OCEAN OUTLOOK

SOUTH COAST: Ocean conditions are looking decent for Memorial Day weekend angling off the Southern Oregon coast, but it will be a bit windy and wavy. Thursday’s forecast calls for 20-knot winds and 6-foot swells, followed Friday by 15-knot winds and 5-foot swells. Saturday’s forecast calls for 15-knot winds and 6-foot swells, plus 4-foot wind waves.

The ocean chinook salmon season opened May 15 off Southern Oregon, and early catches have been light. It’s a chinook-only season right now, so focus on trolling deeper to steer clear of the coho. Anchovies are best. Remember, hooks must be barbless. The limit is two chinook a day through Aug. 31. Fin-clipped coho don’t get added to the mix until June 15.

Halibut fishing is now open, and look for some decent catches in 180-200 feet of water on sandy bottoms near rock formations when the weather cooperates. Jigs and large herring drifted off the bottom will be best.

Jigging for rockfish and lingcod is best with lead-headed jigs with a multitude of skirt colors, with white and chartreuse great first and second options. Fishing has been very good for larger black rockfish, while lingcod fishing has been a little hit and miss.

The coveted St. George Lighthouse reef in Northern California is open. Early lingcod catches have been excellent, as are black rockfish. Remember that California fishing license since it’s in California waters. Fishing has been excellent when boats have made the run to the reef, and that’s usually done in calmer days.

For bottomfishers, remember that cabezon are off-limits until July 1. Quillback and yelloweye rockfish are also on the catch-and-release ledger for all of 2024.

Surfperch fishing had picked up at Brookings-areas beaches when the surf calmed down, but and it could be decent this weekend. Visit at low tide, and look for depressions in the sand. Those are places perch will be at high tide. 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 has been good action around the rocks north of the Winchuck River mouth. Beaches north of Gold Beach can also yield great surfperch catches. There are a dozen varieties of surfperch along the Oregon Coast, and most are quite tasty.

The ocean is now open to recreational crabbing, but ocean effort has been light. Lots of crab now sport soft shells and they should be released because their meat content is poor while they are molting.

Great morning minus tides greet Memorial Day weekend clammers. The best two are -1.3 tides at 7:50 a.m. Saturday and 9:25 a.m. Sunday. The best razor clamming is now at Clatsop County beaches. Razor clams are off-limits now from Cape Blanco to the California border because of domoic acid levels.

Coos Bay around Charleston will be awesome for butter and gaper clams.

Bay clamming and mussel harvests are open statewide. However, mussel collection might be called off as early as Thursday if tests reveal higher levels of toxins. Before digging, call the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474.

Scallops are available coastwide, but they are not tested for domoic acid at this time. It’s safest to eat the adductor muscles of scallops. If you don’t know what the adductor is, you better pass on wild scallops.

LAKE OUTLOOK

AGATE: The lake’s water conditions are improving, and that’s helped for decent catches of perch, crappie and bass for boat anglers wind-drifting worms or those casting toward submerged willows and trees from the bank. Evenings are best. The lake is full. Electric trolling motors are OK but not gas motors. The park closes at dusk.

APPLEGATE: The lake received another 15,000 legal-sized trout this week, and that should get anglers excited for the Memorial Day weekend. French Gulch and Copper ramps are open and getting a lot more use as the lake hovers just under full with plenty of inflow to come in future months. The Seattle Bar area has been good for bank anglers and float tubers chasing trout. Fish them with worms or PowerBait off the bottom from boats or the bank, or troll lures spiced with a small piece of worm. Bass fishing from boats remains good off points and submerged logs and stumps. Your sonar is your friend. With a surface temperature now above 52 degrees and climbing, fishing for smallmouth bass has improved. Also, the holdover trout are biting fairly decently on PowerBait farther up the reservoir.

Outflows are down to 600 cubic-fee-per-second as cooler weather has allowed the inflows to drop to 510 cfs. The lake has a 10 mph speed limit.

DIAMOND: The lake is starting to fish very well for a mix of rainbow trout, tiger trout and brown trout, particularly at the lake’s southern end. The North Ramp is open, and the marina is fully stocked with rental boats. Fishing pressure should be high for the Memorial Day weekend. Look for some nice brown trout and tiger trout in the mix while fishing Rapala lures, worms under bobbers and some large streamer flies. F.

All tiger trout and brown trout must be released unharmed. Some are eclipsing 8 pounds.

EMIGRANT: The lake got another infusion of 1,000 rainbow trout two weeks ago at the county boat ramp, and that should still trigger some good catches in the ramp cove at the county park. Fish off the bank with chartreuse or rainbow PowerBait or troll small lures. The lake has held steady at 79% full and look for more inflows during the next warm spell. Bass fishing is improving as more warm and sunny days hit the area. Afternoons have been windy.

EXPO: Another 1,500 legal-sized rainbow trout were stocked two weeks ago, and this should trigger more interest in one of the only fishing options on the Rogue Valley floor. Catch them on PowerBait, worms under bobbers or small spinners. Parking fees are required.

FISH: The lake received another infusion of 4,000 legal-sized trout and 1,500 trophy-sized trout this week, and that should please Memorial Day weekend campers and anglers. They were stocked at the Forest Service ramp. Fish for them with worms or PowerBait in the cove immediately near the ramp, as well as off the resort. Fishing interest will continue to rise. The lake was up a bit this past week to 68% full Tuesday. That’s basically light inflows from underground springs and very little runoff as snow levels have been sparse.

HOWARD PRAIRIE: The lake got another 7,450 legal-sized rainbow trout stocked this week for the Memorial Day weekend, and that should bring out the campers and fishers. The marina is floated and fully opened. Early trolling for rainbow trout has been very good, with plenty of holdover trout in the 18-plus-inch range getting caught this past weekend. Anchor and fish for them with PowerBait outside the marina or troll near the shore with Tasmanian Devil lures or Wedding Rings spiced with a piece of worm. The lake was listed Tuesday at 56% full, which is a hair above last week.

HYATT: The lake was holding steady at 62% full this past week, but it received no new fish for the Memorial Day weekend. Fishing pressure has remained quite light. The last stocking was done three weeks ago. Troll worms on Wedding Ring lures through the former creek channel for larger rainbows. Bass fishing has picked up in the shallows and coves. Lots of smallish largemouth, as usual.

LAKE OF THE WOODS: The resort is in full swing, and fishing improves as the weather improves. Docks have been floated at the marina now. Fishing has been decent for perch and some rainbows in shallow water just off the marina, but plan on morning trips as afternoon winds have been common.

LOST CREEK: The lake received another 10,000 legal-sized rainbows last week, split between the Stewart State Park ramps and the Takelma Ramp. These fish are biting worms and PowerBait fished off the bank near the Takelma ramp. Others are fanning out toward the face of the dam and along the lake’s southwest banks. Troll Wedding Ring lures spiced with a small piece of worm or a whole worm behind a flasher.

Flows out of the reservoir were down to just above 3,000 cfs this week as inflows finally dropped to less than 2,500 cfs. The lake, however, remains a health 98% full.

MEDCO: The pond received another 2,000 legal-sized trout two weeks ago along with the 2,000 already stocked here so far this spring. They are getting caught with worms or PowerBait off the bank near the ramp.

RIVER OUTLOOK

ROGUE: The lower Rogue’s spring chinook salmon bite has dropped amid high winds and fewer fish, while the upper Rogue is seeing more fish and good chinook migration conditions with the higher water. And the middle Rogue is slow for anything but spawned-out kelt winter steelhead that should be released unharmed.

That pushes the best bet back strongly at the upper Rogue, and it will stay there for at least the next month as it hosts the lion’s share of the chinook fishery now.

Intercept these migrating spring chinook along the inside corners of gravel bars and other clear migration lanes. These fish are largely on the move and not stacked in holes like they will later in the season.

In the lower Rogue, a few guides are hitting fish daily while other boat anglers are dwindling rapidly as the bite has slowed. Anchovies or Brad’s Cut-Plug baits are by far the best offerings. Most of the fish now are in that 18- to 22-pound range, with a good showing of hatchery fish that anglers can keep. Bank angling has fallen off dramatically. Water flows are good. Flows at Agness were at 7,792 cfs and holding steady into early next week.

In the upper Rogue, bank anglers are finding a few springers with corkies and beads farther up in the system, while drift boaters are doing best back-bouncing roe or using MagLip 3.5 plugs spiced with anchovy scent or tuna bellies.

All wild chinook must be released unharmed, but hatchery fish are showing up very well in the bite. Early mornings have been best, but it’s been cold. Upper Rogue flows have dropped this past week, with flows at 3,055 cfs out of Lost Creek Lake providing the lion’s share of the water. Flows at Dodge Bridge were down to 3,364 cfs and 3,815 cfs at the old Gold Ray Dam site. The difference is flow from Bear Creek, which has added a little color to the Rogue downstream of it.

In the middle Rogue, bank anglers are still finding the occasional spawned-out winter steelhead with Spin-Glo’s or plugs off side-planers at places like Chair and Rainbow riffles.

Flows at Grants Pass have dropped to 3,637 cfs this week, and they will continue to drop all of next week.

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.

Those validations are not necessary for chinook fishing.

All wild steelhead must be released unharmed for the remainder of the year river-wide.

The far upper Rogue in the Union Creek area received its first weekly complement of 2,500 legal-sized rainbows this week, and Memorial Day weekend anglers should do very well at the various stocking sites. Focus 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 re-opens to trout fishing Saturday but is off-limits to all steelhead. No fishing from a floating device is allowed.