May 1st Column

[Pete Heley]

Crabbing continues to be slow in the lower Umpqua River and even out in the ocean for the few people venturing outside. The best crabbing has been experienced by those who have dragged small craft into the Triangle where they have caught nearly as many red rocks as legal dungeness.

Bottomfish anglers are still catching fish off the South Jetty and. ironically, better than usual catches of cabezon have been rather common. The problem is that cabezon will not be legal to keep until July 1st. While the number of lingcod taken recently has dropped off, fishing for greenling, striped surfperch and rockfish are holding up well. The only time the fishing seems to drop off is during expecially windy days when changing barometric pressures may make the bottomfish less active.

Interest in the Umpqua River’s late spring run of redtailed surfperch (commonly called “pinkfins” is building and a few anglers have even went up to Marker 12 to test the waters. No catches reported yet, but the run usually starts showing up in mid-May. Meanwhile, the surf fishing for the perch has usually been productive off area beaches.

Salmon fishing along the South Jetty and out in the ocean has dropped off. There are good catches made every day, but most anglers recently targeting salmon in the ocean and in the lower Umpqua have been disappointed. That said, two anglers fishing the ocean fairly close to the Umpqua River Bar last Sunday landed a salmon of more than 20 pounds which they figured was a spring chinook and two salmon in the ten pound class which they figured were fall chinooks feeding on baitfish near the bar. Large salmon are a possibility. Two of the salmon recently purchased by the Sportsmans Cannery in Winchester Bay each weighed 35 pounds.

The information regarding the upcoming ocean finclipped coho season (or area between Cape Falcon and the Oregon/Californias border) is now out. The season will start on July 1st and will run until July 31st or when the quota of 10,500 finclipped coho salmon is met. The limit will be two salmon daily.

A few people have started fishing for shad, but, so far, it seems they are only fishing and not catching.

Most of Oregon’s lakes that are not open all year opened last Saturday. There should be some meaningful reports on how fishing was in next week’s column. Locally this week, the Tenmile Lakes received 6,000 legal rainbows, while Bradley, Eel, Saunders and Powers Pond all received 3,000 legal
rainbows. Bluebill Lake received 2,000 legal rainbows and the Millicoma Pond received 500 legal trout. The next scheduled trout stocking involving any of these lakes will be the last week in May.

Cool mornings have pretty much negated warmer afternoon temperatures and the fishing for largemouth bass and panfish is lagging where I thought it would be at this time. But it’s getting there and afternoon fishing can be very good.