November 30th column

[Pete Heley]

The new fishing regulations for 2012 are now out and there are very few changes in it. Almost all of the baby blue ink that denotes changes from the previous year’s edition involve a different number assigned to the fourth Saturday of April and May for some lake and stream openers. Perhaps the biggest change is that while catching and keeping smelt is now illegal, it is only the eulachon version (Thaleichthys pacificus) that is listed as illegal in the 2012 regs. It seems that such smelt species as the Whitebait smelt (Allosmerus elongates), the Surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) the Night smelt (Spirinchus starksi) and the Longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) are still legal to harvest with the same 25 pound limit. However, since the limit posted in the new regulations for smelt is “NONE” and it would most likely take a skilled fishery biologist to tell the difference, Oregonians had better forget about harvesting smelt in the forseeable future.

The good news amidst the heavy rains is that late-run salmon are present in all the waters that host fall runs. Coho salmon are now in Tenmile Lakes and have even managed to enter Eel Lake (although no salmon fishing is allowed in Eel Lake). Coho salmon fishing in Tahkenitch Lake should be as good as it is going to get – the key thing is to have enough rain to get them into the lake and not so much rain that they swim right into Tahkenitch and Tenmile lakes rather small tributaries. The recent rains should even have given Siltcoos Lake some fresh cohos. One point of irritation regarding the salmon fishery on Siltcoos Lake is the presense of at least two seals hanging around the lake’s Fiddle Creek Arm. If they remain in the lake after the coho either enter the lake’s rather small spawning streams, or die off, they will almost certainly begin targeting the lake’s large rainbow and cutthroat trout.

As for Tenmile Lakes, an angler reported that he hooked and broke off a nice coho of six or seven pounds while casting a plug from the several yards of bank immediately upstream from the Hilltop Drive Bridge in Lakeside. I think it is terrible that bankbound anglers cannot fish the channel connecting South and North Tenmile lakes. I am reasonably certain that the ODFW doesn’t have any investments in boat-building companies, so I cannot think of a logical reason for this restriction.

Chinook and coho salmon should be in virtually all the smaller south coast streams, even Floras and Hunter creeks, but the bulk of the fishing pressure will be directed at the Elk and Sixes rivers and deservedly so. While the Chetco River, which has produced Chinooks weighing as much as 65 pounds within the last month still might have a few salmon entering it, better bets would be such overlooked smaller streams like the Pistol and Winchuck rivers.

Crabbing is still good at Winchester Bay, but many of the crabs have recently shed their shells and are not yet completely full. Some boat crabbers are still getting their limits of full crabs, but they are culling quite a few crabs to do so. As the rains continue, the crabs in the lower Umpqua River will gradually move closer to the ocean to avoid the river’s decreasing salinity. Ocean crabbing becomes legal for sport crabbers on December 1st, but the ocean has been extremely rough and ocean crabbing opportunities for sport anglers will be quite limited.

Ocean bottomfishing for lingcod and rockfish is still very good out of Winchester Bay when bar and ocean conditions allow boaters to actually reach the fish. The few anglers fishing both sides of the Triangle are catching fish, mostly greenling, but some of them are getting soaked while doing so. Surf conditions have ruled out any attempts at surf fishing for redtailed surfperch.

It seems that the southern half of the Oregon coast is the only place in western Oregon that does not receive winter trout plants to any meaningful degree. During November, many places, including tiny Junction City Pond, received broodstock rainbows and steelhead with some of them weighing more than 15 pounds. It seems that if the ODFW wanted to increase their revenues, they could let different communities bid on having these jumbo trout planted in their local waters.

Tony Stark of Lakeside, reports that he caught several more jumbo yellow perch while fishing for a couple of hours over last weekend near South Tenmile Lake’s Rocky Point. Although none came close to matching the 16-incher he caught two weeks ago, he did land several perch measuring between ten and 12-inches. Nightcrawlers and perch meat fooled the fish. Anglers fishing nightcrawlers on Tenmile Lakes, at night, in some of the lakes’ deeper water should enjoy some good bullhead catfish angling. Similar angling is also available on Siltcoos and Tahkenitch lakes, but is very seldom taken advantage of.

Carlos Rafael, a Massachusetts fishing boat owner r was elated when one of his seines caught a giant bluefin tuna weighing 881 pounds. Rafael has a tuna permit, but the only legal way to catch tuna in Massachusetts’ waters is by rod and reel. Federal fishery enforcement agents seized the tuna when the boat returned to port. While Rafael did not receive an actual ticket, he did get a warning and will not get any monies obtained from the sale of the tuna and the amount of money derived from the quick sale at auction of such a giant tuna can be mind-boggling. A 754 pound tuna recently sold at auction of $396,000 and while the bigger the fish, the higher the price per pound, if Rafael’s giant tuna sold at the same price per pound ($ 525.20), it would bring more than $462,000