Tony’s Fishing Report – 2/23/12

Local Lakes:  The first rainbow trout stockings of the year will take place this week on the South Coast.  Next week Garrison Lake in Port Orford and Floras Lake south of Langlois are scheduled to receive 250 trophy size rainbows each.

For a copy of the 2012 stocking schedule, you can stop by Port O’ Call in Old Town Bandon.

Local Rivers & Streams:  The Chetco and Rogue Rivers have been running low & clear and fishing pressure has been light. 

Winter steelhead fishing has been hit-or-miss on the Sixes so far this year.  The river has been either too low or too muddy for consistent action.

Winter steelhead has remained good on the South Fork of the Coquille for drift boats or bank anglers.  We are still receiving good reports of winter steelhead being taken on the Millicoma and Coos River.

There have been a lot of steelhead in Eel Creek with many swimming into theEel Lake fish trap.  Fishing is good on Tenmile Creek.

Pacific Ocean and Jetties:  Rough ocean conditions are keeping anglers from fishing the ocean.  Anglers fishing inside Coos Bay from the jetties are starting to pickup more lingcod. 

Keep an eye on ocean swells inside the bay near jetties this time of year.  When the swells are smaller (less than six feet), anglers have been catching surf perch from the beaches near Coos Bay and Bandon.

Good news for pacific halibut sport fishermen.  The west coasts Area 2A (Oregon, California & Washington) recently received an 8% increase in quota over last year.  It is the highest quota since 2008.  Preliminary open dates for the spring all-depth halibut fishery will be available soon.

Area Shellfish:  Last weekends rain has slowed the dock crabbing on Bandon’s Weber’s Pier.  The river has become a bit muddy and crabbers are working hard for just a couple of keeper sized crab.  Crabbing in Coos Bay has been fair to good.

 (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.)