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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2019)
2B Friday, November 22, 2019 The Observer & Baker City Herald Patience a key part of steelhead fishing By Alan Moore For EO Media Group ENTERPRISE — Prized by anglers for its beauty, challenge and raw bursts of power, the Pacifi c steelhead is referred to in fi shing lore as the “fi sh of a thousand casts.” For those fi shing local steelhead streams like the Grande Ronde, Wallowa and Imnaha rivers this year, it might be more like the fi sh of 27 hours. That’s currently about how much time an average angler will fi sh before bringing a steelhead to hand, based on local river surveys being done by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Ten hours per fi sh is pretty decent steelheading around here, according to ODFW Acting District Fish Biologist Kyle Bratcher in Enterprise, with exceptional years being closer to fi ve hours per fi sh or even fewer. “For the most part it’s been pretty slow,” Bratcher said, “We’re not seeing great catch rates.” There’s no magic formula to solving this year’s steel- head fi shing. It boils down to numbers — there just aren’t very many fi sh around. “We’re defi nitely running behind what we were last year,” Bratcher said, “and last year wasn’t a good year either.” Local businesses focused on fi shing fi nd themselves running behind too. Brad Snook, owner of the Sports Corral in Joseph, says re- ceipts on fi shing licensing are running about 40% of normal for this time of year. With an estimated 85% of this year’s hatchery steelhead run past Lower Granite Dam on the Lower Snake, ODFW estimates that fewer than 3,000 are heading back to a Submitted photo Larry Smith fi shes the Wallowa River after a drive up from Baker City. Grande Ronde or Imnaha basin hatchery facility. In the 2014-15 season, the total of hatchery arrivals was closer to 12,000. ODFW does not nor- mally project wild steelhead returns to the Grande Ronde and Imnaha basins, but said a rough estimate would be about 25% of the wild steelhead total crossing Lower Granite headed for the Grande Ronde Basin, and about 8% headed to the Imnaha. With 10,866 “unclipped,” meaning pre- sumably wild, steelhead past Lower Granite so far this year, that estimate would have about 2,717 headed for the Grande Ronde and 869 Imnaha-bound. Fish populations overall in the Grande Ronde, Wal- lowa and Imnaha rivers are co-managed by the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confeder- ated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the fi sh and wildlife departments of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. For his district the decision of whether or not to have a sport steelhead season falls to Bratcher. As of now, the answer is yes, there will be a season. “Numbers are looking like we can still support a fi shery,” Bratcher said. His decision must ensure that enough adult hatchery steelhead return to hatchery facilities to produce the next generation. That means that about 600 fi sh, total, must return to the Wallowa and Imnaha hatcheries. It’s also important to reduce impacts to wild steelhead from fi shing. The daily bag limit of three hatchery fi sh per person has been reduced to one. As in past years, anglers must stop fi shing once they reach their bag limit “A one-fi sh limit is one of the most conservative strate- gies besides just closing the season,” Bratcher said. “By having a one-fi sh limit it actu- ally gets people off the river quicker.” Reducing angler time on the river will limit the Elk competing with cattle By Katy Nesbitt For the Capital Press ENTERPRISE — Wallowa County’s elk herds have long attracted hunters, bringing economic stimulus to the region each fall, but the trea- sured big game species also compete for forage with cattle, the county’s main agricultural commodity. In the past few decades, wildlife managers and ranch- ers have worked together to reduce the loss of valuable livestock feed to elk by haz- ing and extending hunting seasons on private land. Pat Matthews, Oregon De- partment of Fish and Wildlife Enterprise district biologist, said over the past 20 to 30 years the elk numbers have stayed the same in Wallowa County but the distribution has changed, putting more pressure on crops, haystacks and rangeland. To complicate matters, a few of the large properties, like a ranch in the Wallowa River canyon, are managed to encourage wildlife use, thus providing a corridor from the high mountain meadows to winter livestock pastures. “They own that ranch for elk and they spill over to the neighbors,” Matthews said. “It’s been an issue.” In the county’s northern Chesnimnus wildlife unit the redistribution of elk from the forest to private land on the Zumwalt Prairie is the most noticeable. In 2008, when the elk num- bers were in the thousands, rancher Tom Birkmaier said he turned to Oregon State University Extension agent John Williams to help him organize a coalition of land- owners and Fish and Wildlife biologists to fi nd ways to reduce the number of elk. “When we do good range management we use a de- ferred or rest rotation system, but when 4,000 head of elk are grazing in the same place most of the year there is no rotation system,” Williams said. For a few years state De- partment of Fish and Wildlife managers pushed the elk back onto public forestland and into Hells Canyon using an Access and Habitat grant. Matthews said hazers on ATVs moved the herd toward the canyons fi ve days a week for several winter months, but the elk kept returning to the prairie. Chad Dotson was one of ODFW’s hazers and now works for The Nature Conser- vancy managing the Zum- walt Prairie Preserves hunt- ing program. He said hazing became a “baby-sitting” job. “Elk will respond to pres- sure, but that doesn’t mean they are going to change their home range,” Dotson said. “From an elk’s perspec- tive it is a generational thing — a calf born to a mother who doesn’t migrate won’t migrate. All it knows is the prairie and that becomes its fi sh bowl.” Outside organized hazing on the Zumwalt Prairie, Mat- thews said the state issues hazing permits allowing land- owners to scare elk away with shotguns or propane cannons or chase them with ATVs. Ultimately, increased hunt- ing provided the most relief. Williams said today hunters are harvesting about 450 cow elk a year out of 700 issued tags. “I do believe hunting stopped the increase of the Zumwalt herd, but we need to wait and see if over time we are reducing them,” Williams said. And that, he said, could take another 10 if not 20 years. Most of the hunting tags issued for the Zumwalt are through the state’s scheduled control hunts. Depredation tags are issued to landowners by a state district biologist and are used to reduce deer and elk numbers on private property. In extreme situations, Mat- thews said emergency hunts are allowable when several property owners are experi- encing crop or hay loss. The state has a list of hunt- ers at the ready, alleviating landowners from having to organize hunts. Mike Hale, who works on The Nature Conservancy’s Zumwalt Prairie Preserve, said the years of hunting pressure from mid-August to early January have helped reduce numbers, but moving the elk off the prairie could be merely moving the problem onto someone else. “Now there are more elk on the toe slopes of Imnaha Canyon, but some are pushing west into private land to the west near Elk Mountain and Swamp Creek,” Hale said. number of wild steelhead caught, handled and released, Bratcher said, reducing mortality among those fi sh. Bratcher said an estimated 5% of steelhead caught and released will die. How the fi sh is handled can swing that number signifi cantly either way. Landing fi sh quickly, leaving them in the water, handling using wet hands or a rubber net (not nylon) are all good practices. If you want a quick photo, Bratcher said, support your fi sh with two wet hands and return it to the water as quickly as possible. Ten seconds of air exposure can cause serious problems for fi sh. Some wild steelhead advocates would likely argue for a more conservative range of changes in order to reduce or eliminate impacts on wild steelhead from fi shing, and from hatcheries, in area Submitted photo Charlie Gillis, of La Grande, tried his luck fi shing for steel- head on the Wallowa River recently. rivers. Some might argue for shutting the season down. Other steelheaders might object to the changes already made. “If we have to go more con- servative it’ll be to close the season,” Bratcher said. “But I don’t anticipate that being the case right now. People are catching fi sh and it’s a great time of year to be down on the river,” Bratcher said, “a great time of year to be fi shing.” November 30th & December 1st Subscriber ONLY Presale Only $8.00 Each (reg. price $10.00 ea.) If you are a subscriber to The Observer you can purchase your tickets at The Observer office Monday 11/11/19 - Wednesday 11/27/19 Offer good thru 11/27/19. Advance ticket purchase is highly recommended. African Afr Af fi fr Drumming Ensemble Grande Ronde Community Choir oir Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra G Community Band Northeast Com Elgin El i High School Calypso Band d EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY McKenzie Theatre • two performances Saturday, December 7 - 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 8 - 3:00 p.m. Adults $10.00 Seniors and Students $8.00 Tickets available at Red Cross Drug and The EOU Bookstore. Advanced ticket purchase is highly recommended. Purchase tickets online for $10 each with credit card at eou.edu/music. 5L[WYVJLLKZILULÄ[[OLT\ZPJM\UKZPU[OL,6<-V\UKH[PVU -VYTVYLPUMVYTH[PVU contact Peter Wordelman at 541-962-3352
