August 31st column

[Pete Heley]

The biggest news for this week is that beginning September 1st, the non-selective ocean coho season was changed from just being open Thursdays through Saturdays with a seasonal quota on cohos of 3,000 for our marine area to being open every day for the first 10 days of September or until the coho quota is met. EVEN BETTER - the quota was increased from the originally planned 3,000 cohos to 5,900 cohos. The original and amended coho quotas included all cohos taken - both wild and hatchery, or unclipped and clipped fish. The best thing about the amended ocean coho quota, besides the increased quota, is that by changing the open dates to the first ten days of September rather than only Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, it makes the season far more fair for all anglers and doesn’t unfairly penalize most working anglers.
Some smaller chinook salmon finally showed up in the Lower Umpqua River and the salmon catch rate improved. The cohos still have not made a major push into the lower river, but few anglers were complaining when the salmon they were catching were averaging more than 20 pounds. As usual, the guides seem to have the most consistent luck and recently have been averaging about, or better, than a salmon per client. Although there is still plenty of jumbo chinooks in the river between the Umpqua River mouth and Reedsport, the average size will probably drop slightly as more salmon are being caught. When significant numbers of coho enter the river, the catch rate is going to show a major improvement. Dana Castle used his one strike Sunday afternoon to garner a girthy chinook of 32 pounds.weigh in a girthy chinook at 32 pounds. Like the majority of other anglers catching jumbo Umpqua River chinooks, he fished the river below Reedsport.
Another reminder that the 15th annual GRWB STEP Salmon Derby is slated for Labor Day Weekend. The contest will officially begin as soon as it’s legal to begin fishing (an hour before sunrise) on Saturday, September 3rd and basically run during legal angling hours Saturday and Sunday and officially end at noon on Monday, September 5th - although the deadline for purchasing tickets on Monday will be 9 am. The contest has been tremendously successful and in recent years, more often than not, the heaviest salmon landed has weighed more than 40 pounds. The heaviest salmon taken each day wins $150 and the heaviest salmon taken overall wins $500 - so the heaviest salmon taken during the tournament is going to be worth $650. There are lots of other prizses. There will be three “blue ticket” winners which are drawn from among every salmon weighed in during the tournament and they are worth $100 each. There will also be a drawing from among the ticket stubs and that will also be worth $100. So the total prize money to be given out will total $1350 and it only costs $10 per person to enter or $25 per boat (which may have several anglers in it). Once again, entry tickets are on sale at the Stockade Market in Winchester Bay and at Ace Hardware and Turman Tackle in Reedsport. Tickets may also be purchased from STEP members and at the East Basin Boat Ramp in Winchester Bay and the Landing Boat Ramp next to the Discovery Center in Reedsport. The latter two locations will also serve as official weigh stations. For further information, one can call Doug Buck at 271-3144.
Winchester Bay’s Crab Bounty Contest, sponsored by the Winchester Bay Merchants, will start on Saturday of Labor Day Weekend and run through October 1st at 2 pm. Tagged crabs need to be turned into the Sportsman Cannery where each one is worth a prize and at the end of the contest may be worth $1,000 dollars. All tagged crabs will be released in the lower Umpqua River at Winchester Bay and be legal-sized male crabs with a numbered spinner blade tied to one of their legs. As usual, if the tag worth $1,000 is not drawn, cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 will be given. The drawing will take place at the Sportsman Cannery on October 1st at 3 pm. For more information, one can contact the Winchester Bay Merchants via email at: wbmerchants@yahoo.com.
Crabbing at Winchester Bay was extremely productive through last weekend. Labor Day Weekend should be a real test as to whether the ocean crabs can continue to enter the lower river in numbers equal to those being removed from the river. This is easily the most productive crabbing for dockbound crabbers in recent memory as a number of limits have been taken each day by dock crabbers. For boat crabbers, the upper extent of the great crabbing has been about a half mile above Winchester Bay’s East Basin Entrance and the ocean crabbing, if possible, is still the most productive. Crabbing has been good to the point where numerous family members have hurried to buy shellfish licenses so that other family members or friends can continue crabbing after approaching, or reaching, their 12 crabs per person daily limit.
Trout anglers really need to concentrate their efforts on the area’s larger lakes which have carryover, native and searun trout since trout plants for this area stopped in early June. From mid-summer through early fall, warm water temperatures usually mean that trout will be most active in the early morning when water temperatures are at their lowest.
For anglers wanting to target larger smallmouths on the Umpqua, they should concentrate their efforts during the period from right before dusk until a few hours after dark. While the numbers of fish hooked won’t rival mid-day totals, the average size is almost always much larger. Barring early heavy rains, this technique for larger smallies should be effective at least through October.