OCEAN OUTLOOK

SOUTH COAST: Southern Oregon waters will get a little better before they get worse, and rain is on the way. Wednesday’s forecast calls for winds up to 15 knots, 4-foot seas and rain, followed Thursday by 15-knot winds in the morning that are forecast to rise to gusts of up to 25 knots in the afternoon. Not a good time to be on the water. Friday’s forecast calls for 20-knot winds and 8-foot seas, with weather starting to dial down Saturday to 15 knots and 6-foot seas.

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.

Jigging for rockfish and lingcod is best with lead-headed jigs with a multitude of skirt colors, with while 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.

Halibut fishing is open and 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 South Coast season runs through October.

The ocean is now open to recreational crabbing, and ocean effort has improved as the crab are starting to harden.

Some new minus tides begin this weekend, with -.7 tides just before daylight Saturday and Sunday mornings. Don’t turn your back on the surf.

Shellfish regulations have remained stable. Bay clamming remains. 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. Before any digging, call the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474 for the latest restrictions.

Scallops are available coast-wide, 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 26% full. 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 Seattle Bar area is high and dry. 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 32% full and dropping very fast amid low inflows.

DIAMOND: As of Tuesday, the lake and resort remain open despite the nearby Trail Fire. Smoke has generally blown away from the lake and that makes for pleasant days on the water. Fishing is still 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.

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

EMIGRANT: The lake hasn’t had any fresh trout releases in a month 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. The lake has actually dropped somewhat significantly this past week to 10% full, and look for the county boat ramp to be unusable even for smaller trailered boats by the end of this week. Afternoons have been windy.

EXPO: Another 1,000 legal-sized rainbow trout were stocked two months ago, and they are still drawing limited interest from valley anglers without too many close fishing options. Catch them on PowerBait, worms under bobbers or small spinners. Parking fees are required.

FISH: The lake is set to get another infusion of rainbow trout next week and that will jumpstart an already good fall fishery. The stocking happens at the Forest Service ramp near the resort, so that will be the area to go. If you can find them, focus on the underwater springs that are much cooler and clearer than the rest of the lake. The lake was actually down significantly this week to 45% full Tuesday.

HOWARD PRAIRIE: Morning trolling for trout straight off the marina and all the way down the lake has remained a hot ticket. There are plenty of holdover 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. The lake was listed Tuesday at 41% full, which is slightly down from last week.

HYATT: The lake has started to drop again during late-season irrigation withdrawals and is now listed at 38% 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.

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. 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 dropped this week to 1,350 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 below 900 cfs. The lake, however, remains a healthy 47% full, despite dropping 4% in the past week.

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 back to the flies-only fishing season through October, while the lower Rogue Bay has seen a nice uptick of larger fall chinook salmon before the coho start flowing in. The middle Rogue is seeing fall chinook in the Galice area, and the Agness area has been pretty solid for fall chinook recently. Summer steelhead are starting to show up in the middle Rogue as well, offering a nice even opportunity.

That puts the best bet in the Galice area for fall chinook, or the lower Rogue Bay for big and fresh fall chinook, with steelhead in the upper Rogue a quiet second favorite.

Trolling the Lower Rogue Bay for fall chinook can be pretty hit and miss at this time of year as more fish continue to move upstream and are not holding as well in the bay as they were earlier in the year. Still, it can lead to some very good fishing days with several hook-ups and many fish in the high 20-pound class.

The turns of the tides are best, especially around morning high tides. Multiple fish on guide boats have been the norm of late, and the bay is starting to shed the crowds after the Labor Day weekend. Anchovies with blades are best, as are Brad’s Cut Plug baits.

The Agness area is fishing well for fall chinook either back-bouncing or side-drifting with roe and sandshrimp or fishing plugs with tuna-belly wraps.

In the middle Rogue, fall chinook are moving through the Galice canyon waters, with anglers intercepting them in traditional places like Taylor Creek Canyon largely on plugs.

Intercept these migrating spring chinook near the heads of deep pools or in the deeper currents.

Chinook fishing is now allowed only from the Fishers Ferry Ramp near the old Gold Ray Dam site downstream to the ocean.

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 a 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, swinging articulated leeches or other streamer flies is decent, as is nymphing. 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.

Another 32 summer steelhead were counted Thursday at Cole Rivers Hatchery, boosting this year’s return to 510 steelhead and counting. That’s one-third of the 10-year running average.

Flows out of Lost Creek were down to 1,350 cfs Tuesday, with Dodge Bridge flows back down to 1,491 cfs. Ditto for the old Gold Ray Dam site, where the flows were down just above 1,500 cfs Tuesday. Grants Pass was just at 1,568 cfs as well. 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.