Downer: Unraveling the tangled web of rules and regs
Thursday, August 7, 2008 11:57 PM PDT
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E-mail this articleColumn by Chuck Downer
For The Daily News
First this week, a correction. I wrote in last week’s column that anglers are allowed two chinook salmon as their daily limit at Buoy 10 (or two fin-clipped silvers, or one of each). According to current regulations, anglers are allowed only one chinook, minimum size 24 inches.
Over the years I’ve felt pretty confident with regulations on the Columbia River and the ocean, but I have to admit that I find current regulations more confusing than at any other time since I started writing this column. Maybe senility is finally setting in.
However, regulations are quite a bit different this year, and it’s hard for anyone to keep up.
The regulation changes I referred to last week were for the ocean, not the Columbia River. Reports indicate that salmon fishing at Buoy 10 has been slow, with only one chinook checked recently by fish checkers, for an entire day.
One way to keep up with regs is on the DFW Web site at wdfw.wa.gov. Major regulation changes are announced in news releases. The Fishing/Shellfishing section also has regulations.
The Oregon DFW’s weekly recreation report also posts current regulations for the Columbia River at www.dfw.state.or.us.
Or call the WDFW hotline at (360) 696-6211, then press *1010.
The problem is, given the uncertainty of the run, there are likely further changes yet to come.
Deep River revisited
So who knew? Last week, when the paper came out on Friday morning, I received a call from an old friend who lives in the Cathlamet area. He told me that he launched his boat at Deep River on the final day of the 2008 sturgeon season, downriver of the Wauna power lines.
He first searched out the new DFW ramp, only to find a site that “looked like a scene from ‘Deliverance’ “).” He told me that there were rusted-out buses, cars, trucks and piles of garbage. There was a narrow, one-lane gravel road leading into the launch, replete with boulders and potholes, and the gravel ramp had a big hump in the middle of it.
He said that he drove to the old spot on Oneida Road, and had no trouble launching his boat.
It turns out that there are a lot more places to launch a boat on Deep River than anybody (yours truly, especially) knew. Tuesday I was talking with Brad Schoenborn, tackle-buyer at Bob’s Sporting Goods (425-3870). According to Schoenborn, my friend may have ended up at an old launch site that is no longer in use.
Schoenborn told me that he used the new launch to access the Columbia River just this past week. He said that there is a paved road the entire way in. The gravel launch (no hump) is only wide enough to launch one boat at a time, but there’s plenty of room in the lot for several truck and trailer rigs to wait their turn, and ample parking is available. There is also a chemical toilet on site.
Schoenborn told me that there is a building on the left going in, which houses Deep River Eva’s Bait and Tackle (360-465-2582) that has bait. Apparently it was once upon a time the pay station for one of the private launches in the area. He told me that the store will have anchovies available in the morning, if you call the day previous, prior to 2 p.m. I imagine that this is subject to availability.
In summary — In one week we’ve gone from a positive dearth of launching facilities on Deep River, to a veritable plethora of same. I remember launching a small boat from the shore above the Deep River Bridge many years ago — I wonder if that counts as a boat-ramp?
Fishing report
Those famous “Dog Days of Summer” are upon us. Warmer temperatures and sunshine have caused an overall slowdown as far as the steelhead bite is concerned on some of our smaller local tributary streams, and on the Cowlitz and Columbia.
Times of low light — dawn and dusk — are your best bets on tributaries such as the Kalama right now, and long, thin leaders and small baits are the rule. Look for fish in the moving water. I remember something I learned early on, as far as steelhead drift fishing is concerned. Low water, fish high in the drift; high water, fish low, in the tail waters. During low water periods, like mid-summer, there’s simply more oxygen in moving water, and the fish will gravitate towards those areas.
For whatever reason, the bass bite has slowed recently at Silver Lake. Even the panfish bite is sluggish. It’s difficult to catch anything on artificial lures, but panfish are still responding to the venerable garden hackle.
Gene Pahkamaa and I decided a change of scenery might improve the bite, so we took a day-trip to Cullaby Lake, on the Oregon coast, this week. We got to watch a Coast Guard helicopter practice water rescues - that was the highlight of the trip! Cullaby is so full of weeds right now that it would remind you of Silver Lake a decade ago.
C.O.R.T. training
The next C.O.R.T. (Crime Observation and Reporting Training) session will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 14 at Bob’s Sporting Goods.
The class sponsored by Eyes in the Woods and the DFW trains volunteers how to watch for illegal activities in the woods without endangering themselves.
Look out for swimmers
A word of caution for boat operators in the local area — warmer temperatures are drawing swimmers to many of our local boat ramps.
The DFW discourages swimming and playing in the water at launch facilities that it manages, but, as a practical matter, the Silver Lake access area draws people like a magnet when the “Dog Days” are upon us. While swimmers and fishermen are required to make way for people wishing to launch or land their boats, boaters need to use caution.
Atrucker wrote on Aug 10, 2008 1:01 AM:
The cuttroat searuns are now in the cowlitz . They will hit bait,flies,spinners ,so get out there and get some hookups.
Sturgeon has been a little slow with a lot of shakers, in this area ,but that can change any day, .
Given the time of year I would take a shot at the saltwater, bottom fish,salmon , tuna , it is all there now .
AKA the old fisherman "
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