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61 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, September 12, 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 Prime Times 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 August 12, 2004 Bait-ban opponents hoping to get the votes By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Advocates looking to rescind fall bait-fishing bans on the upper Rogue River and the Lower Rogue Canyon won an important battle Friday when state fish biologists formally backed their efforts. But gaining Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife support for dropping the controversial bans enacted under the guise of wild-fish protection — a notion agency biologists say is not supported by science — does not itself translate into a win for bait-anglers. The agency in 2000 offered similar advice to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, telling them such a ban likely would save fewer than three dozen wild steelhead. Regardless, the commission broke away from its own biologists and voted for the ban. Since then, six of the seven commissioners have been replaced. And bait-ban opponents systematically have lobbied the new policy-setters, imploring they revert bait-fishing rules back to pre-2001 wording. The seven-member commission is set to vote Sept. 10 on the bait ban and dozens of other proposed angling-regulation changes, and bait-ban opponents believe they’ve convinced enough of the new commissioners to win. Advertisement However, they’re taking nothing for granted. "If I had to bet money on it, I think we have five votes," says Roger King, a Shady Cove man spearheading the pro-bait factions. "We need four, but I think we have five. It’s good that we got (ODFW backing), but that’s not enough. The votes are the bottom line." One vote King isn’t counting on is that of Medford attorney Don Denman, the commission’s vice chair who helped shepherd in the current ban four years ago. Denman says he’s keeping an open mind, right up to the final testimony and vote Sept. 10. "I don’t know where I would come down on it if I were forced to vote today," Denman says. "I’ll have to see what plays out between now and them." Denman, however, has made sure that one option before the commission is a compromise that keeps the upper Rogue’s bait ban in November and December throughout most of the upper Rogue, but lowers the deadline from the Rogue Elk boat ramp to the Shady Cove ramp. That would about double the amount of upper Rogue waters open to bait in November and December and could be the give-a-little result of this contentious debate. "There’s always room for compromise," Denman says. "I don’t sense that it’s an all-or-nothing (issue) for the majority of the people." Some of the die-hards are within the Medford-based Rogue Flyfishers Association, whose membership narrowly voted to back the current bait-bans over the compromise. "We have guys in our club who care about every one of those wild fish," association President Mike Ireland says. "They’re passionate, sometimes maybe overly so. "It’s not us versus them," he says. "Our club has a 32-year history of trying to do what’s right for the fish. We’re not going to break a 32-year tradition. We’ll continue to back the fish." The current rule bans the use of bait November through December upstream of Gold Ray Dam. It follows the annual flies-only season from Sept. 1 through Halloween. Also, bait is banned in the canyon area Sept. 1 through Oct. 31 to protect half-pounder steelhead from catch-and-release mortality. However, the ban impacts fall chinook salmon fishermen and eliminates fishing for the canyon’s sturgeon, which are caught exclusively on bait. Despite the rules’ intentions, their impact is more social than biological, biologists say. British Columbia studies and creel counts on the upper Rogue show the bait take-away could help fewer than three dozen more wild steelhead survive fall catch-and-release fishing to spawn. Russ Stauff, the ODFW’s Rogue Watershed manager, agrees "whole-heartedly" with the recommendation for dropping both bans, saying there is "no biological basis to ban bait angling for summer steelhead in the Rogue. "There is no rationale, biologically, for them," he says. Rebounds in the once-tenuous wild summer steelhead run are the result of improvements to ocean conditions beginning in the mid-1990s and have nothing to do with any impacts the bait ban has had on catch-and-release mortality on wild fish, Stauff says. Instead of focusing on potential angling impacts, steelhead advocates instead ought to focus their energy on preserving and improving upper Rogue spawning tributaries, Stauff says. "Freshwater habitat in the Rogue River (basin) is undergoing increased development, and that’s where the issue rests," Stauff says. "It doesn’t rest in the river with what type of gear you’re using." Ireland agrees. However, the ODFW cannot regulate what the city of Medford does around its urban spawning streams. "We feel the native fish need to be more important to the ODFW than us," Ireland says. "We know this bait ban won’t take away all the damage that’s been done (to steelhead). But it’s one of the few things the ODFW can do something about." Stauff says it is "laudable" that bait-anglers didn’t vengefully seek more than just rolling back the rules to the 2000 language. "I thought it showed good faith," Stauff says. King has faith that the commission will consider rescinding the bait ban on its merits alone. "I’m pretty happy with the commission," King says. "I think they’re all pretty free-thinking about this issue. It’s not a good ol’ boys’ club anymore. "Regardless of what happens," he says, "I think we have a good commission." 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. 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