August 3rd column

[Pete Heley]

A number of concerned jetty anglers, intending to fish the South Jetty, mentioned federal signs being posted recently that led them to believe that jetty fishing for shorebound anglers was no longer an option. A call to the Coast Guard proved quite reassuring. It seems that the signs were posted in an attempt to stop unauthorized extremely longterm camping near the jetty and that anglers could still fish the jetty and still park in their usual spots. However, until every “would-be” jetty angler knows that their “jetty-fishing rights” are unimpaired, the signs will essentially address one problem, while creating another one.

Area bottomfishing anglers planning to fish Charleston in the future should not wait too long. With the closure of all waters deeper than 20 fathoms or 120 feet, Charleston’s bottomfish will get fished down much faster than they usually do. So far, after such a closure, Charleston’s bottomfish have seemed to bounce back rather quickly.

Crabbing seemed much improved over last weekend with a number of boats making decent catches and one group in two boats garnering 40 legal crabs last Saturday afternoon while crabbing directly across the Umpqua River from the entrance to the East Boat Basin. That catch is especially encouraging since it would seem to indicate that the lower Umpqua River is becomeing more salty - and therefore more suitable for adult crabs.

Sturgeon were caught below Reedsport over last weekend and at least one of them was of keepable size. Striped bass pressure, almost entirely centered on the Smith River, has dropped off slightly, but the anglers still fishing are still catching some fish.

Tuna anglers were stymied by windy ocean conditions over the last week, but will try again as soon as ocean conditions improve and bar conditions allow an early departure. The summer halibut season starts with a two day opener on August 5th and 6th (Friday and Saturday). Good ocean conditions should also allow sport salmon anglers to reach the fair numbers of coho salmon more than 10 miles offshore.

Last weekend, shore anglers landed finclipped cohos in both Half Moon Bay and off Osprey Point. While these fish seemed ahead of schedule, increasing numbers of Umpqua River chinook are starting to build below Reedsport and while the fishing has been tough, a 36 pound chinook was caught last weekend.

One thing I have noticed this year is that the amount of warmwater fish in shallow water has been greatly reduced. Last week, I visited Riley Ranch which is located on the north side of Butterfield Lake. Butterfield is one of my favorite light tackle warmwater lakes as it is loaded with bluegill and small to medium-sized largemouth bass with fair numbers of black crappies and a very few warmouths also present. In addition, it now receives plants of rainbow trout. The park host stated that the only people catching rainbow trout were people in float tubes and pontoon boats and did not have any reports on warmwater fishing. I walked around the lake, fishing where I could, and did not see even a single panfish or bass until I reached the railroad tracks. What most people that fish Butterfield Lake do not realize is that there is a smaller section of the lake on the west side of the railroad tracks that is connected to the main lake by a short narrow channel that is now barely a foot deep. Even more overlooked is a narrow arm about three hundred yards long that runs south along the west side of the tracks that receives a small amount of water via a small culvert from the west section of Butterfield Lake. While fishing the south end of this arm, I landed a couple of rainbows and several small bass. The fact that the rainbows made it into this arm impressed me greatly and assures me that there will be at least a few carryover trout for anglers fishing the lake next spring. Hopefully, in the next few years, some larger trout will be stocked into the lake to make fishing truly interesting. In the meantime, I remain concerned about the future of my shallow water sightfishing, since my options this year have proved to be very disappointing.

A huge rainbow trout was pulled from Idaho’s American Falls Reservoir in late July by Mark Adams of Pocatello. Measuring 41 and 1/8-inches in length and weighing 34.74 pounds, the jumbo rainbow was hailed as a state, if not national record, for rainbow trout. Unfortunately, it is neither. Idaho’s state record rainbow is a 37 pound kamloops version trout from Pend Oreille Lake that is also the national rainbow trout record. Fisheries biologists attribute the trout’s fast growth to several years of above average water levels in American Falls Reservoir and the South Fork Snake River which forms it.

The several largest officially-weighed rainbow trout have been caught by the Konrad brothers while fishing Lake Diefenbaker in Saskatchewan, Canada. While Adam Konrad has landed two rainbows weighing more than 40 pounds, his twin brother Sean holds the current world records for both rainbow trout and burbot. Both fish came from Lake Diefenbaker within the last two years with the record rainbow weighing 48 pounds and the record burbot weighing 25 pounds two ounces. Diefenbaker’s record rainbows (sterile triploids) have caused some controversy since they escaped from a private fish farm about nine years ago where they were being bred for extreme growth. Triploid rainbows have dominated the record rainbow trout catches in Washington State, but have so far failed to break the 30 pound mark. Triploid rainbows tend to be very chunky since they concentrate on eating and do not have to worry about spawning. The previous world record rainbow taken by Adam Konrad weighed 43.6 pounds, yet was only 38.5-inches in length. If the recently taken American Falls rainbow had the same body shape as Adam’s triploid lunker, it would have weighed more than 53 pounds.