OCEAN OUTLOOK COASTWIDE: Friday’s forecast calls for winds up to 20 knots and wind waves up to 6 feet, followed Saturday by winds again up to 20 knots and swells building to 10 feet amid showers.
Sunday’s forecast calls for winds rising to 25 knots by the afternoon, with swells rising as high as 18 feet.
That’s not a misprint.
This is storm watchers’ weather, not fishing or crabbing weather.
Ocean salmon fishing is closed for all species off Southern Oregon, so salmon anglers have been pushed into bays.
Pacific halibut season also is over for the year.
Bottomfishing will be a bust this weekend.
When it calms down in a week or so, look for decent catches of black rockfish and lingcod when weather permits.
The bottomfish limit is down from five to four.
Surfperch fishing is likely to be a bust along the South Coast because of winds and rough surf.
That will push the perch outside of most casting distances.
Shrimp, mussels and Berkley Gulp sand worms or shrimp are the best baits.
Bay clamming should be good, despite a lack of morning minus tides that were very helpful earlier this fall.
Razor clam digging remains closed coastwide, but bay clamming remains open and good in places like lower Coos Bay.
However, the digging tides are not that favorable this week.
Before digging, call the shellfish hotline at 1-800-448-2474.
Recreational crabbing has been good in places like the Coquille Bay in Bandon and lower Coos Bay at Charleston.
Many Dungeness are firm and ready to harvest.
It’s the third month of those ending in R, and they’re the best for Dungeness.
LAKE OUTLOOK AGATE: The lake has not seen a new infusion of trout since June.
Bass and perch fishing have been good amid hot weather and warm water.
The lake remains listed at 13% full Thursday, with turbid water that’s no longer dropping now that irrigation season is over.
Electric trolling motors are OK but no gas motors.
The park closes at dusk.
APPLEGATE: The Hart Tish Park boat ramp and dock are closed, but Copper and French Gulch are open and usable.
It’s just that virtually no one is using them.
The lake was last stocked with rainbow trout in June.
Fish for rainbows with PowerBait or worms from the bank or slowly troll Tasmanian Devil lures spiced with a piece of worm.
Bass fishing has been good with plastic worms and grubs fished slowly off the bottom along rocky points and flats on warm days.
The lake is dropping quickly and listed Thursday at 11% full, with outflows holding steady at 150 cfs.
The lake has a 10 mph speed limit.
DIAMOND: The lake is fishing fairly well again for rainbow trout, as cooler weather always makes fall fishing here better.
However, weekend storms could make reaching the lake troublesome because of snow, if accumulations up to 1 foot happen as forecast.
Catches are best on the south end near the pizza parlor, in the Silent Creek channel or the lake’s far side near the Scout camp.
Most of the action is in shallow water in the mornings and evenings.
Fish deep with PowerBait during the day.
PowerBait and small leech flies fished slowly will work best, with worms under bobbers close to the bottom another fine bet.
All tiger trout must be released unharmed.
Some are eclipsing 8 pounds.
EMIGRANT: The lake is holding steady at 4% full now that irrigation season is over.
Angling activity is primarily for smallmouth and largemouth bass off rocky points with crankbaits and rubber worms worked off the bottom.
Very little angling activity for trout.
Some bank-fishing for catfish with chicken livers has been reported.
EXPO: State wildlife biologists stocked 1,500 legal-sized rainbow trout here more than two 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: Fishing for rainbow trout has been best near the springs.
Another 900 trophy-sized rainbows were stocked in the lake earlier this fall, and that has rejuvenated some angling interest here.
The lake was actually up a hair to 26% full Thursday, which makes locating the springs that much more important.
PowerBait and worms are working best, plus trolling lures that look like small tui chub.
Tiger trout must be released unharmed.
Some of the most reachable springs are off the Fish Lake Resort marina.
HOWARD PRAIRIE: The lake is open to angling, but water levels are very low, and no legal-sized trout were stocked this spring.
There are some holdover trout getting caught by anglers using PowerBait off the bank near the dam.
Not much other action.
The lake level stabilized briefly this week at 6% full.
HYATT: The lake was listed Thursday at a whopping 2% full Thursday after nearly a month of being listed as dead pool.
That’s water too low for release at the dam.
A very limited amount of bank-fishing remains near the dam area for trout.
The limit is five trout a day, with just one over 20 inches.
No fingerling trout were stocked last year, so trout numbers are very low.
Some warmwater fish, such as black crappie, are showing up in the catch.
LAKE OF THE WOODS: The lake continues to fish well for holdover rainbow trout in shallower water.
Lots of perch are getting caught just outside of the resort ramp.
Water conditions remain excellent.
Heavy snow forecast for the weekend could hamper access.
LOST CREEK: The lake got its last complement of catchable, legal-sized rainbow trout in late June at the Takelma ramp.
Those fish are well-dispersed, inflows are dropping and releases are holding steady at 1,050 cfs as the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers preps the reservoir for winter flood control.
Bank-fish with PowerBait near the Takelma ramp or at the Medco access point off Highway 62.
Wind-drifting worms above Peyton Bridge has been good.
Bass fishing has been good near rocky outcroppings of late, with crankbaits and rubber worms the top offerings.
The lake was listed Thursday at 33% full and more than 19 foot shy of the normal winter flood-control level.
This has been the norm for the Corps to drop below normal low pool in the fall.
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 again more than a month ago, and that’s it for the season.
Fish for them with worms or PowerBait.
WILLOW: The lake received another 2,000 legal-sized rainbow trout in late June.
Catch them with worms or PowerBait near the county boat ramp, where the fish were released.
RIVER OUTLOOK ROGUE: The upper Rogue had a nice late-run summer steelhead bite Tuesday and Wednesday after the flies-only season ended while the middle Rogue has been fair for steelhead and coho salmon.
The lower Rogue is a bit slow for coho and steelhead as water conditions are about to change significantly for the first time this season.
That makes the upper Rogue the best bet of the weekend largely because water conditions will be the most stable of anywhere on the Rogue as the first significant storms of the season move through.
Tuesday ushered in the return of bait fishing for summer steelhead upstream of the Shady Cove boat ramp.
Side-drifting small pieces of roe or roe-soaked egg yarn has been good to very good despite low and cold flows.
Look for good catches through the weekend before this fishery historically peters out.
Downstream of the Shady Cove boat ramp opened Tuesday to lures and hard-plastic egg flies but not bait.
Plugging with MagLip 3.0s is often very good for the remainder of the month, with hard-plastic salmon eggs with scents on them also excellent choices.
All wild steelhead must be released unharmed.
Flows out of Lost Creek Lake were holding steady at 1,050 cfs.
That has flows holding steady all week at Dodge Bridge to 1,170 cfs.
But that changes this weekend, when rain and runoff will inch flows at Dodge Bridge up to 2,000 cfs Sunday.
That should also be fairly turbid, as half the flow will be runoff.
Downstream of Fishers Ferry, steelhead are biting everything from worms and small clusters of salmon eggs to nymph flies and an assortment of smaller plugs.
The best include pink, black and/or silver.
The Hatchery Hole is open for steelhead fishing from the bank and wading.
There is no fishing from boats there.
All wild steelhead must be released unharmed riverwide.
In the middle Rogue, a few summer steelhead and coho are getting caught daily by those swinging streamers (black or dark purple are some local standards) as well as smallish MagLip 3.0 plugs from driftboats.
Most of these local fish are wild and must be released unharmed.
That includes wild steelhead and coho.
Galice Road remains closed downstream of Galice because of the Rum Creek Fire, but river access is restored at places like Indian Mary and Hog Creek boat ramps.
Fishing is slow there, and the effort is light.
CHETCO: Fall chinook should start moving upstream out of tidewater this weekend as rain will raise the river to around 1,200 cfs Saturday.
The gear restrictions limiting fishing to fly-fishing with strike indicators or bobber fishing with bait will extend through Nov. 15 on the Chetco from river mile 2.2 up to Nook Creek.
The daily limit is two chinook a day, but only one may be wild. © 2022 Mail Tribune source