Sad state of Rogue Winter Steelhead Run

**Langenbeck** · 03-09-2005, 08:40 AM

First off thanks for the help on the General Fly fishing board on how to get an Excel graph into a usable image format. A picture is worth a thousand words as of 5 Mar the winter run over Gold Ray Dam(between Grants Pass & Medford) was 3,870 fish yet in 2003 and 2004 the runs at this time were at 18,000 fish

**Jasonh** · 03-09-2005, 09:18 AM

Thanks for the graph Gordon. Do you think that the small amount of fish is due to low water and will they move in with more rain? Or is it just a poor year. I noticed the summer run of fish was not very strong this year either, or at least the catching was not.

Jason

**Langenbeck** · 03-09-2005, 09:41 AM

Jason: Would hope that some decent rains would bring back some decent runs BUT the downstream reports from Gold Beach & Agness are not promising.

As to summer fish the run in 2004 was 13,658 fish, 2003 was 20,202 and 2002 was 20,383. Even with last year's considerably lower run my catch rate remained about the same as the two previous years.

This winter January started off fine as I hooked 7 and landed 5 but since February I have only landed 2 adult fish and about 6-7 half pounders.

**Darian** · 03-09-2005, 11:12 AM

Hi Gordon,..... Interesting graph.... Do you have any stored data regarding instream flows (releases for this dam or those on any tributaries) for the rogue

If so, it would be interesting to graph them for the same periods and overlay to see if there's a correlation between the two.

Also, are you aware of any gill netting activity in the lower Rogue

**Langenbeck** · 03-09-2005, 11:17 AM

Darian,

The USGS has a ton of data on flows on the Rogue that you can access at their site. I have not done any overlays of flow vs. fish runs. I have done some interesting work on water temperature in the summer to help me determine when fish begin to hold in the lower Rogue vs. flying through to get to the cool outflows of Lost Creek Reservoir.

Not aware of any gill netting at the mouth of the Rogue.

**Nip Hadlock** · 03-09-2005, 04:20 PM

Gordon;
While fishing up near the hatchery mid last month an old timer was chatting me up about the great loss of smolt three years ago at the hatchery. He claims the loss of near 90% of the steelhead plant for that year means a very soft year this year based on a three year cycle....
Have you heard anything like that?
Nip

**Langenbeck** · 03-09-2005, 05:45 PM

Nip: Had not heard the story about the hatchery steelhead being lost. Typically about 50% of the summer fish and 15-20% of the winter fish are of hatchery origin. At least in my section of the river, Grants Pass, after about 15 Oct, 95% of the summer fish I catch are wild. In my three plus years of winter fishing have never caught a hatchery fish. I really believe our problem is lack of high water to move fish up the system.

**Digger** · 03-10-2005, 11:53 AM

Wasn't that up in Wash state? I thought those were salmon that were killed when a pump failed or something that accidentally ran dry.
And something similar happened at the Cole River Hatchery also.