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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 Oregon lawmakers seek to avert corporate tax ballotmeasure ... Ashland schools superintendent announces resignation ... Linn County officials oppose Douglas fir monument proposal ... Oregon lawmakers seek to avert corporate tax ballotmeasure ... Ashland schools superintendent announces resignation ... Linn County officials oppose Douglas fir monument proposal ... FISHING REPORT Fishing Report: Friday, Feb. 26 Comment MailTribune.com Writer Posted Feb. 26, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Feb. 26, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Though a small-craft advisory is forecast to dissipate this morning, South Coast anglers will still see plenty of wind and swells through the weekend. Today's winds are forecast to be up to 20 knots, with 8-foot swells, followed Saturday by five-knot winds and 11-foot swells. Sunday looks to bring 20-knot winds and 13-foot swells. Today calls for 35-knot winds and 17-foot swells, and that will have everyone looking inland for their fishing pleasure. Saturday looks somewhat doable for those with decent sea legs, and earlier in the day will be better. Rain is forecast for today and Sunday. Cabezon are off the table for ocean anglers through June. Lingcod are spawning and aggressive. Anglers can keep up to one canary rockfish as part of the seven-fish bottomfishing aggregate limit, but anglers should release canaries to ensure the quota is not filled, which could close the bottomfishing season. The ocean and bays are open to crabbing coastwide. Catches were good this week in the bays, but that should slow down this weekend as more freshwater is forecast for bays. Stick to deep-water ports and crab farther down in those systems. Razor clamming remains closed south of Tillamook Head, while bay clams and butter clams are available coastwide. Mussels can be taken coastwide. Before digging, check the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474. LAKE OUTLOOK AGATE: The lake was listed Thursday at 92 percent full and is likely to get more turbid water flowing into it through the weekend. The boat ramp is usable. No trout stockings are planned, and bass fishing is slow. APPLEGATE: The lake is fishing poorly for smallmouth bass and trout amid fluctuating water conditions. Few anglers are venturing off the steep bank for trout. Trolling out of boats has been the best bet. The lake is at 1,928.4 feet above sea level, up 11 feet in the past week as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins its filling schedule. The outflow is 370 cubic feet per second and the inflow is down to 650 cfs, but look for that to spike this weekend if rains forecast for today and Sunday occur. If you go, troll for trout up to 16 inches with Wedding Ring lures spiced with a piece of worm and small flashers, especially on warmer and cloudy days. DIAMOND: Lake ice has hardened enough in the past week to welcome ice fishers back onto the water near the resort and the Cheese Hole. Catches have been decent but not spectacular. The fish are not very active in the cold water. Use small pieces of worm a few reel cranks off the bottom, and use a very sensitive rod. Fingerlings stocked in spring are eclipsing the 8-inch minimum size and should be around 12 inches or more by spring. EMIGRANT: The lake rose and muddied even more this past week, which continues to keep anglers away. The lake was at 62 percent full and rising Thursday. FISH: The lake was up to 40 percent full, and the ice has improved, but there has not been much action for ice fishers. Those who go should look for rainbows in the cove off the Forest Service ramp, where a sno-park permit is required to park. The parking lot is plowed, but the ramp is closed. The resort is open on weekends. HOWARD PRAIRIE: The lake's ice remains poor amid growing inflows and relatively warm weather. Anglers can bank-fish around the dam or other access points where there's open water, but effort is extremely light. PowerBait or worms about five feet under a bobber are good ideas. The lake is up significantly to 35 percent full, and the rising water will break up more ice along the edges and weaken other spots. If ice conditions improve, the best access is near the dam. HYATT: The lake is open, and the ice has melted along the shoreline. The lake is 32 percent full, up 4 percent in the past week. The best access is near the dam. LOST CREEK: Water conditions have settled down while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fills the reservoir. Bank anglers using everything from PowerBait and worms to Kastmaster lures have been picking up trout near the Takelma ramp, which is open. Trollers using green Wedding Ring lures with a piece of worm have done well at times this winter for landlocked chinook salmon in 40 to 50 feet of water. No fresh rainbows are scheduled for stocking until mid-March. The lake is on the rise despite a slight increase of outflows Wednesday to 1,700 cfs, but inflows of 2,200 cfs have the lake rising slowly. The lake was listed Thursday at 1,847 feet above sea level. LAKE OF THE WOODS: Ice conditions have improved enough that anglers and snowmobilers are back on the lake. Worms under the ice are working best for rainbows and perch. WILLOW: Trout fishing is very slow. The boat ramp remains usable, and the lake is open year-round. The lake is 91 percent full. RIVER OUTLOOK ROGUE: Rogue River anglers can expect a mixed weekend riverwide, with winter steelhead successes dependent on how much rain falls today and Sunday, while lower Rogue anglers will start getting spring chinook fever after the first confirmed springer was caught and released Wednesday at the old Champion Mill site. While exciting, the first springer doesn't change the best bet this weekend, which remains the middle Rogue. The most action along the middle Rogue will be from the mouth of the Applegate River on down. Side-drifting roe with a small piece of cocktail shrimp added to it has been the most popular offering for driftboaters, while bankies casting worms and corkies or side-planing with plugs have done well. Flows Thursday were a fairly pedestrian 3,865 cubic feet per second, but rains forecast for Friday have flows spiking to about 7,500 cfs Saturday. When the flows drop Sunday, look for a good winter steelhead bite with roe, worms and corkies or plugs. Mag Lip 3.5s in hot pink, silver and gold are good first bets. A little color in the water should make for excellent for steelheading into early next week. Fishing is best at traditional holes and the heads of canyons. Flows, however, could spike again Monday after another round of rain. The upper Rogue is a mix of early winter steelhead and late summer steelhead, with more spawned-out "downers" than fresh winters. Don't let the steelheads' color fool you. A lot of spawned-out summer steelhead can look bright, but their bellies will feel mushy. They should all be released. Another two dozen winter steelhead made it to Cole Rivers Hatchery this past week, upping the count-to-date to 77 adults. That's nothing spectacular, but it does give hope for upper Rogue anglers hoping to run into one of these bright adults. Egg-soaked yarn balls and plugs are the best bait bets. Anglers river-wide can keep one wild winter steelhead 24 inches or longer per day and five per year. Flows at Dodge Bridge should bottom out at about 2,400 cfs today and peak at around 4,000 cfs Saturday before dropping enough to set up Sunday as a good target day for fishing. Outflows from Lost Creek Lake are holding steady at 1,600 cfs now and are forecast to stay that way until Monday. In the lower Rogue, the first springer of the season hit a chrome and silver Mag Lip 3.5 plug fished at the old mill site. The 18-pound wild fish was released as required. Flows today at Agness will bottom out around 6,800 cfs before rising steadily to about 14,000 cfs late Saturday night. Bankies and boat anglers seeking to hit the tail end of the lower Rogue's winter steelhead season should fair well. Bankies have done best using pink-pearl Spin-Glo's fished right against the bank in 4 to 6 feet of water. Boaters are fishing black-and-white Hot Shots, gold-and-red Wee Warts and pink-and-blue Mag Lip 3.5 lures. The fish are averaging 8 to 12 pounds. CHETCO: The river will start off today in good shape but rise steadily through the weekend to about 4,000 cfs. That's not bad for winter steelhead anglers, provided the color stays good. Once the water drops, look for a good mix of fresh and spawned-out winter steelhead on plugs or bait. ELK: The river was low and clear Thursday but should rise and improve for winter steelhead angling. All week it has been low, clear and cold. APPLEGATE: Water conditions have improved, and winter steelhead remain primarily in the lower river. Most of the action is on bait downstream of the Highway 199 bridge. No winter steelhead have made it yet to the fish trap at the base of Applegate Dam. Watermelon corkies with worms are early-season favorites for winter steelhead, particularly after a rain, and that means this weekend. Flows Thursday were 900 cfs at Wilderville and 441 cfs at Applegate. All wild steelhead must be released unharmed. There is no fishing from a floating device. 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