Posted by Webmaster on Nov 5, 2009 in
General Local lakes: The Tenmile Bass Club hosted a local tournament last weekend at Tenmile Lakes in Lakeside. The new owners of Lakeside Marina told me that largemouth bass fishing over the weekend was good and that anglers fishing in the tournament caught several nice largemouths. Rainbow trout fishing at Tenmile Lakes also has been good. Anglers trolling wedding ring spinners tipped with nightcrawlers have been doing the best. Trout fishing at Empire Lakes in Coos Bay remains very good after the recent stockings. We haven’t received any reports from Bradley Lake recently. Access has been tough because of the lower lake level and weed build-up at the boat ramp. If anyone fishing the lake would like to share some information, please give us a call at 347-2875.
Local rivers: The Chetco River above the U.S. Highway 101 bridge will open for fall Chinook fishing on Saturday, Nov. 7. With more rain in the forecast, look for Chinook fishing to improve. Traditionally, the Chetco is known for its large fall Chinook. Anglers fishing the lower Rogue River for fall Chinook over the weekend caught a few early winter steelhead. Most of the fall Chinook have been being caught in the Agness area. Anglers fishing the Elk and Sixes rivers last weekend reported catching plenty of jack salmon, along with some nice adult fish. Bob Dearth of Bandon caught two nice Chinook Saturday, one of them weighing more than 30 pounds. Anglers reported slower fishing conditions on Monday, but with a series of big high tides and rain forecasted, look for fishing to heat up again. There have been plenty of good salmon fishing opportunities on the Coquille River recently. Jon Vining of Bandon has been launching his boat at Sturdivant Park in Coquille and fishing downriver to Clausen’s Corner. He told me they’ve been catching some nice coho salmon along with a few kings. Anglers fishing the Rocky Point area are still reporting good coho fishing. Most anglers have gone from bait to spinners, which have been very productive. As of last week, the wild coho harvest on the Coquille River was at 55 percent of the 1,500-fish quota. Shore-based salmon fishermen had a good week fishing Seven Mile Slough, just above Rocky Point. Most of the fish are being caught on sand shrimp under a bobber. Anglers fishing near the forks of the Coos River are still reporting good fall Chinook fishing. Some fresh Chinook salmon are still being caught by shore-based anglers fishing the boardwalk in downtown Coos Bay. Most of the anglers fishing the boardwalk area are catching their fish casting spinners.
Area shellfish: Crabbing in the bay at Bandon was still very good over the weekend. The numbers of crab moving in and out of the bay have been changing daily due to the rough ocean conditions. The quality of crab has been excellent, since most of them have gone through their molting stage. Crabbing in the Charleston and Empire areas of Coos Bay has been great. Boaters crabbing near Empire last weekend reported easy limits of nice Dungeness crab.
(Tony Roszkowski has owned and operated Port O’ Call — TonysCrabShack.com — on the Bandon waterfront since 1989. Many South Coast anglers rely on his fish and shellfish reports. Hear more from Tony on ‘Oregon Outdoors’ Thursdays on KWRO 630 AM.)
Tags: Bandon fishing report, bass, Crabbing in Oregon, lakes, salmon, tenmile lake, trout
Posted by Webmaster on Oct 1, 2009 in
General Local lakes: Fishing for largemouth bass should continue to get better as the days get shorter and water temperatures in area lakes cool down. Look for these fish to become more aggressive in their feeding habits as winter approaches. Fishing top-water baits for aggressive bass can be very productive at this time of year. Trout anglers should remember that the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s final 2009 stocking of trophy-size rainbow trout in Bradley, Empire, Powers and Saunders lakes is scheduled for next week.
On Sept. 18, the Oregon Department of Human Services issued a blue-green algae advisory on Tenmile Lakes. Harmful algae blooms occur when microscopic plants grow quickly in marine or fresh water, using up oxygen and releasing toxins that are dangerous to animals and humans. Because no single agency has the resources or mandate to address the problem, a key goal for harmful algae bloom surveillance is to develop relationships with partners and stakeholders so data can be collected and shared, and coordination of effort can occur. According to employees of Lakeside Marina, small pockets of algae exist on South Lake, with no known algae on North Lake. Cooler temperatures and forecasted rains should help disperse any future algae blooms.
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Tags: Bandon fishing report, Clamming in Oregon, Crabbing in Oregon, Oregon fishing, tony's crab shack
Posted by Webmaster on Sep 18, 2009 in
Fishing Local lakes: We’ve experienced our regular large fall hatch of flying termites in the past week. Look for rainbow trout and pan fish to be feeding on the surface. Anglers fly fishing in the early evenings have been reporting good action on local lakes and ponds. Matching the recent hatch is a sure way of getting a bite. Anglers trolling the lakes might want to slow-troll a fly behind the wake of their boats.
Local rivers: Fall Chinook fishing on the South Coast is still in full swing. Rough bar conditions over the weekend slowed the bite down a bit, but by early in the week, new schools of fish started to move into the lower Rogue and Coquille rivers.
Local river guide Rick Howard (347-3280) had a great weekend fishing the Coos River near the Marshfield Channel. He and his clients had a 14-fish day trolling on the Coos on Saturday. Anglers are reporting good coho salmon fishing mooching near the Coos Bay bar in Charleston. Anglers mooching the bar at Winchester Bay have been catching coho and some king salmon. The majority of the coho have been natives and have to be released in the Umpqua River system. Jon Vining of Bandon caught a nice 27-pound king salmon on the lower Coquille recently. Early this week, we weighed 36.5- and 48-pound kings that had been caught by trollers on the lower Coquille, as well. My baby brother, Bob Roszkowski, caught three nice jack salmon last week on the Coquille. I guess there’s hope for all of us.
There is still a large number of jack salmon being caught on the Coos and Coquille systems. A few coho are starting to move into the Coquille River. Remember: This fall you can keep one non-fin-clipped coho per day and five per year until the 1,500-fish quota is met. Summer steelhead fishing on the middle Rogue River is starting to pick up. Anglers fishing below Agness are catching plenty of half-pounders, with a few big fish mixed in. One angler reported catching a 6-pound summer steelhead last weekend.
John from Turman Tackle is reporting a good sturgeon bite on the lower Umpqua River near Scottsburg. This can be a great time of year to hook a sturgeon on the South Coast. Anglers fishing for salmon add to the sturgeons’ diet by re-baiting and leaving lots of herring behind.
Pacific Ocean: Rough ocean conditions kept most boats in port over the weekend. By early week, the ocean had calmed down and anglers were concentrating their efforts on rock cod. Sunday, Sept. 13, was the last day anglers could retain cabezon, which will remain closed on the ocean until Jan. 1. Salmon fishing south of Humbug Mountain also closed on Sept. 7. The only reports coming in on the ocean coho season north of Humbug Mountain have been from the Port of Newport, where anglers are still catching a few coho. Good ocean conditions also have anglers going offshore for albacore, which have remained in the range of 30 to 50 miles offshore. Area shellfish: Boaters crabbing in Coos Bay and the bay at Bandon are still bringing in some nice Dungeness crab. Boaters crabbing the ocean are reporting great crabbing and an awesome quality of crab. A series of minus tides this week is good news for bay clammers. With the swell coming down, look for beach clammers to target local razor clams.
(Tony Roszkowski has owned and operated Port O’ Call — TonysCrabShack.com — on the Bandon waterfront since 1989. Many South Coast anglers rely on his fish and shellfish reports. Hear more from Tony on ‘Oregon Outdoors’ Thursdays on KWRO 630 AM.)
Tags: Bandon, Crabbing in Oregon, fishing report, ocean, shellfish
Posted by Webmaster on Sep 8, 2009 in
Crabbing in Oregon This weekend was a great one for crabbing in Bandon. Due to the weather I wasn’t able to go out on a planned fishing trip so we went crabbing off of the docks in Bandon.
Armed with 5 crab rings and a crab trap we set out for my favorite spot, the middle of the dock. We added turkey to all of our rings and traps and a squirt of Gulp Alive Spray (Herring Flavor) and threw them in.
I can’t tell you 100% that the Gulp spray made all the difference but I do know no one on the docks was doing very good on Friday night and Sunday night but we managed to pull in 36 keepers in about 8 hours of crabbing.
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Tags: bait, Bandon, Crabbing in Oregon, Gulp, turkey
Posted by William on Jun 20, 2009 in
General
Darker purple crabs are what you are looking for!
Male Dungeness crabs have begun molting. Soft–shell crabs are not worth keeping because they contain mostly water and very little meat. Dungeness crabs grow by molting. Female Dungeness crabs molt during April, May and June. Breeding with the hard shelled male crabs takes place while the female crabs are molting. Male crabs molt during throughout the year but most often during July and August. It takes one to three months for the crab’s shell to harden and gain usable meat. Gently squeeze the center of the large section of the first walking leg to determine if they are hard shell crabs. If the leg gives in while being squeezed return the crab to the bay. Recently molted crabs are lighter in color and weigh less than their hard shelled brothers. Recall all of the crabs that were just a little too short to keep latst year. They are the crabs that have molted today and the crabs we will harvest this fall. Crabbers are encouraged to return soft crabs to the water so their shells can harden and fill with the succulent sweet meat that we find so desirable. As always good digging, Bill the Clamman
Tags: Crabbing in Oregon, crabs, dungeness, soft shell, tips
Posted by Ocean Harvester on May 20, 2009 in
Ocean Harvest 
Pulling Traps early in the 08-09 season (link to vid)
There are many ways to a crab and you can catch a crab around here with about any kind of bait, but we don’t want to just catch any crab crawling around down there, we want to catch big legal male crab and leave the rest on the bottom.
The commercial crab season opens December first and is open till mid August. Most commercial crabbers quit before the season is over because they have other fisheries or the volume of legal male crab is less than what it takes to make a profit. This season we left our 300 traps out for for six months and managed to make them pay. In the beginning of the season there were lots of crab so they have to compete to get their share of the grub and they are just fighting each other to get in the traps and on the boat. As the season progresses they get harder to catch as there are fewer crab and more food available for them to eat and so this is when you need to dig into your bag of tricks.
Squid is the mother of all baits. I do not know of a fish or a crab that doesn’t eat squid, it is like candy to them. All commercial crabbers use it, they put it in chew bags or plastic bait jars with small holes. A chew bag is just a nylon mesh bag that holds the bait. If you are looking for a quick catch or if you are using crab rings use the squid in chew bags. When you use chew bags the crab will stay there longer because they are able to eat. It will also make more crab move in because they can see and hear their buddies chowing down. The big male crab will move in and chase away small crab that are eating something they want. The bait jars are good when using traps because it will last longer, always chop up the squid when in bait jars. When a crab gets in to find out that he can only smell the bait, it is too late.
Clams are another great bait, they have a nice sweet smell that those huge dungies can’t resist. I always use razor clams and squid in separate jars it is a great long lasting combo. Save up all of your clam trimmings and the shells too they also contain good scent.
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Tags: crab bait, Crabbing in Oregon, crabbing tips
