Chinook season opener disappointing
The opening of the ocean Chinook salmon fishery was disappointing, but it was to be expected. Most of the commercial salmon anglers were fishing far offshore and quite deep, conditions not easily duplicated by salmon sport anglers.
That said, there were a few salmon caught and one was huge. Lee Baker, fishing slightly north of the Umpqua River mouth in 300 feet of water hooked and landed a 43-inch Chinook. The fish was rather thin and only weighed 32 pounds, but salmon that length usually weigh well over 40 pounds. He was fishing 60 feet down with a plug-cut herring. It was his only bite.
The first salmon taken was by Tyler Proof on a chartered trip with Oregon Custom Charters. Only two salmon were counted by fish checkers among the first 60 boats checked.
Winchester Bay was the most successful salmon fishing port on the South Coast on Saturday. This may be partly due to the fact that there are still a few spring Chinook entering the river. Until the fall Chinook move within range, Winchester Bay will most likely continue to offer the South Coast’s best salmon fishing. Even after that, it usually dominates the early season ocean Chinook catch.
Halibut fishing
Anglers planning a halibut trip during the spring season should do so during the next three-day opener, this Thursday through Saturday. If fishing conditions are even reasonably good, the spring quota is likely to be filled — and the summer quota is only slightly more than a third of the spring quota and will likely only last the first three day opener (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).
The Umpqua muddied up late last week and was still muddy last weekend. There were some very disappointed pinkfin anglers who were intending to fish around Marker 12, which is slightly more than a mile upriver from Winchester Bay.
The ones who went to a “plan B” that involved fishing the surf along the North Beach at the end of Sparrow Park Road. Those fishing for male redtailed surfperch did quite well and some limits were caught, with some of the perch weighing all of two pounds. By the time you read this, the Marker 12 perch fishery should be in full swing.
As usual, the South Jetty fished well, but anglers trying to avoid the muddy river water needed to fish the ocean on the south side of the Triangle. A few anglers fished the river channel for bottomfish near high tide when the clearer ocean water increased visibility. One can reasonably expect both jetty fishing and the upriver perch fishing to be very good when the river clears.
Lingcod fishing success in Charleston has dropped off over the last couple of weeks, but has been offset by very good fishing for good-sized rockfish.
Yellow perch removal
Charleston ODFW biologist Gary Vonderohe told me that he is considering trapping and removing yellow perch from some of the lakes in the area, such as Tenmile, that are becoming dominated by small or stunted yellow perch. Initial trapping efforts were disappointing, but a different type of trap used extensively in Idaho has proved to be far more effective.
Using the improved traps, biologists recently removed more than 300,000 small perch from Phillips Reservoir in eastern Oregon. Yellow perch are one of Oregon’s most difficult fisheries management problems as they are very prone to overpopulating. The problem is often hidden by the large average size of the perch the first several years they become established in a lake or reservoir. Presently, Foster Reservoir near Sweet Home has a newly established perch population with a decent average, but the average size will almost certainly be smaller within five years.
Lots of area waters will receive trout plants this coming week prior to Free Fishing Weekend.
Wolf kill
The second human death attributed to wolves in the last 100 years, a female teacher in Alaska who was partially consumed by wolves, has increased concern over the future interaction between humans and these predators.
There are currently about 15,000 wolves in North America and they are not easily hunted without the use of aircraft. Andrew McKean relates info in the current issue of Outdoor Life that states there were 42,031 permits to shoot wolves in 2009. The permits raised $726,000 in revenue — an average of $17.27 per permit — but only 257 wolves were bagged by permit holders. In other words, less than one out of 163 of those permit holders were successful in bagging a wolf.
Pete Heley, Columnist
