OCEAN OUTLOOK

SOUTH COAST: The storm-watching continues through this weekend as more heavy winds and gnarly seas grip the region. After Wednesday’s hazardous seas warning subsided, Thursday’s forecast calls for 20-knot winds and 7-foot swells, followed Friday by winds up to 25 knots and 7-foot swells. Saturday calls for gusts occasionally up to 40 knots with 10-foot swells capped by 7-foot wind waves. If you feel compelled to venture over the bar, don’t tell your insurance agent.

All ocean salmon fishing and halibut fishing is closed along the California coast.

The start of the new year also brings the start of the half-year closure on cabezon. Quillback and yelloweye rockfish are also on the catch-and-release ledger for all of 2024.

Bottomfishing looks like a bust this weekend thanks to very rough swells. But if things calm down next week, look for some decent lingcod and bottomfish catches for jiggers. However, Brookings-based anglers are not faring as well for lingcod as they are further up north.

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 now open to recreational crabbing, but conditions have kept crabbers in bays like Charleston and Coos Bay near Charleston. Another evening series of minus tides will hit the coast during the afternoons beginning Tuesday through Tuesday. Stay off the beaches for safety reasons, but they will help make bay crabbing better. Bay crabbing should be OK but slower now that the freshets have added more freshwater to bays, and that pushes Dungeness down toward estuary mouths or even back to sea.

Razor clamming is closed along the South Coast from Cape Blanco to the California border, but bays are open for butter and gaper clams. Bay clamming and mussel harvests are open statewide. Before digging, call the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474.

LAKE OUTLOOK

AGATE: The lake has been off most anglers’ charts thanks to low and muddy water conditions.

The lake has risen quickly this past week and has doubled to 40% full. Electric trolling motors are OK, but gas motors are not allowed. The park closes at dusk.

APPLEGATE: The French Gulch ramp now is the only one usable for trailered boats as the lake’s fall season has crept in. The lake is on the rise and was at elevation 1,908 feet Tuesday, which is 21% full. The filling season does not start until Feb. 1. 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. Wait until some more calm inflows before taking the time to fish here. Outflows up to 500 cubic feet per second and inflows up to 641 cfs will go up with upcoming rains. The lake has a 10 mph speed limit.

DIAMOND: Ice is forming now at the lake, but it is too thin for ice fishing. There is still some open water near the middle and around the edges. 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. All tiger trout and brown trout must be released unharmed. Some are eclipsing 8 pounds.

EMIGRANT: The lake has risen a hair to 17% full and likely will stay that low once the snows start up on the Dead Indian Plateau. Trout fishing is available but slow, and bass fishing remains slow and will until we get a series of warmer, sunnier days. The county launch is too low for launching trailered boats at the county ramp.

FISH: Ice is starting to form on the lake, but it remains too thin for human endeavors. The lake was actually up a hair this past week to 54% full Tuesday.

HOWARD PRAIRIE: The lake is open to angling, but the marina is closed. Ice is starting to form but it is too thin for human traffic. The lake was listed Tuesday at 36% full, which is up over the past week.

HYATT: The lake was up a hair to 46% full this past week as some runoff is finding its way into the reservoir. Ice is starting to form, but it remains too thin for fishing.

LAKE OF THE WOODS: The lake is covered with heavy snow and thin, slushy ice beneath it. It remains too iffy for fishing until it hardens.

LOST CREEK: The lake’s winter trout fishing has been fair to decent near the dam and off Takelma Boat Ramp. Both ramps at Takelma and Stewart State Park are usable. Effort has been very light. Good catches come when trolling worms behind flashers during calm days. Upstream of the bridge is a no-wake zone there. The reservoir was listed at 52% full this week and slightly higher than normal for mid-of January as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins its reservoir-filling cycle here. Outflows were up to 1,700 cfs, while inflows were at 2,765 cfs Tuesday and forecast to rise later this week amid more rains.

RIVER OUTLOOK

ROGUE: More bad weather is hampering steelhead fishing river-wide well into Sunday, but look for good winter steelhead prospects throughout next week.

When that happens, the best bet will be the lower Rogue in the Agness area, where fresh winter steelhead drawn in from this week’s freshets will be present and willing biters. Side-drifting roe and corkies from driftboats will be best. Plunkers with Spin-Glo’s at places like the old mill area, Dunkelberger Bar and Lobster Creek should also do quite well.

Flows at Agness were just shy of 12,600 cfs Tuesday but set to rise Thursday and remain over 14,000 cfs well into next week. That will be tough for plunkers in slow water seams with large Spin-Glo’s. Once the water drops, look for good steelhead numbers all the way through the Lower Rogue Canyon.

The next best bet will be the Grants Pass area, but not this weekend. Flows were a manageable 5,200 cfs Tuesday but were set to get back to 8,900 cfs and stay high into next week.

In the upper Rogue, high and turbid waters have left anglers at home. Flows at Dodge Bridge were down Tuesday to 3,000 cfs, and that looked doable for a moment, but flows will be back up to over 6,400 cfs from Thursday well into next week. Since about 70% of that flow is from tributaries, the water will likely remain too turbid for steelhead fishing well into next week.

When it does, it’s full-on bait fishing now throughout the stretch, but the action has been a bit slow.

Rogue, Applegate and other South Coast winter steelhead anglers will need their new regional steelhead validation to fish. New $2 validations are needed each Dec. 1, even for those catch-and-release fishing. 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.

APPLEGATE: The river is open to angling for steelhead, but no winter steelhead have been reported. Flows are rising with the upcoming rains, and turbidity has kept most anglers from prospecting for earl winter steelhead.

CHETCO: Good winter steelhead fishing should happen higher up in the system, but flows from Ice Box down will be hampered by flows of 12,400 cfs beginning Thursday. Side-drifting roe or fishing plugs will be best. A $2 South Coast Steelhead validation along with a fishing license is needed to fish here, even if it’s all catch and release.