May 18 Oregon Fishing Report

[Mike Carey]

May 18th, 2011

By Pete Heley


Halibut fishing was mediocre over the opening three day weekend. There were some people that were forced to try for them on Saturday due to their jobs and some of them did not wait for the bar restriciton to be reduced in the mid-morning. When it comes to the spring halibut fishery, anglers that have regular Monday through Friday jobs are definitely discriminated against, since they can only try for them on Saturday - and then only if the bar and ocean conditions allow it. Of course, the problem would be even worse if unemployment rates in Oregon were not as high as they are.

Ocean conditions were fairly rough and and halibut fishing success was disappointing on the initial three day opener. Hampering the catch was fairly rough ocean conditions which may fishing much more difficult. Hopefully, more pleasant ocean and bar conditions will prevail on the next opener which will run Thursday through Saturday (May 26-28).

Ocean salmon fishing has been fairly good for commercial salmon anglers and for the few sport anglers that are giving the ocean a try. Most of the catch seems to come from water less than 100 feet deep, but that can change quickly. One salmon angler who was moving his boat’s permanent moorage from Winchester Bay to Charleston last Saturday hooked two salmon as soon as he made the southward turn after crossing the Umpqua River Bar. Over the last month, there have been a fair number of days where those blinking yellow lights at Winchester Bay have meant a boat size restriction affecting only the smaller boats. Too many “would-be” anglers see those blinking yellow lights and automatically assume that the bar or ocean is closed and not merely restricted or off limits to smaller boats.

There are still enough commercial crabbing going on that the amount of traps in the ocean has required increased scrutiny by the boats attempting to troll for salmon. Sports crabbers have pretty much restricted their crabbing to the lower Umpqua and boat crabbers have enjoyed much better success than dockbount crabbers.

Some scuba divers enjoyed good bottomfishing in the lower Umpqua River along the South Jetty. They stated that the greatest numbers of fish were along the seam where the rocks forming the South Jetty met the river bottom. They stated seeing lots of fish, including some rockfish species that seldom, if ever, seem to enter the anglers’ catch. Using spearguns, they easily bagged all the fish they wanted to keep.

Inland, the water and air temperatures, while still cooler than is usual for this time of year, are closer to normal than on the coast and the bass seem to be in immediate pre-spawn mode and the crappies and yellow perch have already spawned. Fishing Cooper Creek Reservoir last Wednesday, I hooked about 30 largemouth bass to about 16-inches and actually saw some rather inactive bluegills. Before launching, I noticed a display board adjacent to the lower parking lot that stated that the reservoir had yellow perch in it. This was news to me and rather depressing since yellow perch seem to always out-compete crappies in western Oregon waters. However, I didn’t catch any perch and spotted a crappie in the late afternoon and managed to catch several before moving on. As the entire lower end of the reservoir became shaded, I slowly paddled along trying to catch some crappies and had excellent luck hooking crappies to mroe than a pound. In fact, it may have been my best crappie day ever on Cooper Creek and with hindsight, I believe much of my success was due to the bluegills not being active in the cool water as every fish I hooked, except for a couple of trout, were crappies. Usually the bluegills are active when I fish Cooper Creek and definitely get in the way when trying to target crappies. On a positive note, Larry’s City Sporting Goods in Sutherlin was unaware that yellow perch were even in the reservoir, so for now, at least, Cooper Creek’s crappies remain relatively unthreatened.

One couple, fishing Tenmile Lakes for trout last Saturday, landed four nice rainbows measuring between 18 and 20 inches. They were trolling small rapala-type plugs and hotshots. Some of the lakes in the Florence area will receive trout plants next week, but the next major trout on most area lakes will be just before Free Fishing Weekend on the second weekend in June.

An interesting article by Quinton Smith in the metro section of last Sunday’s Oregonian covers the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration giving permission for the states of Washington and Oregon to resume moving or killing California sea lions at Bonneville Dam. NOAA believes that the flaws that resulted in invalidating the first such ruling three years ago have been met. The article is an interesting read and gives some hope to those who would like to see an answer to the increasing problem salmon predation in the lower Columbia River.

A potential world record redear sunfish was caught from the Arizona side of Lake Havasu recently. The giant sunfish measured 16.75 inches long and had an incredible girth of 19-inches. It weighed five pounds nine ounces. Redears may become far more common in the future as they don’t seem to overpopulate as often as bluegills and other sunfish species and their diet often consists primarily of snails and such invasive species as zebra and quagga mussels. While the giant redear will almost certainly be certified as an Arizona record, it could also be confirmed as a California state record since Lake Havasu separates the two states. The California record redear weighed five pounds three ounces, was at one time a world record, and came from a canal adjacent to Folsom Lake.


*Pete Heley works at the Stockade Market and Tackleshop in Winchester Bay, Oregon. A brochure of his books and maps can be obtained , upon request, via e-mail from peteheley.com