January 25th column

[Pete Heley]

The combination of heavy winds and heavy rains has the Umpqua River very muddy. Crabbing has dropped off effortwise, but a few people did purchase their shellfish licences last week - being either very optimistic or completely unaware of the high, muddy water. Any legal-sized crabs left in the Umpqua River are almost certainly to be found near the ocean in the very lowest reaches of the river. Also, the crabs that live in the Triangle never seem to leave the Triangle now matter how muddy the water gets. Ocean crabbing, when feasible, will almost certainly be more productive uptide from the Umpqua River entrance because the water will be less muddy. As for water clarity in the boat basins at Winchester Bay, the East Basin, due to the clear water coming into it via Winchester Creek, is much clear than the mainstem Umpqua or the West Boat Basin. Anglers wanting to fish the South Jetty for bottomfish should either fish the south side of the Triangle where the ocean water will dilute the muddy river water or the river side of the Triangle near high tide when the ocean water will also somewhat dilute the muddy river water.

As for steelhead fishing, virtually every stream in the area is high, muddy and pretty much unfishable. Tenmile and Eel creeks will, at least, remain relatively clear, but high stream flows may make fishing them quite difficult.

Although most of the trout stocking schedule for Oregon is not yet finalized to the point where it is available at the ODFW’s online website, fortunately the north coast portion, which includes the Florence-area lakes, is now available. Virtually every small lake between Elbow Lake on the South and Alder, Buck and Dune lakes to the north is slated to begin receiving trout plants during the week beginning on Monday, February 6th. As usual, the trout are either barely legal, or “larger trout” which are trout running around a foot in length and “trophy trout” which are trout averaging about 16-inches. Infrequently, a lake will receive some surplus steelhead or broodstock trout which can be much larger. Cleawox and Carter lakes are slated to receive 3,000 and 1500 barely legal rainbows respectively. Georgia and North Georgia lakes are each slated to receive 150 of the same.Alder, Buck and Dune lakes are each scheduled to receive 850 rainbows and 36 trophy trout. Other upcoming trout plants include: Elbow Lake (600 larger trout), Erhart Lake (200 barely legal and 250 larger trout), Lost Lake (150 larger trout), Munsel Lake (1500 barely legal and 150 trophy trout), Perkins Lake (200 barely legal and 36 trophy trout) and Siltcoos Lagoon (850 barely legal and 70 trophy trout. Alder, Cleawox, Dune and Munsel lakes are also scheduled to be planted the very next week (Feb. 13-17). Because of very cold water, baitfishing will be the most effective way to catch trout from this’s initial plants.

A recent series of posts on Ifish.net, an online fishing website, dealt with anglers lying about their fishing results in their posts. It seems amazing, at least to me, how much that bothers a surprising number of anglers. While I think anglers that are afraid to say when the fishing is good and where they actually fished tend to be less-skilled and more insecure than the usual angler, people that rely on such posts are just asking for trouble. I do not use such fishing posts for much more than keeping track of which fish species are being caught from a fishing spot. Usually such posts are somewhat dated and of limited value when dealing with anadromous fish. A post can be beneficial when announcing that the first fish in a particular run have arrived or when describing stream conditions that are likely to stay somewhat consistent. The same for lakes, when a post mentions water clarity or temperature - conditions that may not change quickly. The best way to use online fishing posts if to filter a report through what you already know about the fish species mentioned and the similar waters and fishing techniques you are more familiar with. A big advantage of online fishing reports is that it is possible for them to be very current - even though many reports are intentionally delayed. Usually bass, panfish and to a lesser extent trout reports tend to be more accurate and timely, while reports dealing with anadromous fish have somewhat more misinformation or are intentionally delayed.Years ago, I used to target trout and bass in streams and lakes that Fishing and Hunting News reported as offering very slow fishing. I figured that by the time I was fishing these spots, the reports were pretty much irrelevant and the fishing could be very good - and if it wasn’t, I could use the reports as a believable excuse for my non-success. Because I do not spend much time fishing any one spot and I like exploring, I have not had to deal very much with excessive fishing pressure. With an increasing population in the Pacific Northwest and, it seems, ever more limited angling possibilities the problem is almost certain to become larger. One online fishing site that can help is washingtonlakes.com which, in addition to its posts on various techniques and fishing-related subjects, also carries enough fishing reports that anglers looking for less-pressured waters can actually find some.