July 01, 2011
Coastwide – Today’s forecast calls for more wave warnings and winds will be a bit stiff through the holiday weekend coastwide. Rockfish anglers must stay within the 40-fathom line, as must halibut anglers this weekend.
The marine aggregate limit in Oregon is seven rockfish a day, with only one being a cabezon. the lingcod limit is two a day with a 22-inch minimum.
Ocean salmon fishing has been very slow.
A good series of minus tides runs through Wednesday, so holiday clamming should be good. Watch for sneaker waves. Shellfish fishing is open coastwide. Diggers must get a shellfish license.
BROOKINGS – Chinook fishing has been poor even when winds allow anglers to get out. Bottomfishing has been very good, with jiggers getting limits of black and blue rockfish when they can get out. Surfperch fishing has been very good at Winchuk Beach with shrimp, prawns, mussels, streamer flies and plastic, scented sandshrimp.
GOLD BEACH – Surfperch fishing has picked up again at the outside of the Rogue River jetties and Nesika Beach. the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredge is working the river mouth, and that has had anglers moving around. No fall chinook have been caught in the bay yet. Bottomfishing out of Gold Beach has been very good when weather allows, and catches have included good numbers of china rockfish.
WINCHESTER BAY – Sturgeon fishing is still slow. Crabbing has picked up this week but the overall Dungeness catch is low.
AGATE – Crappie and bass are biting well now that the surface temperature has eclipsed 70 degrees. Crappie are hitting drifted nightcrawlers and small purple or pink jigs, while bass are hitting purple worms fished around structure. look for crappie far up in the lake. No gas motors are allowed. Small electric motors are legal.
APPLEGATE – the lake is a hair under full, and no new trout were stocked last week. Still, trollers are doing well for trout near Seattle Bar or near the dam. Glide-fishers using float tubes, sinking lines and woolly buggers have done well near Seattle Bar. Smallmouth bass are biting plastic worms and small crankbaits near the dam. Bass fishermen have done well on plastic worms and crankbaits around structure and off points. the French Gulch and Copper boat ramps are usable. Hart-Tish Park is open. For updates on facilities, call 541-899-9220.
EMIGRANT – good water conditions have helped the bass and perch bites lake-wide, with perch fishing best in the willows and bass off rocky points and around Songer Wayside. Crappie catches are light.
A standing public-health advisory continues about eating all but trout from the lake because of elevated mercury levels.
HOWARD PRAIRIE – the lake is in very good shape for trout anglers using everything from PowerBait off the jetty to wind-drifted worms and trolled Triple Teasers. the trout bite should start to ebb if hot weather moves in and warms the water, triggering more of a bass bite. Trout up to 17 inches have been caught rather regularly. Trollers continue to out-produce bank anglers. Success along the jetty near the resort has been improving, as is fishing near Grizzly Campground. Shore anglers have done best with rainbow or chartreuse PowerBait or worms floated off the bottom off the jetty or near Klum Landing.
HYATT – the lake has been hit-or-miss for trout fishing lately, but lots of trout 15 to 20 inches long are still showing up on stringers. Fishing near the dam and around the Orchard has been good with chartreuse or rainbow PowerBait. Trolling success has picked up largely because there’s been more effort this past week. Try Triple Teasers or Wedding Rings with worms. the largemouth bass bite has really picked up during the day, and catches should be very good should the hot weather materialize as forecast. Cast anything red.
DIAMOND – the lake’s surface temperature is rising, and the heavy insect hatches are starting to die down, so trout fishing is improving and back to brilliant for trollers and bait fishermen. the south end has been hot for bait fishers and for glide-fishers using damsel-glide imitations, leeches, woolly buggers and chironomid flies. Keep some chartreuse glitter PowerBait handy because that has out-produced everything.
An eight-fish limit is in effect, but only one can be longer than 20 inches. One smaller rainbow with an orange tag in its dorsal fin is worth $500 to whomever catches it. Check it in at the resort if you catch it.
EXPO – Fishing is still good for what’s left of the 2,000 trout stocked for Free Fishing Weekend. Panther Martin lures, PowerBait and worms under bobbers all are working.
LOST CREEK – the lake remains under a voluntary public-health advisory against water contact because of a blue-green algae bloom, primarily in Catfish Cove. That has kept most of the anglers away. Trolling for trout was good for rainbows near the dam’s face and upstream of Peyton Bridge. the water above the bridge is a no-wake zone, so slow down.
FISH – the lake was stocked two weeks ago with another 3,000 legal-sized rainbow trout. Fishing has been best around the resort and the cove near the Forest Service boat ramp with PowerBait, worms and streamer flies, but the fish are starting to disperse throughout the eastern side of the lake. Trolling should be good for stocked and landlocked spring chinook around 12 inches long. Try Flatfish and Wedding Rings.
WILLOW LAKE – the lake was stocked recently with another 3,000 legals and 500 larger rainbow trout, all place in at the Jackson County boat ramp. all of the county facilities are open. Trolling Wedding Ring or Triple Teaser lures should be best for stocked rainbows. Water quality is good.
SELMAC – the lake was stocked two weeks ago with 2,000 legal-sized trout, and plenty are left. Single salmon eggs and cheese have worked well.
LEMOLO – Trolling for big, brown trout is good, and glide-fishers using woolly buggers or leeches are finding a mix of rainbows and browns. Fish are more active in the mornings and evenings.
MEDCO – Fishing for rainbow trout has been good off the bank with PowerBait.
LAKE of the WOODS – Bank and boat fishing for stocked rainbow trout has been good with PowerBait and worms. Brown trout fishing should start picking up near shorelines in the evening and at night.
ROGUE – the upper Rogue remains high, and it is fishing honestly well for boat anglers targeting spring chinook salmon and honest to good for bank anglers high up in the system, while the lower Rogue remains good for guides tapping into the end of the springer run near Gold Beach, and the middle Rogue is honest to poor for springers and not hopping with steelhead yet.
That keeps the best bet the upper Rogue because it’s early July, and the upper Rogue will retain all the good action until the fall chinook fishery gets going in the lower Rogue bay.
Bank anglers at Casey State Park, the Slide Hole and the Hatchery Hole are still finding honest to good numbers of fish moving through off and on all day. Cole Rivers Hatchery workers have captured more than 2,700 springers so far this season, and they started the well loved recycling program with a twist Wednesday. about 200 hatchery springers were recycled this week at both the Dodge Bridge and the Gold Hill boat ramps. those fish will start creeping upstream today. That should improve catches in the upper Rogue for boat anglers fishing Kwikfish or back-bouncing roe. Grass clumps in the upper Rogue are getting frustrating for plug anglers because they are grassing up quickly.
Bank anglers are doing best from the Slide Hole on up, while most good boat fishing is from Shady Cove on down.
Releases from Lost Creek Lake were at 3,000 cubic feet per second Thursday, but look for that to climb if the hot weather triggers higher runoff into the reservoir, which is right at full. Flows at Dodge Bridge are about 3,500 cfs, while the gauge at the old Gold Ray Dam site is reading 3,850 cfs. Fish are still on the move, and that helps make plugs a little better bet than eggs.
Most bank anglers are fishing an odd variety of beads, corkies and a little yarn. Remember, only fish hooked on the inside of the mouth can be kept legally.
Boat anglers back-bouncing roe or using divers or Kwikfish are getting decent catches of springers throughout the upper Rogue. But, the ratio of wild chinook to hatchery chinook has climbed in the past two weeks. all wild chinook must be released upstream of the old Gold Ray Dam site.
Fewer than 50 summer steelhead have reached Cole Rivers Hatchery so far.
In the middle Rogue, anglers have largely abandoned spring chinook fishing and moved into the upper Rogue. No schools of summer steelhead have been reported.
In the lower Rogue, guides have been catching three to six springers a day, and the fish are sprinkled out from just above tidewater to Agness. A few anglers have found some big early-run summer steelhead at places such as Quosatana Creek with spinners, No halfpounders have been reported yet.
APPLEGATE – the river is open to trout fishing. all wild trout, including cutthroat, must be released unharmed. It is illegal to target any spawning winter steelhead in the Applegate.
UMPQUA – Spring chinook salmon are still being caught in the mainstem below Elkton, but they are also being caught at Cleveland Rapids, River Forks and Amacher on the lower part of the North Umpqua. Shad are in, but they are tough to catch amid high-water conditions. A few striped bass were caught this week in the lower part of the mainstem near Dean Creek. use big plugs that resemble steelhead smolts.
The South Umpqua is starting to heat up for smallmouth bass in the Elkton area. South Umpqua flows have been dropping consistently, and that has helped bass catches on rubber worms and crayfish flies.
CHETCO – Side-drifting with worms or tiny roe clusters is working well for cutthroat trout from Ice Box on down or prawns free-drifted in tidewater near high tide.
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