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Fall chinook fishing season makes timely return to coast By MARK FREEMAN Today is the last day of the season for fall chinook salmon angling in most of the middle Rogue River as angler desires take a back seat to salmon's spawning needs. But the closure is followed up Friday by a rare victory for fish and fishermen along the Southern Oregon coast -- an expansion of sport-fishing opportunities for fall chinook. After several years of no fall angling, sport fishermen can return to the Lower Rogue and two small Curry County streams for fall chinook fishing from Friday through December. Sport-fishing for chinook will return to Pistol River and Hunter Creek as well. The Lower Rogue downstream of the Illinois River, Pistol River and Hunter Creek had been closed to fall chinook fishing October through December to protect dwindling runs of wild fall chinook. But the wild fish have rebounded, allowing state wildlife biologists to open a short fishing season with reduced bag limits. "We've been working for this day for 15 years," says Russ Stauff, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist in Gold Beach. Fishermen on these streams can keep one adult chinook a day, and five per year for each stream. Bag limits can also include up to five jack salmon under 24 inches a day. In the lower Rogue, anglers can expect to catch a mix of wild and hatchery fish headed for the Indian Creek hatchery near Gold Beach. In Pistol River, fishing is allowed downstream of Deep Creek and Hunter Creek fishing is allowed downstream of Mateer Bridge. Both waterways are home to wild salmon. Elsewhere, tonight's salmon-fishing closure runs from the Hog Creek boat landing near Merlin upstream past Grants Pass and Gold Hill to Gold Ray Dam. Waters upstream of Gold Ray Dam have been closed to chinook fishing since Aug. 1, but open again Nov. 1 -- when most chinook are either dead or spawned out and in far too poor a shape for interest by anglers. The area from Hog Creek downstream to the river mouth at Gold Beach remains open to fall chinook fishing. The middle Rogue closure is designed to give fall chinook a chance to spawn in the river's main channel without getting hassled by anglers. The closure comes as anglers continue to fish for fall chinook below Gold Ray Dam and in the Grants Pass area. While late September anglers usually find the chinook in poor and undesirable shape, the late run of middle Rogue chinook has made late-season angling fair to good. TULELAKE, Calif . -- Young bird hunters will head over the Oregon border south of Klamath Falls on Saturday to take park in a special pre-season youth waterfowl hunt on the California portions of the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges. The hunt will take place a week before the regular opening day of waterfowl hunting in Northeastern California. The special hunting day is open to licensed juvenile hunters under 18 and older than 15 years. They must be accompanied by a non-shooting adult 18 or older. All the areas of the two refuges normally open to California waterfowl hunting will be open during the youth hunts. Species, bag limit and shooting rules set for the general season also apply to youths in the juvenile waterfowl hunt. Both refuges will also remain open after the normal 1 p.m. closing time to facilitate youth hunting opportunities. The Tule Lake refuge's spaced-blind area will be open as a free-roaming hunting area Saturday only. There is no special check-in or check-out procedure for Saturday's event, and adults accompanying youth hunters will not be required to pay hunting fees. The refuges will also hold three afternoon youth-only hunts in areas normally closed to all hunting at 1 p.m. Juveniles accompanied by non-hunting adults can hunt on the California portions of the refuges from 1 p.m. to closing time on Oct. 16, Oct. 23 and Nov. 27. For maps and additional information, contact Dave Menke at the refuge's visitor center at (530) 667-2231. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470 or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA