Another 50-pound salmon caught on Umpqua
Spring Chinook fishing on both the Rogue and Umpqua rivers is in full swing. The lower Rogue River near Elephant Rock seems to be producing the best fishing. On the Umpqua River, the numbers are better around Sawyer Rapids and upriver. I had a confirmed report of another 50-pound springer being caught near Elkton. The Umpqua may have fewer fish, but there seems to be some giants available.
With the recent warm weather, all local lakes are producing very good trout fishing with both legal-sized and trophy trout in the limits.
Tenmile Lakes are having very successful trout fishing, but some of the effort has now shifted to largemouth bass as the water temperatures have warmed.
We have our ocean salmon dates. The recreational salmon season for all salmon except coho starts May 29 and runs through Sept. 6. The area we can fish is from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain. Our daily bag limit is two fish per day, with a minimum size of 24 inches. This is our Chinook season, but other species of salmon can be taken as long as they are not coho.
The recreational “marked” coho (fin-clipped) season is from June 26 through Sept. 6, or until a quota of 26,000 fish are caught. The area we can fish is from Cape Falcon to the California border. The daily bag limit is two fish per day. Remember, during the coho season you can catch one coho and one Chinook, but if you choose to retain two of either salmon, you have reached your bag limit for the day.
The commercial fishermen will be fishing for Chinook salmon from May 1 to July 6, July 9 to 13, July 16 to 20, July 23 to 27 and Aug. 1 to 25. I’ve had reports from crabbers and bottom fishermen who are seeing more Chinook in our area than they have in the recent past.
Because commercial fishermen will be starting before recreational, we will be able to get some valuable information on where to fish and how to get our season started.
I am looking forward to having some good troll-caught salmon available for my table from our local docks. I really do consider our local Chinook salmon to be the true bounty of the sea.
Our near-shore halibut season (inside 40 fathoms) is open May 1 through Oct. 31, or until the 12,284-pound quota is met. Our all-depth halibut season is open May 13, 14 and 15, May 20, 21 and 22 and June 3, 4, and 5.
Ocean bottom fishing has been terrific when the weather lets the boats get out of port. Limits were the norm with lots of large lingcod being caught also.
We have some very good morning clamming tides coming up, and bay clamming has been good. Razor clamming was slow, but this tide series should give us a very good opportunity for both.
Crabbing in Charleston still is producing some good Dungeness crab, but recent reports are showing that red rock crabbing has really picked up. Bandon crabbing has been slow, but the crabbers using boats are doing OK.
Trout season at Lemolo and Diamond lakes opens today. Diamond Lake is once again a great trout fishery. There should be more than 200,000 fingerlings from last year’s stocking that will be 12-inch trout as soon as the ice is off the lake. There are also several thousand trophy trout still in the lake from the 2008 releases. For the 2010 season, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will be stocking 300,000 fingerlings.
Lemolo Reservoir is ice-free, so anglers have a good chance of catching brown trout and trophy-sized rainbow trout that are held over from last year. To check on ice conditions on Diamond Lake, call 1-800-733-7593, extension 238 for updates.
A new poll commissioned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation found that 77 percent of active hunters and target shooters are mentoring young hunters. This is the highest number ever reported. Even adults without children or step-children participated at a 66 percent rate. This is great news for the health of our sport!
Good luck fishing and hunting.
Listen to the Oregon Outdoors Radio Show Thursdays from 2-5 p.m. on KWRO 630 AM and rebroadcast on Friday mornings from 7-10 a.m. on ESPN 1230 AM. Oregon Outdoors can now be heard on KDUN 1030 AM from Eugene to Port Orford on Friday evenings from 3-5 p.m. and on Saturday mornings from 6-8 a.m.
