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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, January 28, 2005 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 Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? 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 January 6, 2005 Fishing and Hunting Report River Outlook ROGUE — Winter steelhead fishing is heating up in the lower Rogue as good numbers of fish and excellent conditions make for a great start to what is expected to be a strong fishery this year. A few early winter steelhead already are getting caught in the canyons around Galice, and summer steelhead catches are improving on the upper Rogue. The best bet is the lower Rogue around Agness, where anglers have seen swarms of winter steelhead. Catches are good for plunkers off the bank as well as boat anglers side-drifting roe or using plugs. The best tactic is to concentrate on migration lanes, focusing on water 5-6 feet deep along the upper and lower ends of riffles. The inside turns on gravel bars are also good choices. In the middle Rogue, a few early steelhead have been caught with roe, but the action is a bit light. It’s still early, but look for a good contingent of winter steelhead bound for the Applegate River. When they show, catches should be good from Whitehorse Park on downstream. Anglers can keep one wild winter steelhead over 24 inches a day, and up to five a year, from the mouth upstream to Hog Creek. That opens extra water for the wild catch. This year’s run will be dominated by wild steelhead. In the upper Rogue, bait-fishing has returned to the entire stretch upstream of Gold Ray Dam, and that has spread anglers out from TouVelle State Park upstream to the Hatchery Hole. Small clusters of roe are good offerings for late-run summer steelhead. Wild fish are starting to stage off creekmouths, and they all must be released unharmed. The concentration of hatchery fish increases the farther upstream anglers go. The Hatchery Hole remains fairly consistent for summer steelhead and coho on bait or egg flies. Cole Rivers Hatchery workers have concluded their recycling program for excess summer steelhead for the year. The remainder of excess steelhead now will go to Emigrant Lake to reduce the straying of hatchery steelhead onto wild steelhead spawning grounds. Advertisement Water releases from Lost Creek dam remain low, with just a hair over 1,000 cubic feet per second of 41-degree water coming out of the reservoir. For daily flow reports out of Lost Creek Lake, call 800-472-2434. CHETCO — Winter steelhead catches have jumped and fishing was very good as good water conditions from recent storms make for excellent angling. Most of the fish are in the 10-pound class, and roe is out-fishing plugs. Anglers may keep one wild winter steelhead a day as part of their two-fish daily limit, and no more than five wild steelhead per year. ELK/SIXES — Both rivers were in good shape and fishing fair to good for a mix of old chinook and winter steelhead. Roe is out-fishing plugs. Water conditions were good. UMPQUA — Plunking and bait-fishing for early winter steelhead was good in the main-stem, and improving in the North Umpqua and South Umpqua as well. Roe is out-fishing plugs. Sturgeon fishing has been slow in the lower river. COOS/COQUILLE — Winter steelhead remain well dispersed in both systems, with good catches of wild and hatchery winter steelhead in the South Fork of the Coquille. Roe is out- producing plugs in both river systems. 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, with very little effort as the reservoir rises and drops thanks to last week’s rains. The lake is at its winter low for flood control. The lake’s surface temperature has dropped to a hair under 43 degrees, leaving fishing slow for smallmouth bass. Trolling for trout during the afternoons can be good on sunny days, which draws the trout toward the surface. 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 mid-day, especially on warmer days. Bass fishing is very slow. No recycled winter steelhead have been stocked yet this season. 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 Crabbing has been excellent in most Southern Oregon bays, with catches best between freshets. The ocean has re-opened for the recreational rockfish and lingcod catches, and effort has been light so far. Ocean conditions have been rough since the season re-opened Saturday, but look for effort and catches to improve once steelhead fishing slows down and choppy seas ease. Anglers can keep up to eight marine rockfish a day, and up to two lingcod over 24 inches a day. Beaches around Port Orford, Gold Beach and Brookings remain closed for razor clam. To check for updates on the closure, telephone the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Shellfish Hotline at 800-448-2474. Hunting Outlook ROGUE — Blue and ruffed grouse hunting is good, as is Mountain quail. Look for quail near high-elevation water sources. Grouse and quail hunting closes Sunday. Local duck and goose hunting is fair, with the best waterfowl shooting along uninhabited stretches of the Rogue River. Bear season is over. 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 — Blue and ruffed grouse hunters can expect a decent end to their season. The season closes Sunday. KLAMATH — Waterfowl hunting remains slow. 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. With good precipitation this summer, expect birds to be scattered. OCHOCO — Chukar populations are scattered with best opportunities on public lands along the canyon areas of the Crooked and John Day rivers. SUMMER LAKE — Hunting success has been poor for waterfowl at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area. Ice formations remain fairly extensive covering about 85 percent of open water and remained that way all week. Foggy conditions were experienced on a couple of days. Both duck and goose numbers declined compared to the previous week, and are now approaching wintering levels. 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. SUMMER LAKE WILDLIFE AREA — The Schoolhouse Lake Wildlife Viewing Station continues to provide excellent opportunities for observing migrant and wintering waterbirds. Wintering raptors can be found scattered throughout the Area as well as on private lands along Highway 31. Northern harriers are especially numerous over march and meadow areas. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers