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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 16, 2006 Oregon Fish and Wildlife hatchery technicians Sean Wilson, top, and Ray Lewis move a net full of trout. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Area anglers to get early start Outdoor Journal By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune TRAIL — Rogue Valley trout anglers will get a jump on their spring fishing season this week with an unprecedented stocking of large rainbow trout in area ponds. The 7,100 fish set for stocking in four waters range from three-quarters of a pound to two pounds and are the product of a contingency plan to ensure a disease outbreak last year at Cole Rivers Hatchery didn’t harm this year’s fish-plantings. With extra fish on their hands, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists decided to jump-start the spring season with some February releases — a first for these waters. "I certainly hope families will take advantage of these," says Dan VanDyke, the ODFW’s Rogue District fish biologist. "It’s a real opportunity. Certainly, fishing should be good and we hope folks get out and enjoy." The extra fish were stocked Wednesday at Lake Selmac near Selma and the All Sports Pond in Grants Pass. Advertisement Today, Cole Rivers crews are scheduled to stock the Whetstone Pond at the Denman Wildlife Area and Expo Pond at the Jackson County Fairgrounds. And these aren’t your standard "legals" and "lunkers," as they are known in the trout-anglers’ lexicon. Call these fish "�ber-legals" and "super-lunkers." The �ber-legals are 11 to 13 inches long and twice the weight of an average 8-inch hatchery trout just long enough to be kept legally. The trout are left over from last fall’s weekly releases into the upper Rogue River and Union Creek near Prospect, hatchery Manager Randy Robart says. The lunkers are all running about two pounds apiece, about twice the size of a standard "lunker" category, Robart says. Lake Selmac has received 4,400 �ber-legals, while the All Sports Pond now has 300 �ber-legals and 50 super-lunkers. Whetstone Pond is set to get 1,000 �ber-legals and 100 super-lunkers today. Also scheduled for today are the deliveries of 1,000 �ber-legals and 250 super-lunkers. The super-lunkers are a combination of excess lunker trout from releases in Coos and Curry county ponds last fall as well as fish once earmarked for Lost Creek and Willow lakes. But the plans have changed since the waterborne virus IHN was found in Cole Rivers hatchery trout last year. Diseased fish cannot be stocked in waterbodies where the naturally occurring disease has not been found, and the agency also will not stock fish from an IHN hatchery upstream of the any hatchery’s water intake system. For that reason, the lunkers planned for Lost Creek and Willow lakes had to go elsewhere. Unsure if they could meet local stocking schedules next year, the ODFW held onto the excess fish instead of releasing them last year, Robart says. But a combination of trout-trades with other Oregon hatcheries, the purchase of excess fish from California and stepped-up production at the Butte Falls Hatchery mean local lakes will get their normal complement of trout in 2006. That provided this week’s extra opportunity to release the �ber-legals and super-lunkers that were held as insurance. The held-over fish remained in hatchery pens since their planned fall releases, thereby providing the opportunity to gain body size, Robart says. "Maybe this will become real popular," Robart says. "If people like this, we may hold some fish back and do it again." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail Area anglers to get early start ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations Casinos Canada dvd-r Generic Viagra Myspace Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Student Loans Sudoku Online Advertisement s