B
Saturday, December 12, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
S URPLUS
S TEELHEAD
■ ‘Recycled’ ocean-going rainbows breathe
big fish bounty into small lakes and ponds
I
didn’t want to tell a lie in
front of the pastor. But I had
a 10-pound hatchery steel-
head and I didn’t feel like blabbing
to this guy about where it came
from.
My pastor wanted to go steel-
head fi shing and we picked a Mon-
day morning. To get to one of my
favorite pieces of river, I had to walk
past a trout lake.
This lake was stocked a half a
dozen times in spring and summer
and sometimes the Department of
Fish and Wildlife would put surplus
summer-runs in it.
Coming back from the river, I car-
ried my 10-pound spinner-caught
prize past the end of the lake. At
that moment, a fi sherman, spinning
rod and worm carton in hand, ap-
peared in our path.
“That’s a huge trout,” the angler
gaped. “Did you get THAT in the
lake?”
“Yep.”
ON THE
TRAIL
GARY LEWIS
Ron Harrod/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Colored-up summer-run steelhead in the ladder at the Wallowa Hatchery.
Bald-faced lie.
“Where did you catch it?”
“Right there at the end of the
lake,” I said.
Bald-faced lie number two.
We walked on, the pastor and I,
and after a suitable space had been
put between us and the fi sherman,
he said, “I guess sometimes you
have to lie.”
Truth.
In fact, I could have caught that
steelhead in the lake because that
lake was, and still is, one of the spots
where the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) deposits
surplus fi sh they don’t need for
spawning purposes. On any given
day a trout fi sherman with a jar
of bait or a worm could luck into a
steelhead.
Wherever fi sh and wildlife agen-
cies artifi cially spawn steelhead,
there is likely to be a surplus of sea-
run rainbows. And when that hap-
pens, the fi sh have to go somewhere.
In some cases, steelhead are
picked up and trucked back
downriver for another trip past the
fi shermen. Another option are local
food banks. Sometimes surplus
fi sh end up going into a big hole in
the ground to feed the worms. The
highest use might be to give anglers
one more chance. That’s why ocean-
going steelhead (and sometimes
salmon) end up in lakes and ponds.
WHERE AND WHEN FOR
RECYCLED STEELHEAD
East of the Cascades, summer
run steelhead show up in big num-
bers starting in October. When there
is a large run, there can be a lot of
surplus fi sh.
Ron Harrod, the manager at
ODFW’s Wallowa fi sh hatchery, said
there is usually a fair number of ex-
cess fi sh for the wild stock program.
“We’ll get 1,500 to 4,000 back
and we only need a couple hundred
pair,” Harrod said. “We try to give
the local folks another angling op-
portunity.”
Ron Harrod/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
To distinguish between river-
Hank Ray releases a summer steelhead into Marr Pond in Enterprise. caught and pond-caught steelhead,
Ron Harrod/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
When the hatchery has enough pairs, steelhead, like this returning
fi sh, could be transported to a nearby lake or pond to give anglers
another chance.
Harrod directs staff to sort the fi sh
for wire codes (won’t be recycled)
and double-punch the gills to mark
the recycles, which allows a game
enforcement offi cer to quickly tell
the difference.
Harrod said at fi rst the steel-
head roam the pond, seeking inlets
and deeper water. Anglers do best,
Harrod said, on fl ies, spinners and
bobber and jig.
Justin Herold, a fi sheries techni-
cian in Enterprise, said that fi sh
from the Big Canyon facility often
end up in Roulet Pond near Elgin
and also in Weaver Pond (aka Wal-
lowa Wildlife Pond). Surplus steel-
head that return back to Enterprise
are recycled to Marr Pond.
Peach Pond in Ladd Marsh is
another potential steelhead fi shery
if surplus numbers are high. March
and April are the best timing for
these Eastern Oregon waters.
Gary Lewis is the author of Fishing
Central Oregon and Oregon Lake
Maps and Fishing Guide and other
titles. To contact Gary, visit www.
garylewisoutdoors.com
A hunt
he’ll
never
forget
■ Jerry Yencopal of Baker City recounts
his once-in-a-lifetime bighorn sheep hunt
to pinpoint sheep herds even
with the aid of powerful
Jerry Yencopal’s once-in-a- binoculars.
lifetime bighorn sheep hunt
The anxiety of knowing
was very nearly stopped by a that he’d never get another
black widow spider.
chance to bag a ram in Or-
As if the hunt weren’t chal- egon.
lenging enough.
And now an arachnid in-
Basalt cliffs to clamber
jecting itself, so to speak, into
over.
the proceedings.
Late summer skies sul-
Jerry, 71, of Baker City, can
lied by smoke from distant
chuckle about the episode
wildfi res, making it diffi cult now, after almost three
By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
Contributed
Jerry Yencopal (front, center) with his bighorn sheep ram, fl anked by his sons, Rob, right, and Jason, left.
The Yencopals (pronounced “YENCH-uh-paul) were guided by Sheep Mountain Outfi tters, including, back center,
Dan Blankenship, and far left, Josh Graham.
months have elapsed.
Everything turned out
fi ne.
Better, even, than Jerry
could have imagined.
He downed a trophy ram.
No venom was transferred.
“It was just the best expe-
rience I’ve had in a long time,
hunting,” Jerry said.
More than anything else,
he relished sharing that expe-
rience with his two sons, who
he’s hunted with since they
were boys.
Rob is a battalion chief
with the Albany (Oregon)
Fire Department.
Jason, who also lives in
Baker City, is Baker County’s
emergency management
director.
“To be with them ... that’s
what your heart desires with
family,” Jerry said.
Rob was instrumental not
only in making his dad’s hunt
possible, but also in thwarting
a potentially painful encounter
with that spider.
A few years ago Rob hap-
pened on a new Christmas gift
for his dad — applications for
bighorn sheep and mountain
goat hunts.
Those are highly sought after
tags in Oregon, since a hunter
can draw only one of each in a
lifetime.
See Bighorn/Page 2B