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55 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, September 20, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds 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 Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 9, 2004 Fishing and Hunting Report River Outlook ROGUE — Fall chinook salmon fishing improves daily in the Gold Hill and Grants Pass areas, where anglers are intercepting salmon primarily headed to the Applegate River. The upper Rogue’s flies-only season has taken off with a bang as fresh fish and good conditions have helped create good early September fishing. The lower Rogue is also looking better for halfpounder steelhead as well as fall chinook. The best bet for the weekend is summer steelhead on the upper Rogue during the early part of the two-month flies-only season. Fishing with streamers, egg flies and nymphs is good in the upper Rogue with great water conditions — 2,000 cubic feet per second of 54-degree water out of Lost Creek Lake. (For daily flow reports out of Lost Creek Lake, call 800-472-2434.) Though the flow is a tad high for the best fly-fishing, the water temperature allows the steelhead to remain very active. Swinging streamers off sink-tip lines is good for waders or driftboat anglers. Dusk is best, but mornings can be very good. Focus on riffles and tail-outs of pools. Through Sept. 4, 6,345 summer steelhead have crossed Gold Ray Dam. That’s an excellent early component of the run, but the early-run fish should trickle out soon. The middle Rogue is really starting to heat up for fall chinook this past week, with bank angling best at Rainie Falls, Whitehorse Park and Finley Bend. Boat anglers are doing better in regular hot-spots like Taylor Creek Canyon and Whitehorse Riffle, with bait out-producing plugs. Squawfish continue to plague bait fishermen, while hydrilla is causing troubles with plug fishermen. The lower Rogue bay fishery Is still holding on, with fair to occasionally good catches of fish. More and more anglers are moving upstream toward the Agness area, and catches occasionally have been good there as well. Halfpounder fishing is starting to improve and fly-fishing has been very good for halfpounders in the Lobster Creek area on up past Cougar Lane. Streamers fished on sink-tip of sinking lines is best. Advertisement Bans on keeping more than one wild chinook are now off for the remainder of the year downstream of Gold Ray Dam when angling is allowed. Remember, all wild steelhead must be released unharmed for the remainder of the year. The far upper Rogue near Union Creek is still getting stocked weekly with legal-sized rainbow trout, and catches of these fish are good on small lures, single salmon eggs, worms and flies. UMPQUA — Steelhead fishing is picking up in the main-stem and fair in the North Umpqua. Catches are fair in the all-angling and flies-only sections of the North Umpqua. Smallmouth bass fishing remains good in the main-stem, while sturgeon fishing remains slow in tidewater. COOS/COQUILLE — Chinook fishing has slowed a bit between the jetties in Coos Bay, with anchovies mooched off the bottom triggering the best catches. Chinook are also present in the lower Coquille, with trolling large spinners fair in tidewater. Sea-run cutthroat trout are also present in tidewater. Striped bass fishing is fair to good up to Johnson Mill Pond. Lake Outlook HOWARD PRAIRIE — The morning trollers continue to focus on natural-colored lures, with Tasmanian Devils working best. Despite mid-August weather, good catches of 16-inch trout have been seen. Fish as deep as possible. Velveeta cheese and light colored PowerBait are the most productive baits, although a lot of people are picking fish up on red eggs. The limit remains five trout a day, with only one over 20 inches allowed. HYATT — The lake remains good for rainbow trout, with most catches in the 12-16 inch range. Evening fishing is best, either slowly trolling or still-fishing. Still-fishing with PowerBait will be best for trout, while worms and single salmon eggs are good back-ups. The limit remains five trout a day, with only one over 20 inches a day allowed. DIAMOND — Fishing is fair to good for stocked rainbows along the south end of the lake, with fish congregating near Silent and Short creeks. Early morning is good in the shallows, but the fish are going to 30-35 feet deep and near the middle of the lake during the day. Trollers are still catching trout with red Needlefish or No. 5 Rapalas. The limit is five trout a day, with only one over 20 inches a day allowed. LOST CREEK — Surface temperatures have dropped five degrees down to 68 degrees, and that’s improving the trout catches. Trout fishing remains good with bait near freshwater sources and trolling is best around the marina and near the face of the dam, with mornings and evenings best. Remember, the waters upstream of Peyton Bridge are a no-wake zone, so it’s a good midday refuge from water-skiers. The lake is open year-round for trout and bass fishing, with trout anglers out-numbering bass anglers throughout the cold-weather months. APPLEGATE — Fishing for stocked chinook and rainbow trout around 12 inches long is good in the mornings and evenings. Bass fishing is good near the dam. Both boat ramps remain operational. Anglers can keep up to five rainbow trout, stocked salmon or recycled winter steelhead a day, but only one fish can be more than 20 inches long. No bass between 12 inches and 15 inches can be kept, and only one bass larger than 15 inches can be kept. FISH — Trolling and still-fishing for trout remains good near the resort and the boat ramp, while fly-fishing is good in the evenings with woolly buggers and leeches. WILLOW — Fishing for bass remains good, and trout catches have improved. SELMAC — The lake remains closed to public access due to an outbreak of potentially toxic blue-green algae. EMIGRANT — The lake was recently stocked with 4,000 legal-sized rainbow for late-season fishing. Smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing remains good, but the lake is dropping rapidly and the lack of depth is exposing most of the willows. For smallmouth, concentrate on the rocky points regardless of depth. Ocean Outlook The summer’s chinook salmon season ends Sunday, and fishing has tapered off amid poor weather conditions. However, some catches of very large chinook are still taking place, and favorable weather is forecast for the final weekend of the season. The salmon are scattered offshore. The fin-clipped coho fishery is over and most bottomfishing is banned now because federal quotas have been reached. Anglers are banned from fishing for black rockfish, lingcod, greenling and cabezon, leaving surfperch and a few other species open. Chinook angling remains open and catches have been fair to good out of Brookings. Tuna fishing remains open as well, and catches out of Charleston have been good when weather allows boats to get 25 miles offshore. Crabbing remains slow. Shellfish harvest is open for all species except razor clams on the south and central coast. Hunting Outlook ROGUE — Deer and elk bow seasons remain quiet locally, with bowhunters seeing a few bulls. A few elk have been taken so far at high-elevation areas near clearcuts, but look for improved successes as better weather conditions come. Blue and ruffed grouse hunting are open Wednesday, as is mountain quail. Look for quail near high-elevation water sources. The September Canada goose season opens Saturday and runs through Sept. 17. Lots of local birds are present, mostly around private lands. However, hunting geese is legal on the Rogue River outside of city limits, and hunters are asked to be careful about riverside homes when goose hunting. Bear hunters are in the midst of what is expected to be an average year throughout most of southwestern Oregon. Hunters should concentrate their efforts in the berry patches in early morning and late afternoon. Bear numbers are good with the highest numbers at moderate to low elevations in the coast range, and with smaller populations in the Cascades. Successful bear hunters are reminded to turn in a bear tooth for the ongoing bear population study in southwestern Oregon. Cougar hunters can expect an average year. Cougars are abundant throughout with indicators pointing to stable or increasing numbers and distribution. Hunting cougar is a challenge because these animals are very secretive, but harvest success is greatest adjacent to private land with high deer populations using a predator call. DOUGLAS — Bow hunters reported an average early season for deer and elk, with some activity at high elevations. Blue and ruffed grouse hunters can expect a better than average year thanks to above-average production countywide. Same with mountain quail. OCHOCO — Some antlerless elk hunts are ongoing on private lands. Archery hunters have seen improved hunting conditions from recent rains and cooler temperatures, with deer numbers slightly up and elk herds similar to last year. Watchable Wildlife ROGUE — A covered viewing station on the Denman Wildlife Area provides a good opportunity to view waterfowl, egrets, raptors and songbirds. The structure was built by the Oregon Hunters Association and is accessed by a paved, wheelchair-accessible pathway. It is on Whetstone Pond, just north of the ODFW office. 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 ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities