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Too thick for boats, too thin for boots Photo by Mark Freeman Ron Wheeler peers across the frozen tundra that is Hyatt Lake, where Saturday's Opening Day of trout fishing will be iced out. Ice covers Hyatt as trout season opens Saturday By MARK FREEMAN On a day when the normally relevant numbers for Rogue Valley fishermen are 1, 4, 5, 8 and 20, perhaps the most important one this year is 489. Other lakes open year-round Hyatt and Howard Prairie lakes are not the only waters opening for fishing Saturday. Diamond Lake in Douglas County will open to fishing, even though it is predominantly covered with ice. Other lakes, like Applegate, Lost Creek and Emigrant, have been open year-round and will get a heavy dose of casters this Saturday -- even though fishing will be no better this Saturday than last. The Rogue River, which is also open year-round, is home to the end of the winter steelhead run and the start of the spring chinook run. But there is no trout fishing in the Rogue downstream of Cole Rivers Hatchery until May 22. Also, Big Butte Creek above Cobleigh Bridge is closed until May 22 to protect infant winter steelhead from spring angling. When the creek opens for fishing, there is no bait allowed and all rainbow trout must be released unharmed. However, anglers can keep all the brook trout they catch. Four hundred and eighty nine feet in elevation is the difference between great fishing at Howard Prairie Lake and no fishing at Hyatt Lake during this Saturday's opening of the summer trout season. At Howard Prairie, the lower elevation and warmer climate have melted the lake's ice just in time for the traditional start of trout fishing on the fourth Saturday in April. More than 3,000 anglers will flock to Howard Prairie Saturday and most will catch their limit of five trout, all over 8 inches long, and maybe even one of those five will be a prize over 20 inches. But at Hyatt Lake, 489 feet higher up the Cascades east of Ashland, the trout remain locked beneath a sheen of ice too thick for boats and too thin for boots. "If you're a fisherman, this is a sad, sad sight," says Hyatt Lake Resort Manager Ron Wheeler, peering across the frozen lake. Angling's yin and yang of Opening Day, separated only by 489 feet. "But what do you do with Mother Nature?" Wheeler says. "I've never won a battle with her yet. You just have to go with her flow." Among the three Southern Oregon lakes that open to trout fishing Saturday, only Howard Prairie will be ice-free and ready for trout fishermen. Along with a frozen Hyatt Lake, Diamond Lake in eastern Douglas County is also blocked by ice with only small amounts of open water near the lake's marina and creek mouths. Wheeler's Hyatt Lake Resort will still be closed Saturday, and the Wheelers are telling anglers to stay away until the lake thaws -- which they hope will be the first weekend in May. Howard Prairie, which normally draws the lion's share of Opening Day anglers anyway, will be the only show in town. "Usually, everybody and their brother is at Howard Prairie on Opening Day," says Steve Jones, a Medford man and Howard Prairie disciple. "But now, it's going to be everybody, their brother, sister, cousin, dog and cat." But the clan almost had to stay home this weekend. If not for a little change in the weather, some hard work and a lot of luck, Howard Prairie also would be closed this weekend. Snow levels almost twice normal depth hit Southern Oregon with a fury this winter and spring. That left Howard Prairie still ice-covered last week. At the Howard Prairie Resort, workers busily cut free the ice around the resort marina, but waited for nature to do the rest. A spate of warm weather and breezes first cracked, then melted, the ice to where the lake was cube-free Wednesday. Jim Johnston and his dog, Mackenzie, play on the docks of Howard Prairie Resort, which will bustle with anglers Saturday. "When you get down to it, it's quite a scene," says resort Manager Jim Johnston, who has watched the spring thaw at Howard Prairie since the 1960s. "All the ice at the upper end of the lake broke loose and the whole darn thing just floated away," Johnston says. The only thing floating away at Hyatt, though, are Wheeler's dreams of a good opener. The Opening Day crowd usually packs the Hyatt Lake Resort, but not this year. The resort's docks remain stacked on the banks, and the white buoys in the bay stick up from the frozen lake like dollops of whip cream on a white cheesecake. At 5,023 feet, Hyatt Lake is not only 489 feet higher than Howard Prairie but is more exposed to extreme weather. The icy lake is pretty in November and December, Wheeler says, but by late April it's a white shroud killing the most popular fishing weekend in Oregon. Wheeler hopes Hyatt will thaw in time for fishing May 1, and that the thousands of Rogue Valley trout fishermen who turn Howard Prairie into a trout-fishing party Saturday will come back to Hyatt for a sequel to Opening Day. For now, all Wheeler can do is throw up his hands and wish that his lake sat 489 feet lower. "The mysteries of Mother Nature," Wheeler says. "She's not going to tell you. She's not required to tell you. You just have to roll with it." (Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. He can be reached at 776-4470.) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA