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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 Our View: Three elections that matter right now ... The Concord launches ... Mail Tribune 100: Oct. 20, 1915 ... Our View: Three elections that matter right now ... The Concord launches ... Mail Tribune 100: Oct. 20, 1915 ... OUTDOOR JOURNAL Spring chinook might benefit from new boundary Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 28, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 28, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News GOLD HILL — The upper Rogue River's once productive fall chinook salmon fishery will close again Monday evening without really getting going, the latest opportunity lost to the conundrum of choosing good fish health over good fishing. But when it comes to wild spring chinook protection and extending fishing on a vibrant fall chinook run, it's possible that one day we can have both. Anglers are now shooed away from catching chinook upstream of Fishers Ferry boat ramp in September. But one day they could not only be allowed back to these favored fishing haunts, they could be encouraged to do so as a way of helping depressed wild spring chinook survive. All it will take is determining whether September salmon caught downstream of TouVelle State Park are late-run spring chinook or actually fall chinook spreading farther upstream toward historic Rogue spring chinook grounds. If it turns out September salmon below TouVelle are fall chinook, anglers will have a good argument to move the Sept. 1 deadline from Fishers Ferry to Touvelle, opening six miles of water to chinook fishing that now are closed. In fact, thinning out those fall chinook would help keep them from straying onto spring chinook spawning grounds, making September fishing here a benefit to spring chinook instead of, as it's now seen, a debit. But if those September fish turn out to be wild spring chinook, their collective numbers are so depressed that every one of them is far more beneficial on spawning grounds than barbecues. "If you're only harvesting fall chinook, I don't see any reason why we wouldn't want that," says Pete Samarin, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fish biologist studying Rogue chinook. "There's plenty of fall chinook. "If it's a mixed bag (of fall and spring chinook), then you'll have to make a decision, and it probably will lean toward the depressed stock," Samarin says. Or, in short, the status quo. How we get to this position of passing on catching more of the abundant wild fall chinook to protect the less abundant wild spring chinook dates back to when Lost Creek Lake went online in 1978 and Applegate Lake followed suit in 1980. Wild spring chinook are the clear losers in the placement and operation of Lost Creek Dam, which closed more than one third of their natural spawning habitat and altered upper Rogue River conditions, which no longer favor them. In contrast, the biggest winners are wild fall chinook, whose numbers have grown exponentially now that augmented summer flows have created better in-river conditions that have boosted survival and given them more access throughout the basin. All wild spring chinook are bound for the upper Rogue, and old tagging surveys at Gold Ray Dam showed that all wild springers spawned by Oct. 10, ODFW survey records show. That's why spring chinook fishing historically stopped above Gold Ray Dam Aug. 1. More recent surveys show the vast majority of springers spawn above Dodge Bridge, allowing ODFW to open wild chinook fishing below Dodge Bridge through August. Fishing remained open in September below Gold Ray Dam, offering Medfordites great chinook holes for September fishing that at times was dominant. In fact, anglers were encouraged to catch those fall chinook below Gold Ray Dam to keep them from intermingling with the wild springers farther upstream. With the 2010 removal of Gold Ray Dam, a new deadline was needed. At the request of Oregon State Police, the Sept. 1 closure was shifted from the dam site to Fishers Ferry about a mile farther downstream, closing those productive September holes. If that Fishers Ferry deadline was moved to TouVelle, the good old holes would be open to fall chinook, along with the highly productive water upstream of the old dam site through September. Based on the old Oct. 10 deadline, every spawned-out wild fish above the old dam site is considered a wild spring chinook. In the past 10 years, surveys between TouVelle and the old dam found an average of 45 spawned-out chinook in that reach, with numbers ranging from zero last year to a high of 80 in 2005 and 2009, ODFW statistics show. To determine if those dead fish were, indeed, wild spring chinook would require a $10 DNA test, Samarin says. If the tests show they're wild springers, then anglers have no argument to open that water because the remaining wild springers are the top management priority for the Rogue Basin. If not, then why not open that area to fall chinook fishing? It would help wild spring chinook and improve angling, if the tests pencil out. "Those are numbers I certainly would want to see," Samarin says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman . By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 28, 2015 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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