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Mark Freeman Commentary Bait ban on Rogue considered By MARK FREEMAN The upper Rogue River comes alive on the morning after each Halloween as driftboat after driftboat is trailered up Highway 62 toward the summer steelhead riffles. For the first time in two months, sport-fishermen are armed with small clusters of roe they cast at steelhead that have seen only artificial flies offered by anglers the previous nine weeks. It's not uncommon for skilled bait-fishermen to catch and release a dozen steelhead or more during a day that, for both good and bad reasons, has become known as the Nov. 1st Massacre. "On the first and second of November, you might get 25 boats out there and there's people having 10-steelhead days," says Jack Jermain of Shady Cove. "It's a two- or three-day wham." But it's the event, not the steelhead, that may next get whammed. The annual post-Halloween bait-fishing frenzy on the upper Rogue may become a thing of the past, a victim of its own popularity. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is reviewing potential changes to fishing regulations beginning in 2001. And proposals to ban bait while summer steelhead fishing on the upper Rogue in November and December are gaining support among key segments of Oregon's fishing community. From fly-fishermen to river guides and some Nov. 1 bait-fishermen as well, these anglers believe allowing bait in November and December creates undue pressure on wild summer steelhead during the final two months before they spawn. It's easier to catch summer steelhead with baited hooks than with flies or lures. Angling studies across the West also conclude that fish are more apt to swallow roe clusters or worms than artificial bait, and the swallowed hook is far more lethal than one stuck in the lips. And anecdotal stories of November fishermen finding adult wild steelhead over-stressed to death by catch-and-release fishing make the no-bait change considered an attractive alternative for 2001 and beyond, ODFW biologists say. "The term `November Slaughter' has been used more than once," says Charlie Corrarino, who is heading the ODFW's regulations review. "One way to control that event is to continue the bait ban through the later part of the year." These arguments have caught the ear of Don Denman, a Medford attorney and member of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission that will set the angling regulations in September. "I think, probably, it would be an effective conservation measure," Denman says. "I think it's a good proposal and I think the time has come for it." The proposal gets added ODFW support, Corrarino says, because it does not dramatically curb fishing opportunities; those who won't or can't fish with flies can use lures or other artificial offerings like fake eggs. "It's definitely something that will be seriously considered," Corrarino says. "It's got a life." But some anglers are telling the proposals' backers to get a life. Anglers like Jermain, who guides fly-fishermen as well as bait-fishermen on the upper Rogue from his Fishin' Hole store in Shady Cove, believe it would unfairly ban a group of steelhead fishermen who historically have fit in well here. "To knock out bait is to knock out a whole population of fishermen," Jermain says. "I don't think that's fair." The issue of whether bait-fishing is too effective in early November has as much to do with the fish and the calendar as it does the gobs of eggs on a hook. Summer steelhead enter the upper Rogue beginning in July, and fishing is allowed with bait, lures and flies during July and August. Anglers may keep up to two fin-clipped hatchery steelhead a day, but all wild steelhead must be released unharmed. Each Sept. 1, fishing is allowed only with artificial flies. Bait and lures are banned through Halloween, mainly to protect spawning spring chinook salmon from harassment by anglers using large lures or bait after the aggressive spawning salmon. During those two months, steelhead stack in riffles and near creek mouths as they wait for their winter spawning period. Also, they hover around the tail-outs of pools and behind spawning salmon to suck down the delicious chinook eggs as they are laid in the gravel. But each Nov. 1, the eggs start to have hooks in them again. Bait-anglers toss clusters of roe into riffles and tailouts, where they find the steelhead extremely willing biters. The baits stay near the bottom longer than flies, mirror what the fish are most apt to eat and are more easily fished in heavy, deeper riffles than artificial flies. "There's no question," Denman says, "that bait is more effective at that time." Anglers like Denman have stories of mid-November fishing trips in which they find dead wild steelhead along the river bottom or hook nearly lifeless fish that are hard to revive. "You just have to assume they were bait-hooked," Denman says. Studies done in Canada and in western states all point to the use of bait as causing the highest form of catch-and-release mortality in steelhead-sized fish. Artificial flies and lures are less apt to be swallowed and, therefore, cause less damage to fish that are caught and released. "I'd never want it to be to a point where we're taking away (fishing) opportunities from groups or guides," says Butte Falls fly-fisherman Mike Beagle, who backs the no-bait proposal. "But I want to see us protect the resource." But wild steelhead already are protected from harvest and they must be released unharmed, says Jim Bittle of Central Point. And the Rogue has an excess of hatchery fish that should be harvested, and bait-fishing is the best way to tackle them in November, he says. "What do they think? The wild fish are going to be smarter than the hatchery fish and not eat plastic (lures)?" Bittle says. (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at: [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Mail Tribune � 2000 -- Medford, Oregon USA