Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Greg Huchko peers through the microscope at a slide that shows why Diamond Lake fly-fishers need to hang out at the lake's south end this spring casting chironomid flies. The slide reveals a handful of the 3,332 chironomid larvae plucked from a dinner-plate sized sample of muck from the lake bed just off the pizza parlor dock, and that number has everything to do with how well Diamond Lake's trout will grow this year and what fly in the box likely will best catch them. In 2015, a similar-sized w
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Trout No. 1748 is sporting some bling and working for Da Man to help settle the question of whether the Rogue River's Holy Water lives up to its name or is simply a pit-stop in purgatory before trout get flushed downriver. This 16-inch trout with an orange, numbered, spaghetti-like tag attached to its dorsal fin is one of 400 tagged trout released into the Rogue's fly-fishing only section between Lost Creek dam and Cole Rivers Hatchery as part of a new study to determine what rainbows do when th
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is poised today to usher in a 100-day ocean-fishing season for Southern Oregon anglers that targets fall chinook salmon bound for the Rogue River. One year after a crash in Klamath River salmon returns triggered a full-scale closure to sport and commercial fishing off Southern Oregon and Northern California, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted a framework that gives South Coast anglers an uninterrupted chinook season from May 19 through Aug. 26.
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
CHARLESTON (AP) — This time of year the Charleston Marina is usually a bustling place with sport fishers taking advantage of the good weather before the rains come, but recent bottom fishing closures have driven much of that business away. "On a beautiful day like today, the marina parking lot should be filled with trailers and boats, but there's hardly anybody here," Harbormaster John Buckley said recently. Bottomfishing has opened back up with restrictions. Anglers going bottomfishing m
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Oregon hunters set a record for procrastination this year then followed it up Monday with a record for most hunting documents sold in a single day. Hunters purchased more than $8.755 million worth of licenses and controlled-hunt applications on the last day possible, an all-time, one-day record for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The surge right up until the 11:59 p.m. deadline Monday also set a record for internet sales of 17 percent, says Michelle Dennehy, ODFW's Wildlife Division
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts call for windy and choppy weather on the coast, but it probably won't be bad enough to cancel a trip, especially for those running out of Brookings for rockfish and halibut. Today's forecast calls for winds up to 20 knots and a 3-foot mixed swell, followed Saturday by 15- to 20-knot winds around Brookings and 3- to 6-foot wind waves. Sunday calls for 20-knot winds fueling 4- to 7-foot wind waves. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have oc
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts call for improving weather through the weekend after a gale warning scheduled to run into this morning dissipates. Forecasts call for winds up to 10 knots and wind waves of up to 8 feet today, followed Saturday by 5-knot winds and and wind waves up to 5 feet. Sunday looks best, with 5-knot winds and 2-foot wind waves. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have occurred out of Brookings when the weather has allowed. Blue rockfish catches have
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts are calling for ocean weather conditions to improve daily through the weekend. Expect winds of up to 20 knots and wind waves of up to 10 feet, conditions that can easily separate a person from their lunch. Things look better for Saturday, when winds are forecast to top out at 15 knots and wind waves will drop to around 5 feet. Sunday looks best, with winds of up to 10 knots and 5-foot swells. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have occurr
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts call for 5- to 10-knot winds and 4-foot mixed swells today. Saturday's forecast calls for 10-knot winds and 6-foot swells, followed Sunday with 5-knot winds and 6-foot swells. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have occurred recently out of Brookings when the weather has allowed. Blue rockfish catches have been good to very good. The South Coast halibut season is open with just a handful of fish caught. It remains open through Oct. 31. Ca
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
TRAIL — When Jack Patterson needs respite from the wintery Rogue Valley, he heads to the land of the rising rainbow. The impounded stretch of the Rogue River between Lost Creek dam and Cole Rivers Hatchery, dubbed by its trout-fishing disciples as the "Holy Water," is mostly hallowed for its July salmon-fly hatch and other bug hatches during the year. But Patterson wants none of that. "I don't fish it in the summer," Patterson says. "Never have. Too crowded." Instead he loads up his fly b
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Oregon ocean anglers have a smaller black rockfish bag limit in 2018, an attempt by fisheries managers to stretch out the ocean season and sidestep a repeat of last year's mid-season shutdown. The 2018 season began Monday with a five-fish general marine bag limit, down from six last year. This year's black rockfish quota is 1.3 percent lower than last year's. A massive spike in rockfish fishing last year, particularly in August, caused a complete shutdown of near-shore rockfish fishing in mid-Se
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
High water in the far upper Rogue River above Lost Creek Lake have curtailed rainbow trout-stocking plans in the Union Creek area, but seven sites did get trout this week in time for Memorial Day weekend. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife planned to stock 2,000 legal-sized trout this week spread out among 11 sites from Prospect to the Union Creek, but that complement was dispersed between seven release sites: Mill Creek campground, River Bridge campground, Woodruff Bridge, Union Creek c
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking for volunteers in the Brookings-Harbor area to share their passion for fishing as instructors with the state's Angler Education Program. The agency is hosting a free training for new instructors from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, at the Harbor Fire Hall, 98069 West Benham Lane, Harbor. Lunch will be provided. Registration is required by Feb. 6. To register, contact Jenny Ammon at 503-947-6081 or [email protected]. The training is o
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
During the past two decades of helping run Black Bird Shopping Center's Rainbow $5,000 trout-fishing derby, Toni Young has learned that derby anglers habitually are late to take the bait. This year's derby is Saturday at Diamond Lake, and fewer than 400 people had signed up at Black Bird by midday Wednesday for Southern Oregon's richest trout-fishing event. "They always wait until the last minute," Young says. "That's just what they do." This is the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow $5,000 derby,
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Forecasts call for a gale watch and small-craft advisory through the weekend, so that likely will put the kabosh on most recreational ocean fisheries this weekend. Very good to excellent lingcod and black rockfish catches have occurred out of Brookings when the weather has allowed. Blue rockfish catches have been good to very good. The South Coast halibut season is open through Oct. 31, and some very nice fish have been caught when the weather cooperates. Canary rockfish
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Today's forecast calls for 5- to 10-knot winds and swells up to 4 feet, followed Saturday by 5-knot winds and 11-foot swells. Sunday calls for 10-knot winds and 7- to 8-foot swells, so today is the best day of the weekend to hit the ocean. Halibut fishing is open through Halloween off the South Coast, and more than half of this year's poundage quota remains. The most consistent halibut fishing is in water about 200 feet deep due west of the Thomas Creek Bridge north of B
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Coastal weather forecasts look decent for today, and then things will get rougher for those stalking lingcod and other bottomfish off the coast. The forecast calls for winds up to 15 knots and swells starting at 5 feet and subsiding throughout the day. Saturday looks unpleasant, with winds building to 20 knots and swells increasing throughout the day to 9 feet. Sunday looks to sport winds up to 25 knots and wind waves to 8 feet. The marine aggregate rockfish daily limit
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
CAMP SHERMAN — Battling carmageddon to see Monday's solar eclipse brought hundreds of thousands of people to Central Oregon, all here to chase the wrong two minutes of totality. Anyone with $2 glasses could see the moon blot out the sun that morning. Very few could chase a rare redband trout on a dry fly on the famed Metolius River that afternoon. And even fewer could catch one of these boldly hued ghosts of the Metolius, trout so well schooled in this crystal-clear water that they not on
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
A hot year for recreational bottomfishing will come to an abrupt halt Sunday night when the season closes because the annual black rockfish quota will have been met for the first time since 2004. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the closure Tuesday for any species of rockfish, lingcod, cabezon and greenling. The ban is species-wide so it applies equally to boat anglers and jetty casters. Remaining open, however, will be angling for ocean flatfish such as sanddabs and halibut,
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-03-05
Sport and commercial salmon fishermen who saw their seasons vanish last year are poised to return to the ocean off Southern Oregon this summer, thanks largely to a glut of Rogue River-bound salmon. The Pacific Fishery Management Council laid out options Wednesday for sport and recreational chinook salmon fishing off Southern Oregon, and all sport options contain at least some summer fishing days to lure tourists to coastal communities that were hard-hit by last year’s closures. The option