Rainbow trout are grilled at Union Creek. 

OCEAN OUTLOOK

SOUTH COAST: This is a week for watching the surf and not challenging it. Thursday’s forecast calls for winds around 20 knots with 8-foot swells. Friday’s forecast is for winds up to 20 knots but swells up to 13 feet by the end of the day. Saturday’s forecast is the worst of the lot, with 15-knot winds but 12-foot swells.

Bottomfishing has been occasionally good for locals on the occasional calm days. Most of the activity is close to shore and alee from winds. Rockfish catches have been good, and there’s been an uptick on lingcod catches, as well. However, pressure remains quite light.

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 another 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 reopens Friday to crabbing, but the weather is too poor for heading over the bar to set pots. Bay crabbing should be very good but the king tide series will make the tidal surge difficult for keeping traps in place. No new minus tides are in the offing this next week, so clammers will be in bays working the two hours around low tide. Lower Coos Bay near Charleston will be popular.

Razor clam digging has been fair now at Myers Beach on the South Coast. Before digging, call the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474.

LAKE OUTLOOK

AGATE: 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 13% 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 55 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 5% full, with outflows at 150 cfs and inflows halved in the past week to 88 cfs. The lake has a 10 mph speed limit.

DIAMOND: Trout fishing has tapered off a bit but it remains good in the south end on calm days. Calm mornings have been best, usually until the sun hits the water. The brown trout and tiger trout bite has dropped off as rainbows are now showing up more predominantly in the daily catches. Spin-casters are doing well with small Rapala lures that look like small rainbows, but switch out the hooks to singles because the double trebles often leave the tiger trout too damaged to survive. For fly-fishers, black leeches or muddler minnow patterns are the best now as the bug hatches have waned amid colder temperatures. 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 has stabilized this past week to 49% 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 out-producing 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 actually down a hair to 40% full, but look for that to increase with a series of rain and snow events forecast for the weekend. Fishing has been best for rainbow trout in the old creek channel for those trolling small spoons or dark spinners. The best access is near the dam, but be careful about trailered boats. There are more bank fishing opportunities, but few are taking advantage of them. Lots of bass are getting caught in the shallows on warm, sunny days 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. The trout are now pretty well spread out north of the ramp. PowerBait off the bank there remains good for those staying off the ramp while fishing. Fishing is tapering off Peyton Bridge, thanks largely due to effort. Inflows are down to 881 cubic-feet-per-second, so there is less-turbid water entering the reservoir. Upstream of the bridge is a no-wake zone. Bass fishing has been tapering down thanks to cooler days. On warm days, focus on rocky outcroppings with crankbaits and rubber worms being the top offerings. The lake was listed Tuesday at almost 10 feet shy of the normal late-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 35% full. That’s not bad compared to previous years.

MEDCO: The lake was stocked in June with 2,000 legal-sized trout. Catch what’s left of them on PowerBait or worms.

SELMAC: The lake was stocked with 1,000 legal-sized trout last spring and is set to get more fresh fish later this year. For the current holdover trout, fish for them with worms or PowerBait.

RIVER OUTLOOK

ROGUE: Late summer steelhead fishing is still a good call for the upper Rogue while the middle and lower Rogue stretches are all waiting for the upcoming series of rains that should swell the river enough to start drawing decent number of winter steelhead into the river.

The best bet remains the upper Rogue, but expect that to change late next week after the rains bring in winter steelhead.

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 weeks 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. Both bait-casters and fly-fishers have reported five-fish days of late throughout the upper Rogue, but many of the hatchery fish are starting to darken up and aren’t prime to kill for anything but the smoker.

Water below the Shady Cove ramp is 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 use single artificial salmon eggs, and that’s a fine choice when nymphing downstream of salmon redds.

Also, anglers casting Little Cleo lures in far upper Rogue holes are catching coho salmon, but all wild fish must be released unharmed. Most of the catches have been downstream of Big Butte Creek, where many of the upper Rogue’s wild coho are bound now. Downstream of the mouth of Elk Creek also has been good.

Conditions are decent for steelhead fishing riverwide, but tough for driftboating. Yet that’s all about to change. Flows were down a bit to 1,224 cfs Tuesday at Dodge Bridge, but they are forecast to go up about 1,000 cfs Saturday then bound around all next week. Same goes for the old Gold Ray Dam site, where flows were 1,443 cfs Tuesday and forecast to hit 2,600 cfs Saturday before bouncing around next week. Grants Pass flows were at 1,376 cfs Tuesday and expected to hit 2,800 cfs Saturday and about 4,000 cfs late next week.

The trick is to watch the flows and fish steelhead as the water drops and starts to clear. Since flows out of Lost Creek Lake are at 1,000 cfs, most of the water will be tributary flow and that could dirty the river. Also, the higher flow will push leaves and other debris into the Rogue from landowners who rake leaves into piles near the water line so they don’t have to bag them.

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 will hit 11,000 cfs next week as the first real freshet of the season should bring in reams of fresh winter steelhead. All wild steelhead must be released unharmed river-wide.

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 main-stem Rogue near River Bridge. Worms, single salmon eggs and small pieces of worms are the traditional favorites.

APPLEGATE: The river is closed to all angling until Jan. 1.

CHETCO: The river will continue to climb in volume and be tough for late-season chinook fishing deep into next week, and that will signal the start of the winter steelhead season. Steelhead should be present riverwide when flows settle. A $2 steelhead validation is required beginning Friday and it last for the next 12 months, and it can be bought through your phone.