Wild coho season starts slow
A man holds up a coho he caught on the Coos River. The past few seasons on the Coos and Coquille rivers have been good for wild coho, and local Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fish biologists hope to see similar success in Tenmile Lakes.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fish biologists were excited to open the first wild coho fishery in Tenmile Lakes since 1990.
If only the fish would have received the memo a little earlier.
As of Wednesday, creel samplers keeping an eye on the tightly-monitored season had only checked seven fish, though fish biologist Tom Rumreich said he estimates about 20 total had probably been taken since the start of the season in early October.
“Right now, very few have been caught to date,” he said.
Fish biologist Mike Gray had to agree.
“The main word is that our creel samplers haven’t checked fish for a couple of weeks,” he said, adding that some fish may have been caught during hours the samplers weren’t working.
Temeree Bingham, who works at Ringo’s Lakeside Marina, said they haven’t heard much good news yet.
“They’re coming in,” she said. “But it’s not a real big amount yet.”
She added that anglers weren’t putting up much effort early this week – a time that saw driving rain on Monday and pouring snow on Tuesday.
“It was so bad this morning, they couldn’t even see,” she said Tuesday.
She has heard anglers report they’re taking coho on bass lures – mostly red rattle traps, but one man reported using pink spinners to much success.
Both biologists and Bingham said the poor weather will push through good numbers of coho.
Gray said anglers reported seeing fish in Tenmile Creek heading to spawn.
“Anytime we get rainstorms, that puts the fish on the move,” Gray said. “If they’re down in Tenmile Creek, then that rainfall would pull them up into the lakes.”
Rumreich said after the recent rains, it’s only a matter of time before anglers start taking coho.
“This is the rain event that’s started to bring the coho into the lake,” he said.
Rumreich added that the fish trap in Eel Lake has been catching about 20 fish per day, meaning Tenmile is probably seeing about 100 fish per day pushing through to spawn.
The biologists are expecting good numbers of coho in the coming weeks, since surveys over the past few years have yielded positive results for the growing wild population.
Rumreich said last year’s run numbered about 17,000 coho to the lakes, prompting the ODFW to propose opening the fishery to NOAA Fisheries, which approved it for this year. The ODFW will have to get the fishery approved each year, thanks to the fact that wild coho still are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Similar seasons in Siltcoos and Tahkenitch lakes have been approved for continuing yearly seasons since earlier in the decade, and biologists hope the Tenmile Lakes fishery can have similar success.
“With our spawning surveys, we’ve seen an increasing trend of coho,” Gray said. “For now, we essentially have to do our analysis and make sure the run is healthy enough.”
Recent success in the Coquille River and Coos River basin offers hope to anglers and biologists alike. The Coquille River wild coho fishery closed early on Oct. 17 after the 1,200-fish quota was taken.
“So there were a lot of coho to be caught in the fishery this year,” Gray said.
He added that anglers have been itching to fish Tenmile again.
“We’ve had, probably the last five or six years, a lot of requests for the fishery,” Gray said. “The run on Tenmile Lakes has been on a steady increase – a lot of people were antsy to get a fishery going.”
And the ODFW is ecstatic to offer that chance to anglers.
“Without a doubt. Thrilled. The opportunity to provide an angling event is great,” Rumreich said.
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Coho fishing on Tenmile Lakes
Open: North and South lakes are open, but the fishery is closed downstream of Hilltop Bridge, as well as the canal between lakes and all tributaries.
The season: Fishing started on Oct. 1, and will remain open through Dec. 31, or until a quota of 500 fish has been caught.
Limits: One adult coho per day and five for the season are allowed. Anglers may fish only one rod when the wild coho fishery is open.
