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SUNNY Temp: 41 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Thursday, November 28, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend November 21, 2002 Rainfall gives steelhead anglers some bonus fishing By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Solid rains that fell on the Rogue Valley two weeks ago are still paying dividends to Rogue River steelhead anglers, who get some good bonus fishing beginning today in the upper Rogue. Cole Rivers Hatchery workers plan to recycle another 1,500 excess summer steelhead today from hatchery ponds near Lost Creek Lake back into the upper Rogue near Central Point, generating an instant boost in angling success. Half the fish will be released at the TouVelle State Park boat ramp off Table Rock Road, while the rest were released at the Modoc Unit of the Denman Wildlife Area a few miles upstream of TouVelle. The hatchery and wild steelhead had been somewhat inactive in the upper Rogue for much of October, chiefly because low and cool water flows put the skids on regular migration patterns. But the rainstorms of early November helped boost stream flows, generating a rash of hatchery fish swimming into the hatchery ponds, says Matt Frank, the hatchery’s assistant manager. The 1,500 fish are considered excess for spawning needs, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists would rather the hatchery fish be caught and kept legally by anglers than killed and buried. The "retreads" are marked by a hole punched into their gillplate. The fish are punched for each recycle trip they make, and some fish sport as many as three hole punches because they’ve slipped past anglers and reached hatchery ponds three times this fall. Today’s scheduled releases will boost the "retread" releases to about 4,800 adult steelhead so far this season. The same rainstorms that kicked sluggish steelhead in the tail also did so to coho salmon — but it’s Oregon’s hungry, not anglers, who will benefit from the change. About 3,500 hatchery coho salmon have moved into Cole Rivers Hatchery collection ponds over the past two weeks, giving hatchery workers a chance to provide their first coho donation to the Oregon Food Bank. The hatchery will provide 2,200 fresh hatchery coho Wednesday, the first such delivery from Cole Rivers so far this year. The fish will be shipped to a Washington food processor, which will cut the fish into 1-pound filets before shrink-wrapping and freezing them and delivering them to the Eugene-based food bank. The group will then distribute the protein-rich fish, along with recipes and handling instructions, to hungry families across Oregon via a network of 780 local agencies covered by the food bank’s umbrella. The frozen fillets will be distributed to about a dozen food pantries in the Rogue Valley through ACCESS, Inc., but they likely will not be available until early December. Last year was the first year in which the ODFW ran a statewide program through the Oregon Food Bank to donate excess coho, whose commercial value is so low that fish managers believe it better to donate them than sell them at a low cost. The fish are considered excess because they are salmon that were not caught by sport or commercial fishermen — the two entities for which they are raised and released annually — and are beyond the numbers needed to spawn for the next coho crop. Last year, Cole Rivers Hatchery provided 8,350 excess coho to the food bank. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] 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