OCEAN OUTLOOK

SOUTH COAST: Southern Oregon waters have been pretty rough the past few days, but they will slowly get better as the week progresses. Wednesday’s forecast calls for 10-knot winds kicking up to 15 knots in the afternoon with 8-foot seas, followed Thursday by winds up to 20 knots and 9-foot seas. Then things start to settle down, with Friday’s forecast calling for 15-knot winds and 8-foot seas, with 10-knot winds and 5-foot seas Saturday

The ocean salmon season is over off the Southern Oregon Coast, but bottomfishing and the occasional tuna trip have done very well when conditions allow. It looks like tuna season, however, likely is over due to shifting currents and seas.

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 of late.

For bottomfishers, cabezon can now be kept through the remainder of the calendar year. All quillback rockfish must be released unharmed.

Surfperch fishing will rebound again when the surf settles down again. When it does, focus on open beaches near rocks around high tide. Fishing is best at the turns of tides, primarily around high tide. Shrimp, mussels and Berkley Gulp sandworms or shrimp are the best baits when the weather cooperates. There are a dozen varieties of surfperch along the Oregon Coast, and most are quite tasty.

These are the last few days of halibut fishing for the season off Southern Oregon, where the season ends on Halloween. Late-season fishing has been good when the weather allows for it. Look for some decent catches in 180-200 feet of water on sandy bottoms near rock formations when the weather better cooperates. Jigs and large herring drifted off the bottom will be best. The ocean is now open to recreational crabbing, and ocean effort has improved as the crab are starting to harden.

There are no new minus tides this week.

Shellfish regulations have remained stable. Bay clamming remains open. Also, mussel harvest is now open from Coos Bay south to the California border as well as from the Yachats River north to the Washington border. The rest is closed. Razor clamming is currently open coastwide, except for Clatsop County beaches that are under the annual conservation closure as well as /south Coast beaches. Those South Coast razors have some of the highest domoic acids levels ever detected in Oregon and don’t be surprised if that closure remains into next year. Before any digging, call the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474 for the latest restrictions.

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: Fishing effort has tapered off as water levels drop. The lake was listed Tuesday at 17% full, which is stable. Fishing on the lake’s lower end has been good for carp of late. However, perch are dominating the catch. The constant drop leaves a ring of mud around some of the more popular bank-fishing areas near the boat ramp. The ramp is open. Boat anglers are doing best by wind-drifting worms or casting toward submerged willows and trees from the bank. Evenings are best. Electric trolling motors are OK but not gas motors. The park closes at dusk.

APPLEGATE: The lake received another 15,000 legal-sized trout a month ago, and that’s it for the year. The Copper Boat Ramp remains usable, but don’t look for Hart-Tish Park to be available to boaters and recreators. Bass fishing is best off points with crankbaits and rubber baits. The lake is down to 17% full and dropping very fast amid low inflows.

DIAMOND: Fishing is still good to very good for a mix of rainbow trout, tiger trout and brown trout, particularly at the lake’s southern end and around the shrimp beds straight across from the resort. The bite is best early in the morning and then at dusk. Winds have been kicking up daily. Tiger trout are preying on stocked trout fingerling. Look for some nice brown trout and tiger trout in the mix while fishing Rapala lures, Flatfish lures, worms under bobbers and some large streamer flies. Lots of brown trout over 20 inches are getting caught daily in the south end. Anglers are averaging about one trout per hour. The first snows have hit the area, and the mosquitoes are all but gone.

All tiger trout and brown trout must be released unharmed. Some are eclipsing 8 pounds. Try to keep these fish in the water when unhooking and releasing them. Keep fingers out of their gills; that’s a death sentence upon release.

EMIGRANT: The lake hasn’t had any fresh trout releases in two months and will get nothing new this year. That has slowed trout fishing as well as effort. Fish off the bank near the county boat ramp and where Emigrant Creek pours into the reservoir with chartreuse or rainbow Power Bait or troll small lures. Bass fishing has remained good off rocky points, but cooler weather has slowed the bite. The lake has held steady at 6% full, and consider the county boat ramp unusable. Afternoons have been windy.

EXPO: Remnant holdovers from this summer’s trout stocking are still drawing some interest among valley anglers. Catch them on PowerBait, worms under bobbers or small spinners. Parking fees are required.

FISH: The lake received another 900 trophy-sized trout earlier this month, all released at the Forest Service ramp near the resort. They are the current target du jour, with anglers tossing PowerBait, worms and small spinners at them. For holdover rainbows, focus on the underwater springs that are much cooler and clearer than the rest of the lake. The lake was actually rising and was listed this week at 51% full.

HOWARD PRAIRIE: Morning trolling for trout straight off the marina and all the way down the lake has remained solid. There are plenty of hold-over trout in the 16- to 18-inch range, as well as legal-sized trout stocked last month at the marina. The marina boat ramp remains open and usable. Cooler weather this week will help the bite. 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. Also troll in the channel if you can find it with your electronics. Casting small spinners off the bank near the dam has also produced nice catches of rainbows. The lake was listed Tuesday at 40% full, which is the same as last week.

HYATT: The lake has leveled off now that irrigation season is mostly over, and it remained listed at 37% full. It did receive another 7,450 legal-sized trout a month ago. That will be it for the season. Troll worms on Wedding Ring lures through the former creek channel for larger rainbows. Anchor and fish PowerBait off the bottom for the recently planted rainbows. Bass fishing has picked up in the shallows and coves near the Bureau of Land Management ramp. Lots of smallish largemouth, as usual.

LAKE OF THE WOODS: The lake received 1,000 legal-sized and 300 trophy-sized rainbow trout a month ago, and there are plenty of holdovers around the resort area. Fish with worms, PowerBait or troll Rapala lures for big rainbows and the occasional brown trout. Plenty of perch can be caught with worms off the resort. The docks are out for the season at the resort.

LOST CREEK: The lake received another 10,000 legal-sized rainbows nearly a month ago, and they were be split between the Stewart State Park ramp and the Takelma Ramp. Another batch of legal-sized and trophy-sized rainbows is coming next week. The most recently stocked rainbows 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 remain at 1,150 cubic-feet-per-second as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tries to corral spawning chinook salmon into mainstream channels on the Rogue. In-flows are back to just above 900 cfs. The lake, however, remains a healthy 40% full, dropping just 2% in the past week. It remains 3½ feet below the typical winter low pool in preparation for winter flood control.

MEDCO: The pond received another 1,100 legal-sized trout a month ago, and fishing is holding on. They are getting caught with worms or PowerBait off the bank near the ramp.

RIVER OUTLOOK

ROGUE: The upper Rogue is in the last week of the flies-only season amid a slow steelhead run for this time of year, while the lower Rogue Bay has basically emptied except for those targeting fall chinook headed to the Indian Creek Hatchery in tidewater. The middle Rogue is done for fall chinook upstream of the Hog Creek boat ramp, but some decent evening fishing for wild winter steelhead is available on a catch-and-release basis.

That puts the best bet at the upper Rogue for steelhead during the end of the flies-only season, which sunsets on Halloween.

The upper Rogue is a flies-only show for steelhead, but anglers can either use conventional fly gear or spinning rods and floats as long as no added weights or attachments are added. That includes swivels.

For spinning gear, rig a prince nymph about 2 feet below of stonefly nymph that legally acts like a weight. Vary the depth of your bobber to keep both flies at or near the bottom at all times.

For conventional fly anglers, nymphing is now best with a stonefly dropper and a single egg fly at the point. No plastic molded eggs. Those are illegal. However, catches are light because steelhead numbers are light. Summer steelhead numbers remain lower than last year in the upper Rogue and they are expected to remain like that. Colder water releases also mean swinging streamer flies are starting to fall out of fashion

Flows out of Lost Creek were down to 1,150 cfs Tuesday, with Dodge Bridge flows back up a bit to 1,289 cfs. Ditto for the old Gold Ray Dam site, where the flows were at 1,423 cfs Tuesday. Grants Pass was just at 1,437 cfs as well, but that’s up quite a bit as irrigators have been pulling their pumps from the river. Those flows are continued to remain steady deep into next week and provide great conditions for summer steelhead fishing in the evenings.

Rogue, Applegate and other South Coast 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 to December.

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 is not going to be stocked again until next spring. However, there are plenty of holdover and native trout in the area to catch. Fishing is always best at the stocking sites along the upper Rogue and Union Creek. Focus around the Union Creek Campground and the main-stem Rogue near River Bridge. Worms, single salmon eggs and small pieces of worms are the traditional favorites.

APPLEGATE: The river is open to trout fishing but off-limits to all steelhead. Bait is allowed, but there is no fishing from a floating device. Take care not to trespass.

CHETCO: Trolling in the bay has improved and is getting a fair amount of attention these days from anglers waiting for a freshet to push fish higher into the system. Troll anchovies.