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48 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, February 18, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental 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 Email Story to a Friend January 29, 2004 Strong early steelhead run a sign of good things to come By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Gary Emerson stood Saturday in the Rogue River waters near Whiskey Creek, imbibing in the best that winter steelhead fishing has to offer. Cast after cast, bright Rogue winter steelhead would interrupt his bait bouncing along the river bottom. Pull after pull, the steelhead would fight. Ten times that morning, the veteran river angler hooked a bright winter steelhead, and eight of them made it to the bank. "They were all brand-new, chrome-bright, beautiful fish," says Emerson, 60, of Merlin. "For about three hours there, it was as good as it gets." Such steelheading nirvana came early this year for Emerson, and anglers hope it’s a sign that such great fishing will come often in the Rogue this season. Advertisement An immense early showing of winter steelhead in the middle Rogue near Grants Pass is generating a river-wide buzz this month that perhaps these fat, feisty steelhead are the next big run of Rogue fish to come. After a stronger than expected return of spring chinook last year, a near-record run of summer steelhead and a gigantic return of fall chinook salmon, winter steelhead seem poised to follow suit throughout the Rogue Basin. Early and strong runs of steelhead already have hit the nearby Chetco and Umpqua rivers as well as Smith River in Northern California. The Rogue runs of winter steelhead come later than those streams, and the early showing is a good indicator of good things. "We’re still benefiting from good ocean conditions," says David Haight, a Rogue Watershed fisheries biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "The summer steelhead was a good, strong run, so we expect the winter steelhead to at least be above average." Catches will peak in February and early March in the Grants Pass area, and good action should continue in the upper Rogue well into April. Wild winter steelhead have dominated most of January’s early fish, generating some ironic grumbling by anglers in the Grants Pass area. The Rogue’s multi-layered catch rules allow one wild winter steelhead over 24 inches a day beginning Feb. 1 upstream of Whiskey Creek near Rainie Falls. Anglers can keep one winter steelhead downstream of Whiskey Creek beginning Jan. 1. The rule protects wild summer steelhead, which are normally far more abundant in the middle and upper Rogue now while targeting any harvest on the healthy wild winter steelhead when present. Normally, they’re not present much before February. But the wild steelhead have been caught and released in big numbers most of this month in the middle Rogue. "Everybody in Grants Pass was whining about not catching anything they can keep," Emerson says. "Well, this is the first big batch of hatchery fish here this year." And Emerson found them Saturday, in a remarkable early-season morning that started as dramatically as it ended. A framing contractor, Emerson’s work schedule has shortened his normal winter steelhead angling season to weekends. A wader and hiker by choice, he enjoys the relative serenity of waters downstream of Grave Creek, where he crosses paths with only a few fellow hikers and a small snippet of winter floaters of the wild and scenic section. "I hate dealing with the boats and crowds," he says. Most of the early-run hatchery winter steelhead are 4- to 8-pound fish bound for the Applegate River, where 150,000 smolts are released annually to make up for wild fish lost from the placement of Applegate Dam. That day, as Emerson settled onto a favorite rock, those Applegate-bound fish were splayed before him. His first bite came from a 6-pound hatchery female, one of the so-called "cookie-cutter" steelhead dubbed because most returning hatchery females tend to be identical replicas of each other. Seven more hatchery fish followed, all released to Emerson can continue fishing. He landed and released a 6-pound wild male steelhead, and had a 12-pound female hatchery steelhead to his feet before it got away. "Fishing in the brush," Emerson says, "you can’t land them all." All the while, the river continued to rise and dirty some. By 11 a.m., the river had risen a foot and the bite, as they say on the river, just died. "It rained all day Friday, and we knew it was going to go," Emerson says. "I was sorry to see it end." Emerson cautions that 10 hook-ups in one three-hour period probably means little more than there were a whole bunch of fresh fish under his toes that day. "You can’t judge a whole river by a couple hundred yards," Emerson says. But it does give people like Emerson hope — hope that days spend battling miserable rains and long hikes in chaffing waders will be rewarded more often than not this winter on the Rogue. "I’m hoping a new batch will be there to replace them when I get back," he says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times