January 5th, column

[Pete Heley]

A reminder is warranted regarding having the proper 2012 fishing licenses and harvest tags. Although the licenses and tags were available for purchase as early as the first of December, very few people purchased them until the last minute and there will undoubtedly be many who forget to purchase new tags and licenses before trying to fish or hunt.
By January 3rd, the ODFW website will have info on Information about the fishing regulation development process – including a list of ODFW staff proposals and guidelines for submitting a proposal at http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/fi ... rocess.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The proposals can new or modifications of existing regulations and at least some of them will be serioiusly considered for implementation into the 2013 hunting and fishing regulations.

Crabbing has predictibly slowed down at Winchester Bay with the best results being off the Old Coast Guard Pier for dock crabbers and in the vicinity of Half Moon Bay for boat crabbers. The increased amount of freshwater coming down the Umpqua has moved the crabs in the lower river either out into the ocean or in the very lowest reaches of the river. Less than two weeks ago, good crab catches were being made as far upriver as a half-mile above Reedsport.

The rains last week finally got winter steelhead invading all the streams that support them. Until the rains came, good steelhead action was pretty much limited to the Umpqua and it was sensational. However, it is virtually impossible to catch a finclipped keepable steelhead on the Umpqua. In fact, there are petition sheets available to be signed at many area businesses with the heading reading “We the undersigned want to change the rule in the fishing regulations for 2013 on the main Umpqua River to read ‘nonadipose fin-clipped steelhead may be taken; one per day, five per year as part of the daily or annual salmon/steelhead limit.’”

Over last weekend, Tenmile Creek did not muddy up, but the stream flows rose to the point where there was a lot of trash and weeds in the water making fishing very difficult. As stream flows stabilize, one could reasonably expect some very fine steelhead angling. Some very late, yet bright fall chinook were taken from the Port Orford area last week. While Eel Creek opened to steelhead fishing on January 1st, the stream is currently full of late run coho salmon. It appears that it will be a week or more before it has fishable numbers of winter steelhead in it.

Although virtually nobody is trying for them, a number of nice-sized smallmouth bass were taken over the last couple of weeks from western Washington lakes.

The best sturgeon fishing over the last couple of years on the Umpqua has been in a few select holes well above tidewater, but it is almost completely a catch and release fishery as it is very difficult to hook a sturgeon small enough to fall within the legal slot limit. A few oversized sturgeon were caught in the first couple of miles below the Highway 101 Bridge at Reedsport and with the current river conditions what they are, sturgeon anglers could probably use sand shrimp with very little problems from crabs or sculpins.

Yellow perch, brown bullheads and trout are available to be caught, but an angler needs to concentrate on deeper water at this time of year. Fortunately, on our area’s largest three lakes, that means water 15 feet deep or slightly deeper. The trout stocking schedule for 2012 is not yet on the ODFW website, but should be within the next couple of weeks.
The ODFW and numerous fishermen are quite happy with the re-introduction of bull trout to the Clackamas River watershed. I, too, think this is a noteworthy achievement, but one that could very easily be much better yet. I do not understand why the ODFW does not plant bull trout, at a size big enough to feed on smaller fish (six to eight inches in length) in high lakes that have stunted brook trout populations. Many of these lakes are closed systems that do not feed into other waters and what is wrong with increasing the population of a native Oregon gamefish that may be capable of increasing the average size of once stunted brookies to the point where anglers actually want to fish for them?
Personally, I think the ODFW dropped the ball years ago when a former district biologist was not able to turn Empire Lakes into a two stage lake with trout planted during the cooler months and channel catfish planted during the warmer months. The state of Washington gets a lot of mileage out of brown trout and channel catfish planted into the lowland lakes in their southwest region and some of the browns have topped ten pounds and many of the lakes that received plants of catfish have produced fish weighing more than 20 pounds with one 30 acre lake producing a cat weighing well over 30 pounds.
When I was in the Marine Corps in southern California, my gunnery sergeant talked me into giving him my channel catfish and when he gave about half of each fish back to me after preparing it with his Louisiana-based cajon talents, I didn’t visit the mess hall until I had completely consumed it.