January / February Fishing Report for Gold Beach, Oregon
This report is taken by telephone 1/31/2007 from Mark Lottis, owner of Five Star Charters in Gold Beach. 541-247-0217
Mark reports that January was an excellent steelhead month. We had a lot of heavy rain earlier in the month. The rain then tapered off and the good weather moved in. There was excellent steelhead fishing in the Sixes, Elk, Rogue and Chetco Rivers. The 'excellent' fishing seemed to come to an end late January...now steelhead fishing is just 'very good' for the next few weeks. This is good news for steelhead fishermen.
It is typical for a guided trip to bring 3 to 8 steelhead to the boat. The limit is 2 per person (1 wild, 1 hatchery). Many fish are caught and then turned loose. Some fishermen return all of their catch to the river.
There are not a lot of hatchery fish on the Sixes, or Elk, or Chetco Rivers, so frequently a limit of one (per person) is all that is possible. And then certainly catch and release for the rest of the day. The Rogue has many hatchery fish...which enables fishermen to more easily reach their limit of 2 fish.
Some anglers have been reported catching (and releasing) up to 12 fish a day.
February will be pretty much the same. The steelhead run seems to peak the last two weeks of January and the first two weeks of February. In this southern part of Oregon because we have a variety of rivers there is always good fishing somewhere. If the water is too low for the Elk, fish the Rogue. If you are tired of catching hatchery fish, fish the Sixes. You can fish day in and day out in February here on the Southern Oregon Coast. The steelhead fishing here on the coast will continue to be good to very good through the month of February.
Excellent ocean fishing becomes more possible in February as the winter storms become less frequent. February and March bring the best bottom fishing of the entire year.
For good fishing come to Gold Beach, Oregon
Contact Mark for further details. 541-247- 0217
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