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OUTDOOR JOURNAL Trout Drought Low, warm water leads to trimming of weekly trout-release sites in Prospect, Union Creek area Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Jun. 5, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Jun 26, 2015 at 9:22 AM By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Jun. 5, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Jun 26, 2015 at 9:22 AM --> WHERE TO GO Here are the locations and directions to the Friday trout-stocking spots in the far upper Rogue River and some of its tributaries in the Union Creek area of northern Jackso... » Read more X WHERE TO GO Here are the locations and directions to the Friday trout-stocking spots in the far upper Rogue River and some of its tributaries in the Union Creek area of northern Jackson County. The spots are stocked weekly through Labor Day. Mill Creek Bridge at Prospect: Go to Prospect, turn right on First Street and drive one-third of a mile before taking a right onto Mill Creek Drive. Then turn right onto the Prospect-Butte Falls Highway and stop at the bridge. Mill Creek Campground: Take Highway 62 north, turn right at the Mill Creek Campground sign, then drive eight-tenths of a mile to the bridge at the campground entrance. River Bridge Campground: Highway 62 north, left onto Forest Service Road 6210 and then drive almost a mile to the bridge over the Rogue River. Woodruff Bridge: Highway 62, left onto F.S. Road 68 toward Woodruff Bridge/Abbott Campground, which is less than two miles away. Stop at the bridge. Natural Bridge Campground: Highway 62 to F.S. Road 300, then follow signs to the Natural Bridge Recreation Area and turn right at the campground. Union Creek campground: Highway 62, left into Union Creek Campground and follow the road to the bridge over Union Creek. Farewell Bend Campground: Highway 62, left into the campground. Mount Stella Bridge: Highway 62 to Highway 230, then go left onto the F.S. Road 6510 to the bridge. Crater Creek: Take Highway 62, then go right on F.S. Road 6530, then right onto F.S. Road 6535, then right on F.S. Road 900 and stop at the first culvert. Highway Hole: Along Highway 230 between mileposts 9 and 10 where there is a wide pull-off and a waterfall. Minnehaha Creek:  Highway 62, right onto F.S. Road 6530 at the Hamaker Camground sign, drive 1 mile over the bridge, take the next right and stay right at the fork until you reach a culvert. — Source: ODFW                     » Social News PROSPECT — When technician Bryan DeBerry steers the Cole Rivers Hatchery trout-stocking truck into Mill Creek Campground, he feels like he should be jingling some bells or playing some annoying children's song on a loudspeaker. DeBerry stops the truck near a campsite next to a spot where Mill Creek churns over a short falls and into a sandy pool with deep teal water perfect for a few scoops of rainbows. Nearby camper Tim Lagendresse puts down his coffee mug and grabs his trout rod, knowing exactly what DeBerry has in store for him. "It's a really pretty place, and there's usually families camped here and their kids get all excited," DeBerry says. "It's like you're the ice cream truck pulling up." But this trout truck won't be hitting all of its normal stops in and around Union Creek and Prospect because the ongoing drought in the Rogue River Basin has left some of these historical release sites too hot for trout. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has dropped three trout-release sites from the popular weekly releases in the far upper Rogue and some of its tributaries, areas where trout have been released for more than a century. Near-record low flows for mid-May mean some of these streams are already getting too low and warm for cool-water rainbows, so Dan VanDyke, ODFW's Rogue District fish biologist, has opted not to stock them for the remainder of the program that runs through Labor Day. Now the string of fishing holes that create one of Southern Oregon's best summer trout fisheries will shrink from 14 release spots to 11. "When it's hot in the valley, it's still a great place to get under some trees along some cool water and catch trout," VanDyke says. "I've certainly seen pictures of beautiful rainbows people catch here, and that won't change at the sites we're still going to stock." The losers in this change will be the anglers who continue trying their weekend hand at angling at the sites that won't get stocked for the remainder of the summer. Those are Foster Creek, where the creek flows through a culvert under Foster Creek Road, Woodruff Creek near Abbott Campground and Hamaker Campground. The winners, however, are those who fish the spots still on the so-called Section 5 route, because the 2,250 trout allocated for release each Friday along the route will be divvied up among fewer release spots. Lagendresse is one of the latter. The rural Jacksonville man regularly joins friend John Jameson of Phoenix at Mill Creek Campground on Fridays, usually grabbing the campsites adjacent to the stocking spot. Hatchery technician Sean Wilson dips a net into the truck's tanks, pulling out several dozen rainbows that each meet or exceed the 8-inch minimum for anglers to keep. DeBerry dumps the load into the hole as Lagendresse threads a single salmon egg onto his hook. "Ooh, yeah," Lagendresse says. "Sometimes I'll give them a minute to adapt to their new environment. They can get a little shell-shocked." It takes a few casts for Lagendresse to separate Mill Creek from one of its new denizens, personifying the "take" part of the so-called "put-and-take-fishery" popular in the Prospect-Union Creek area since the Teddy Roosevelt presidency. The pair has the joint to themselves, for now. "That's why we try to catch ours in the morning, so we can watch everybody else catch theirs the rest of the day," says Jameson, who introduced Lagendresse to the Mill Creek trout spot years ago and shares it with him regularly throughout the summer. The fish stocked today from the hatchery's trout truck literally will be free for the pickings Saturday and Sunday, the Free Fishing Weekend days when anglers don't need a license to cast for trout in Mill Creek or anywhere in Oregon where it's legal to fish. Lagendresse and Jameson could be in for some serious sharing. "Like a lot of places, I think you'll see some extra effort there," VanDyke 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 Jun. 5, 2015 at 2:00 AM Updated Jun 26, 2015 at 9:22 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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