile Creek near Reedsport and a portion of Coos River near Coos Bay. ODFW biologists have recommended expanded seasons there beginning in 2005 in part because hatchery fish in those streams have been switched in recent years from non-native Alsea River steelhead to fish native to those systems. The Alsea fish entered those streams earlier than native fish and generated good early-season angling opportunities. With the switch to native fish, the runs have come later. "We want our proposal to have the season coincide with when the fish are returning," says Rhine Messmer, an ODFW biologist heading this spring’s review of 2005 regulations. That sounds like an argument for the Applegate as well. But a key difference is that the proposals call for angling in areas containing hatchery steelhead but not wild spawning steelhead. Tenmile Creek, for instance, is largely a sandy waterway toward spawning grounds upstream of Tenmile Lake. In the South Fork of the Coquille, anglers aren’t allowed in key spawning stretches upstream of fishable waters. "There’s no significant spawning of (wild) steelhead in the areas proposed for the longer seasons," Messmer says. "The problem for the Applegate isn’t the length of the season. It’s access." And access is what brought anglers to the rocks of the Applegate Wayside, casting toward the four shadows Saturday in one of the few public-access spots around the town of Applegate. "I ride past the river every weekend and this is one of the only spots where you see guys fishing," Smith says before biking back to Medford. "I bet these guys would love to fish behind all those ranches instead." 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 3 WEEKS FREE! 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