Girdle Bugs are an effective summer steelhead fly. 

OCEAN OUTLOOKSOUTH COAST: Thursday’s forecast calls for winds starting around 10 knots and building to 20 knots, with 5-foot swells and rain. Then it gets worse. Friday’s forecast is for winds up to 10 knots but swells up to 13 feet by the end of the day. Saturday’s forecast is a bit more subdued, with 10-knot winds and 10-foot swells.

All ocean salmon fishing is closed from Humbug Mountain near Port Orford to the California border. There is no so-called “Bubble” fishery off the mouth of the Chetco River for chinook this year. The halibut season off Southern Oregon also is now closed.

Bottomfishing continues to be on the wane on the South Coast, and that’s from a combination of light effort and pretty sketchy weather conditions. Rockfish catches were down again to fewer than two fish per angler last week out of Brookings. Lingcod catches also have virtually bottomed out for now. The current forecasts make most offshore bottomfish efforts likely low to nonexistent.

Surfperch fishing is very surf-dependent but has been decent at times when the surf calms down. But this weekend’s winds and high surf make this a non-starter now. Shrimp, mussels and Berkley Gulp sandworms or shrimp are the best baits when the weather cooperates. The surf perch have moved off the Rogue River sand spit, but there’s good action around the rocks north of the Winchuck River mouth when weather allows.

The ocean is closed to recreational crabbing until Dec. 1. However, mussel harvest is open statewide, and clamming is good to very good at Clatsop County beaches as well as major bays like Coos Bay near Charleston. Another set of minus tides begins Sunday, but they are in the evenings and past sunset so they’re not that helpful. Also, razor clam digging has been good at Myers Beach on the South Coast. Plan on digging the two hours before low tides, which are in the evenings. No new minus tides are in the offing this week.

The mud flats at Charleston will be the best for butter and gaper clams. Before digging, call the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474.

LAKE OUTLOOKAGATE: The lake has not seen a new infusion of trout since June. Bass and perch fishing have been decent in the mornings and evenings. The lake has held steady this past week at 12% full, with turbid water. Fishing is slow. Electric trolling motors are OK but no gas motors. The park closes at dusk.

APPLEGATE: The French Gulch ramps now is the only one usable for trailered boats as the lake’s fall season has crept in. The lake’s surface temperature has dipped below 60 degrees now, and that’s slowing the bass bite. A dearth of fresh rainbow trout means that trout trolling has not garnered much interest, but bank fishing near the dam and along the lake’s east side can be good with worms and PowerBait. The lake is down to 9% full, with outflows at 1450 cubic-feet-per-second and inflows up dramatically to 151 cfs from recent rains. The lake has a 10 mph speed limit.

DIAMOND: Trout fishing has held on and remained very good in the lake’s shallow south end now that water temperatures are cooling rapidly. But there remains no ice on the water yet. Good catches of tiger and brown trout have occurred there, but nice rainbows are starting to dominate the catch. Overcast days are best, especially when the wind settles down in the morning. The lake has a mix of mostly rainbow trout as well as brown and tiger trout that are stocked to prey on the lake’s small but omnipresent tui chub population. That’s why fly-fishing with muddler minnows or other imitations of small chub can be a boon for those on the south end near Silent Creek. Fly-fishing with leeches has also been good on the south end for some brown trout eclipsing 24 inches. Bait fishing is best due west from the resort in 19 to 21 feet of water. Worms deep under bobbers or PowerBait floated 5 feet or so off the bottom are the best bets. All tiger trout and brown trout must be released unharmed. Some are eclipsing 8 pounds.

EMIGRANT: The lake has settled at 13% full now that the irrigation season is over. Bass fishing has been good with crankbaits and top water baits early in the day off rocky points. The lake is too low for launching trailered boats at the county ramp.

EXPO: State wildlife biologists stocked 1,500 legal-sized rainbow trout here more than three months ago, and their numbers are now thin. Catch them with Panther Martin lures, single salmon eggs or worms under bobbers. Parking fees are required.

FISH: The lake became the top new interest of the region a month ago with the stocking of 800 1-pound trout at the Forest Service ramp near the resort. These fish are biting worms under bobbers, small lures and PowerBait and they are already starting to fan out into the lake. The lake was actually up a hair this past week to 47% full Tuesday, which is far better than past autumns. Catches have included a mix of rainbow and tiger trout, mostly around the submerged springs near the resort and the bay near the Forest Service boat ramp. Worms are outproducing PowerBait. Tiger trout must be released unharmed.

HOWARD PRAIRIE: The lake is open to angling, but the marina is closed. Boat access is best at the dam. Fishing for rainbow trout is a bit slow for trollers using Little Cleo and other lures. Bait fishing in deeper water is OK with PowerBait, mostly chartreuse garlic or rainbow flavors. The lake was listed Tuesday at 34% full, which is holding steady thanks to the end of the irrigation season.

HYATT: The lake was unchanged from last week at a whopping 40% full, making it the best reservoir water-wise on the Talent Irrigation District system. Fishing has been best for rainbow trout in the old creek channel for those trolling small spoons or dark spinners. Lots of bass are getting caught in the shallows with a variety of baits and lures but they’re small. The limit is five trout a day, with just one over 20 inches.

LAKE OF THE WOODS: The lake was still fishing well for a mix of black crappie and bass from the resort on up, but the bass bite will start to drop off significantly as the water cools rather rapidly. Trout fishing has been somewhat slow.

LOST CREEK: The lake last month received a nice complement of legal-sized and larger rainbow trout stocked primarily at the Takelma Ramp, where fishing has been most concentrated. PowerBait off the bank there remains good for those staying off the ramp while fishing. The stocked trout are starting to move around more, and they most often hug the southwest shoreline for a few weeks before feathering out into the lake. Fishing is tapering off Peyton Bridge, thanks largely to turbid water from the 5,700 cfs inflow to the reservoir. Upstream of the bridge is a no-wake zone there. Bass fishing has been tapering down thanks to cooler, rainy days. On warm days, focus on rocky outcroppings with crankbaits and rubber worms the top offerings. The lake was listed Tuesday at 8 feet shy of the normal November levels, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in recent years has not worried too much about dropping below the so-called minimum pool in fall. The volume was listed Tuesday at 36% full. That’s not bad compared to previous years.

RIVER OUTLOOK

ROGUE: The flurry of summer steelhead catches after the Nov. 1 switchover from the flies-only season has tapered off as it typically does in the second week of November. The middle Rogue is starting to get better for summer steelhead, but most are wild and must be released. The lower Rogue is awaiting the arrival of the first winter steelhead of the year, and that could be any day now that flows have increased more than four-fold at Agness.

That makes the best bet the upper Rogue, but it’s a bit of a last-man-standing choice right now. Most of the action is upstream of the Shady Cove boat ramp, where fishing is allowed with bait for steelhead. It’s the first eggs steelhead have seen with hooks in them since August and the catches are typically quite high for the first week of November before cold water and effort ebbs. That window has come and gone, and so is the majority of the interest there. Still, it’s worth an afternoon float and fish.

Waters below the Shady Cove ramp are open to lures and other artificials but not bait. That means lots of plug fishing with MagLip 3.0s in various colors like chartreuses and pinks. WeeWarts like the black-and-silver ones are also good bets. Fly-fishers can then start using single artificial salmon eggs, and that’s a fine choice when nymphing downstream of salmon redds.

Conditions are very good for steelhead fishing riverwide, with flows actually up a notch to 1,310 cfs Tuesday at Dodge Bridge. That’s a nice bump of water that will spur somewhat stagnant summer steelhead to start moving again. Lost Creek Lake outflows are hovering at 1,000 cfs as they normally are for early November. Flows were correspondingly up nicely to 1,566 cfs at the old Gold Ray Dam site and a somewhat robust 1,596 cfs at Grants Pass.

The middle Rogue has been improving for summer steelhead on a mix of flies and plugs fished from driftboats. However, most of the catches will be wild fish that must be released unharmed. Casting black and yellow Panther Martin lures can be good bets at dusk, as well for bank anglers. Streamer flies are best for fly-fishers as the water temperatures are ideal for swinging flies. Focus on the tail-ends of rapids where the water has more oxygen.

Flows at Agness were up Tuesday to more than 4,000 cfs, and that should help draw the first winter steelhead of the season into the lower Rogue. Also helping are a large series of king tides that start this weekend, with the outgoing surge helping steelhead movement from the ocean.

Rogue, Applegate and other South Coast winter steelhead anglers will need their new regional steelhead validation to fish beginning Dec. 1. Those are valid for the next 12 months. All wild steelhead harvest on the Rogue is now closed.

The far upper Rogue in the Union Creek area was stocked in mid-September for the last time this year. Fish around the Union Creek Campground and the mainstem Rogue near River Bridge. Worms, single salmon eggs and small pieces of worms are the traditional favorites.