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CLOUDY Temp: 65 °F Wind: NNW at 4 mph Saturday, August 3, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Cyberchef E The People Golf Job Network Headbone Zone Wellness Connection Movie Times Newspaper in Education Oregon CarZone Outdoor Journal Personals Prime Times Real Estate Tempo A & E TV Times W3 Magazine CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Destinations Automotive Communities Employment Entertainment Publications Real Estate Recreation Shopping Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Jobs @ Mail Tribune Email Story to a Friend August 1, 2002 Fishing and Hunting report River Outlook ROGUE — The early fall chinook salmon bite remains good in the lower Rogue, where the fish getting caught are regularly 30 to 50 pounds, with one 58-pounder verified earlier this week. The summer steelhead are starting to move in good numbers through the lower Rogue and providing good fishing from the top of tidewater all the way to the Cole Rivers Hatchery collection pond, and the first waves of halfpounders are heading up the river. Best bet for the weekend remains the lower Rogue, where anglers can fish for large fall chinook during the high tides, then fish mornings and evenings for halfpounders in places like the Willow and Huntley Park. For bay anglers, catches have come on both the early morning and evening tides, with best success coming at high slack tide and during the first three hours of the out-going tide. Trollers are doing best on anchovies with a green blade on the front. The bay’s angling armada has swelled well over 150 boats. The early run is dominated by fish weighing more than 30 pounds, and Jot’s Resort has already given away more than 200 buttons for fish weighing more than 30 pounds. But wildfires in Josephine County and in Northern California have scrapped travel opportunities. Highway 199 has been closed, but the Bear Camp Road was still open as of Wednesday. Check before traveling. Summer steelhead are starting to move through the lower Rogue and in the Wild and Scenic stretch in good numbers. Catch them with flies, worms or roe. In the upper Rogue, the spring chinook salmon season ended Wednesday night, so upper Rogue anglers are all switching to steelhead now. Catches have tended to be a mix of 18- to 20-inchers as well as fish 27 inches or more, with fewer numbers of those in-between sizes. Worms and plugs are getting most of the action now, but fly-fishing is also good in traditional riffles. For fly anglers, black streamers like Tiger paws and egg-sucking leeches are good patterns, while prince nymphs, ugly bugs and single egg patterns are doing well for nymph-fishermen. Water releases from Lost Creek Lake have steadied at just under 1,600 cubic feet per second, which is good for steelhead fishing. The spring chinook count over Gold Ray Dam through July 3 is 40,735. That is the last updated count available from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The ODFW also has counted 2,331 summer steelhead over the dam through July 3, which is an excellent showing of early-run fish. Anglers can no longer keep any wild steelhead on the Rogue for the remainder of the year. Only fin-clipped hatchery steelhead may be kept as part of the two-fish daily limit. The rule allowing a third hatchery steelhead expired July 12. Chinook fishing remains open downstream of Gold Ray Dam, with catches only fair. Many of those fish that died in the recent columnaris outbreak in the Lower Rogue Canyon likely were late-run spring chinook that are usually caught in the Gold Ray Dam area during August. COOS/COQUILLE — Searun cutthroat should be entering tidewater soon. Anglers are reminded that artificial flies and lures must be used when fishing for trout in streams above tidewater. Recent modifications to the inland salmon fishing regulations allow chinook angling in the Coquille from the tips of the jetties up to the South Fork. Good chinook fishing should be starting up in the lower Coquille. Coho fishing is legal beginning today. UMPQUA — In the mainstem Umpqua, fishing for fin-clipped summer steelhead is picking up, and spring chinook fishing has tailed off. Shad and smallmouth bass fishing are good to very good. The South Umpqua is open for smallmouth bass, and angling is good. Trout fishing is open but slow. In the North Umpqua, fishing for summer steelhead is fair in both the all-angling and fly-angling sections. In the fly-only section, anglers are restricted to single barbless unweighted artificial flies only. Lake Outlook HOWARD PRAIRIE — Summer fishing conditions have hit the lake, causing unpredictability in daily catches. Most successful anglers are now still-fishing in waters 35 to 40 feet deep, and moving from place to place in an effort to find trout. The bite has been erratic, with good catches coming at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. some days, then 2 p.m. on others. The lake is generally unpredictable like this until cooler temperatures return. Use Velveeta cheese, possibly spiced with garlic or shrimp oil, or any of the light-colored PowerBait flavors. Chance locations and bait regularly if you are not successful. Most anglers have given up trolling for now. Boat launching is open at the resort and Klum Island, but the water has not reached Grizzly Campground. The daily limit is five trout 8 inches or longer, with no more than one of them allowed to be more than 20 inches long. HYATT — The lake’s die-off of rainbow trout appears to be over, but catches of trout have been slow. Bass fishing is good with small lures. The daily limit is five trout 8 inches or longer, with no more than one allowed to be more than 20 inches long. DIAMOND — The mouth of Silent Creek has been good for rainbow trout, with a mixed bag of the 2-pound trout as well as the pan-sized legals stocked earlier in the year. The chinook salmon are also present and contributing to the catches, chiefly for bait anglers. Rainbow and Spring Green colors of PowerBait are the top choices among Diamond Lake anglers this summer. The most effective tactic is using 4-pound test leader with an egg sinker and very small hook so the fish do not feel any tension until they swallow the bait. For trollers, early morning and late evening is good for those slowly trolling a No. 2 Needlefish or a No. 7 Rapala, with chub-looking lures the best. The daily limit is five trout more than 8 inches long, but only one of them can be more than 20 inches long. Forest Service officials are prohibiting water-skiing, swimming and wading due to an unusually dense algae bloom. Only water contact activities are restricted. All facilities around the lake will remain open. Until the water is confirmed safe, do not ingest lake water, do prevent pets from drinking the water and avoid swimming in the lake. LOST CREEK — The lake was stocked recently with another set of legal-sized lunker and medium-sized rainbow trout and plenty of those trout remain around the Lost Creek Lake Marina. However, the best fishing remains the cooler waters of the far upper end of the lake, where the biggest and most trout are congregating. Catch them wind-drifting worms or single salmon eggs. The surface temperature has steadied at just above 74 degrees, a clear sign that anglers need to fish very deep or move up the reservoir toward sources of cool water. The lake this week is 28 feet from full, with the lake dropping about 3 feet this past week. The smallmouth bass bite is very good, but most action is trolling or bank fishing for trout. Evenings have been very good. Some stoneflies drifting over the dam are providing a good evening opportunity for those fly-fishing for smallmouth bass around the shoreline near the dam and the Takelma Boat Ramp access area. Angling access off the water intake tower, along the southeast corner of the dam and along the dam’s upper face are open again. The daily limit is five trout at least 8 inches long, but only one trout over 20 inches. For bass, the limit is five a day with no more than three over 15 inches long, but most bass fishing is catch and release. APPLEGATE — Trout fishing and smallmouth bass fishing are improving, but effort there remains light. The creeks are all open to trout angling, but be careful to make sure you are fishing only in the Oregon side of the streams. Even though the area is accessible only through Oregon, a California angling license is needed in the upper Carberry Creek areas. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife recently stocked the lake with 9,000 legal-sized trout and 800 1½ -pound "lunker" trout. The fish were stocked at Hart-Tish Park, where there is little bank access but excellent boat access. LAKE of the WOODS — Fishing for rainbow trout and brown trout continues to be good, with fresh trout stocked earlier this month. To catch the brown trout, try trolling Rapala lures colored to look like the stocked coho or trout, while bait and streamer flies have been working well for rainbows. The lake is open for fishing 24 hours a day so anglers can better target the brown trout in the evenings. WILLOW — Trout fishing is good on worms, PowerBait or small spinners. The lake was stocked recently with 3,125 legal-sized rainbows as well as 500 1½ -pound "lunker" trout. These fish will be actively feeding and will be easy to catch on woolly buggers or leech flies. FISH — The lake was stocked recently with 5,000 legal-sized rainbows as well as 290 "lunker" rainbows weighing about 1½ pounds. These fish are ripe for anglers fishing small spinners, trolling worms and flies. EMIGRANT — Bass fishing is good, but the crappie bite has been very poor. Yellow perch are dominant in the lake, with some of them up to 10 inches. Trout fishing is good in the deeper water and near the creek mouths. The water is dropping rapidly, and the upper end of the Emigrant Arm is getting shallow and muddy. Ocean Outlook Chinook salmon fishing resumes today and should be very good for those fishing out of the ports of Brookings and Gold Beach. At Brookings, boaters have been using depth-finders to locate schools of salmon in waters as shallow as 8 feet deep near the surf, and a steady flow of salmon into the lower Rogue bay also will be intercepted near the river mouth on calm days. Bottomfish fishing is good, and lingcod catches are very light now. Some tuna have been caught recently by anglers venturing about 30 miles offshore, but look for the tuna to get closer when winds and currents subside. Anglers may keep one lingcod a day over 24 inches, with the maximum size restriction lifted. However, of the 10-fish rockfish limit, only one can be a canary rockfish. Red-tail surf perch fishing has dropped off on the beaches and sand spits around the mouth of the Rogue, Elk and Winchuck rivers. Hunting Outlook ROGUE — Bear hunting season opens today, with early season successes expected to be fair. Hunters stalking bears ought to concentrate on low-elevation berry patches. The season continues through December in western Oregon. KLAMATH — Cougar hunting has been slow despite lots of reported cougar sightings. Using predator calls will improve success. Coyote hunting remains good around agricultural areas and around big-game calving grounds. Remember to ask permission before entering private lands. Squirrels are becoming active on warmer, sunny days. Best areas are in agricultural lands. Feral swine numbers are low, but there are reports of some pigs living in the Klamath River Canyon area just above Stateline. 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 located on Whetstone Pond, just north of the ODFW office. SUMMER LAKE — Nesting season is well underway. As many as a dozen species of ducks are present, with nearly all being paired and dispersed onto nesting territories. Early breeding species such as mallards and cinnamon teal are hatching, and broods should become more visible as the season progresses. Canada goose nesting is largely over, and brood rearing is underway. Canada goose broods are difficult to detect, since adults move their young to large bodies of water secure from disturbance and human activity. Molting will take place soon, rendering adult birds flightless. It is very easy to find duck and shorebird nests along roads and dikes now. If found, viewers should move away quickly so as not to disturb these birds during a critical time of their life cycle. Resident bald and golden eagles can sometimes be viewed hunting over the Summer Lake Wildlife Area, and locally nesting peregrine and prairie falcons have been observed recently. Resident sandhill cranes are scattered throughout the area on breeding territories, and the occasional small flock of sub-adults or nonbreeders can be found. Nests are hatching now, and several pairs of colts (crane chicks) have been observed. Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S