July 15th column

[Pete Heley]

I had the pleasure of weighing in a 45 pound striped bass within minutes of showing up for work at The Stockade Market early Friday morning. The lucky angler was Ted Armstrong and he was somewhat evasive about where he caught the behemoth, but said he lost two in the previous week that he felt were even heavier. The jumbo striper measured 50-inches in length and stripers that length consistently weigh more 60 pounds when caught on the east coast (due to good populations of larger forage species). Outside of failing to land his heaviest hookups, Armstrong stated that his biggest problems were boats moving past his anchored boat while exhibiting serious lightpower.

For the first time in my memory, the inshore halibut quota was met and the July 6th closure meant that there will be no legal halibut catches in Oregon until the summer season starts in August. While the closure was a surprise to many, it seems that a lot more anglers were targeting halibut, or incidentally catching them, in waters less than 40 fathoms deep.

Would be tuna anglers have been less than patiently waiting for good bar conditons and calmer oceans to seek albacore tuna. Tuna have been caught out of Winchester Bay at about 20 miles, but a more reasonable estimate for how far out they are would be twice that. It seems that yellowfin tuna are being encountered with more regularity each year, but are still relatively rare in our area and they do not seem to bite as readily as the albacore do. Englund Marine, in Charleston, reported that at least three bluefin tuna weighing up to 80 pounds were caught out of Charleston last year. Last Sunday, there were a number of tuna taken by boats launching at Winchester Bay and some of the best catches came from about 50 miles out.

Anglers seeking coho salmon out of Winchester Bay are having a tough time finding them. On a somewhat more positive note, a number of chinooks were hooked along the lower part of the South Jetty on Sunday. Anglers fishing the South Jetty for bottomfish are still having decent luck, but the number of anglers trying it has dropped way off.

The local coastal lakes are finally starting to produce bass and panfish on a consitent basis. The fish still aren’t as shallow as they usually are, but they are biting well for those anglers putting a lure in front of them. Loon Lake has started producing bluegill on a consistent basis. While the higher than normal water levels in the sand dunes has made fishing somewhat tougher because the same amount of fish are swimming around in a lot more water, the high water levels should ensure that these lakes will once again be producing larger bass and panfish.

Central Oregon trout fishing continues to be superb, while many eastern Oregon waters are less productive. Most of these eastern Oregon lakes have nearly dried up in recent past years and have reduced fish populations, unless heavily stocked and those fish are also swimming around in a lot more water. However, fishing should be much better in the next few years, especially for those lakes that receive fingerling trout plants. Warmwater fish are going to take a few more years to reach adult sizes, but should also benefit from higher water levels. Most central Oregon streams and some in eastern Oregon will be tough to fish this season due to heavy water flows.

It seems that one Washington state angler tried for rock bass at Bitter Lake, a Seattle-area lake, on the evening of the Fourth of July. Fishing was very slow until the fireworks started at 9:30 pm when the rock bass went on a terrific bite. The bite lasted until 11 pm when the fireworkd stopped. Further research will be required to determine whether the “fireworks thing” will remain an effective pattern for good action from these feisty panfish which have a maximum size which is barely half that of a bluegill. Currently, Washington is the only northwest state with rock bass populations.

It appears that the “blue-green algae” season is upon us again as Lost Creek Reservoir has had an advisory since June 20th. Hopefully, the high water and somewhat cooler than normal water temperatures for this time of year should limit, but not stop, similar advisories

Beginning August 1st, new rules require that all hunters under 18 years of age must wear fluorescent orange exterior garments while hunting. That means that the outermost shirt, jacket or coat and head covering (hat, bandana, etc.) must be fluorescent orange and visable from all directions. Hunter orange camouflage patterns are acceptable and the garments are required for hunting the following upland birds: forest grouse (blue and ruffed), chukar/Hungarian (gray) partridge, pheasants, quail (California and mountain) and sage grouse. The garments are also required for hunting the following game mammals: deer, elk, bear, cougar, pronghorn antelope, Rocky Mountain goat, bighorn sheep and western gray squirrel.