AUGUST 12TH COLUMN
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:23 pm
Crabbing success has undergone a major improvement. While the ocean still offers the best crabbing, the lower river has produced very well for boat crabbers. Surprisingly, dockbound crabbers have also done quite well with a number of limits taken over last weekend. The crabbing over the last two weeks is the best crabbing at Winchester Bay in more than nine months and good catches have been made upriver as far as the entrance to the East Boat Basin. One can reasonably expect the crabbing to stay very good, or even improve, as the river level continues to drop.
Salmon angling has produced some very large chinook salmon, but the overall numbers, while improving, are still somewhat disappointing. Salmon were taken last weekend, in the ocean, on the bar and along the South Jetty and in the three miles of river downriver from Reedsport. Our area’s senior fish checker, Bill Gates, has seen some surprisingly dark chinook salmon that makes him wonder if they might be extremely late spring chinooks. A chinook weighing more than 40 pounds was caught and fileted and the carcass left in the dumpster at Winchester Bay last weekend drawing a considerable amount of attention until the dumpster was emptied Saturday evening. Local guides have seemed to have better success than most of the sport anglers, but limits have been tough to come by - although salmon fishing success seems to be gradually improving. Kathy Moon, of Reedsport, limited out for the first time ever while fishing the Umpqua River last Saturday and her two chinooks weighed 13 and 35 pounds. She was using the standard plugcut herring fished behind a flasher and weight.
Further proof that this has been one strange year, fishing-wise, is the fact that some shad were caught below Reedsport by salmon anglers. It seems that a few shad struck the rear hooks of some herring baits and managed to get hooked. There were also some shad caught farther upriver near Roseburg and, in fact. in several rivers along the northern California coast. In most years, the shad run is completely over by mid-July.
There are still a few surfperch in the Umpqua River above Reedsport, but they aren’t biting and there are not many of them left. Fishing the surf for perch remains quite productive for the anglers that are skilled at it. Curt Burdette, of Creswell, caught a 15-inch redtailed surfperch and a number of others while fishing the North Beach Area at the end of Sparrow Park Road. Sand shrimp was the bait of choice.
Through late last month, the top earner in the Bonneville Power Administration’s pikeminnow program had earned about $36,000. Considering that the five month long program was less than 60 percent completed, that’s a pretty good chunk of money should his catch average hold up through September 30th when the program ends. More detailed information about the program is available online at: www.pikeminnow.org. - but here is the gist of it. The pikeminnows must be nine inches long or larger. Anglers must check in at one of the registration offices prior to starting fishing and must turn their catch into the same office after fishing at which time they will receive vouchers for the amount of money owed them and the vouchers have to be mailed in to actually get the money. The first 100 pikeminnows are worth four dollars each. The next 300 are worth five dollars each and every pikeminnow thereafter is worth eight dollars each. There were also pikeminnows wearing special tags that are worth $500 each and through the end of July, 111 of them had been caught.
Here’s how I would go about sampling the program. First, I would take a close look at the seven Oregon registrations stations since I do not have a Washington fishing license. The four such stations within 300 miles of Reedsport would be: (1) Rainier Marina; (2) the M. James Gleason Boat Ramp and (3) the Chinook Landing which are both near Portland and each have a $5.00 launching fee and (4) The Dalles Boat Basin. Since Rainier Marina has a $2.00 daily launching fee and The Dalles Boat Basin has free launching, the Dalles Boat Basin registration site moves to the head of the list. Since the first three registration sites mentioned had daily pikeminnow catch rates of three fish or less and The Dalles Boat Basin Site had an average daily catch rate of eight fish, the Dalles site appears to be a clear choice for checking out pikeminnow program. If you were able to maintain the average daily catch rate at The Dalles, those eight fish would bring you $32.00 for your first 100 fish, $40.00 per day for your next 300 fish and $64.00 per day thereafter and those catch rates include anglers checking into a registration site and only fishing for a short period of time. Someone who was serious about catching pikeminnows should be able to exceed the average daily catch and make a decent amount of money each month.
Hunters planning to introduce youngsters to hunting should take a look at the ODFW’s “First Time Hunters Program” which offers guaranteed hunting tags to some first time hunters. The information is easily accessible on the ODFW’s website.
Salmon angling has produced some very large chinook salmon, but the overall numbers, while improving, are still somewhat disappointing. Salmon were taken last weekend, in the ocean, on the bar and along the South Jetty and in the three miles of river downriver from Reedsport. Our area’s senior fish checker, Bill Gates, has seen some surprisingly dark chinook salmon that makes him wonder if they might be extremely late spring chinooks. A chinook weighing more than 40 pounds was caught and fileted and the carcass left in the dumpster at Winchester Bay last weekend drawing a considerable amount of attention until the dumpster was emptied Saturday evening. Local guides have seemed to have better success than most of the sport anglers, but limits have been tough to come by - although salmon fishing success seems to be gradually improving. Kathy Moon, of Reedsport, limited out for the first time ever while fishing the Umpqua River last Saturday and her two chinooks weighed 13 and 35 pounds. She was using the standard plugcut herring fished behind a flasher and weight.
Further proof that this has been one strange year, fishing-wise, is the fact that some shad were caught below Reedsport by salmon anglers. It seems that a few shad struck the rear hooks of some herring baits and managed to get hooked. There were also some shad caught farther upriver near Roseburg and, in fact. in several rivers along the northern California coast. In most years, the shad run is completely over by mid-July.
There are still a few surfperch in the Umpqua River above Reedsport, but they aren’t biting and there are not many of them left. Fishing the surf for perch remains quite productive for the anglers that are skilled at it. Curt Burdette, of Creswell, caught a 15-inch redtailed surfperch and a number of others while fishing the North Beach Area at the end of Sparrow Park Road. Sand shrimp was the bait of choice.
Through late last month, the top earner in the Bonneville Power Administration’s pikeminnow program had earned about $36,000. Considering that the five month long program was less than 60 percent completed, that’s a pretty good chunk of money should his catch average hold up through September 30th when the program ends. More detailed information about the program is available online at: www.pikeminnow.org. - but here is the gist of it. The pikeminnows must be nine inches long or larger. Anglers must check in at one of the registration offices prior to starting fishing and must turn their catch into the same office after fishing at which time they will receive vouchers for the amount of money owed them and the vouchers have to be mailed in to actually get the money. The first 100 pikeminnows are worth four dollars each. The next 300 are worth five dollars each and every pikeminnow thereafter is worth eight dollars each. There were also pikeminnows wearing special tags that are worth $500 each and through the end of July, 111 of them had been caught.
Here’s how I would go about sampling the program. First, I would take a close look at the seven Oregon registrations stations since I do not have a Washington fishing license. The four such stations within 300 miles of Reedsport would be: (1) Rainier Marina; (2) the M. James Gleason Boat Ramp and (3) the Chinook Landing which are both near Portland and each have a $5.00 launching fee and (4) The Dalles Boat Basin. Since Rainier Marina has a $2.00 daily launching fee and The Dalles Boat Basin has free launching, the Dalles Boat Basin registration site moves to the head of the list. Since the first three registration sites mentioned had daily pikeminnow catch rates of three fish or less and The Dalles Boat Basin Site had an average daily catch rate of eight fish, the Dalles site appears to be a clear choice for checking out pikeminnow program. If you were able to maintain the average daily catch rate at The Dalles, those eight fish would bring you $32.00 for your first 100 fish, $40.00 per day for your next 300 fish and $64.00 per day thereafter and those catch rates include anglers checking into a registration site and only fishing for a short period of time. Someone who was serious about catching pikeminnows should be able to exceed the average daily catch and make a decent amount of money each month.
Hunters planning to introduce youngsters to hunting should take a look at the ODFW’s “First Time Hunters Program” which offers guaranteed hunting tags to some first time hunters. The information is easily accessible on the ODFW’s website.