1 B SIUSLAW Sports News: NEWS The Siuslaw News For more photos and updates, visit our website at www.thesiuslawnews.com. P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 Fax: (541) 997-7979 SATURDAY Email: sports@thesiuslawnews.com FEBRUARY 21 • 2015 On the move A Sporting On the Bite V iew By Mark Vasto A weekly fishing report for the local region Sports doesn’t need a reality check With the exception of the mid-summer classic that Major League Baseball puts on every season, I’m not the biggest fan of all-star games. Skill competitions? Yes ... big fan. And why the NFL still can’t figure out how to have some sort of quarterback shootout is beyond me. Who wouldn’t want to see Peyton Manning versus Tom Brady trying to hit, say, a pinata from 60 yards out? This year’s NBA all-star game caught my interest a bit, though. The game was being held in New York, and you couldn't get a hotel room in Manhattan. Besides the NBA, it was fashion week, or something along those lines, and you had the 40th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live.” What I found interesting from an NBA sense was that Knicks star Carmello Anthony was planning on “shutting it down” after the game for the season. The Knicks are the worst team in basketball, he’s been playing hurt, and it was being reported that they were going to waive Amare Stoudemire after the game, too. “Wow,” I thought. “I wonder who’s going to play for the Knicks the rest of this year ... Sarah Silverman?” Conjecture had Stoudemire heading to the Dallas Mavericks. Then, it was reported that 21 people were beheaded in Libya. See VIEW 4B S p o r t s C a l e n d a r www.dfw.state.or.us/RR MID COAST LAKES: The rainbow trout stock- ing program began in many mid coast lakes in early February. Be sure to check out the 2015 stocking schedule for the most up to date information. Fishing for the various warm water fish species can still be productive during the win- ter months but anglers may need to target different areas of a lake (typically deeper) versus when fish- ing in the spring or sum- mer. ALSEA RIVER: Steelhead The winter steelhead fishery has produced fair to good results recently. This week should be productive in the mid to lower reaches of the river while flows are low and river temperatures are warming. SALMON RIVER: Steelhead Winter steelhead fishing is starting to pick up in many coastal basins. The Salmon River is now open to harvest of wild winter steelhead through March 31. Anglers are advised to read the new regulations as there are harvest restric- tions and new deadlines in effect. SILETZ RIVER: Ned Hickson/Siuslaw News Mapleton senior forward Tucker Ford slips past an Alsea opponent on a fastbreak opportunity Wednesday night. Ford led the Sailors with 22 points in the victory that advanced Mapleton into today’s playoffs. Sailors stop Alsea, advance to playoffs Feb. 21 • MHS boys BB vs Lowell MWL playoffs at NCU 1:30 p.m. Mapleton sophomore Tyler Packebush offers a high- five to teammate senior Chris Free after Wednesday night’s victory. Mapleton faces Lowell today for a chance to reach state B Y N ED H ICKSON Siuslaw News Feb. 27-28 • SHS wrestling 4A state meet at Memorial Colesium TBA Spring sports • March 17 SHS baseball at Taft HS 3 p.m. • March 19 SHS track SHS Icebreaker 4 p.m. • March 20 SHS softball hosts Bandon 5 p.m. In the words of Mapleton coach Will Crook, “We live to play another day,” he said of Wednesday night’s hard-fought playoff win over Alsea. Earlier in the season, the Sailors gave up a 20-point lead to the Wolverines, who came back in the “We were confident we could win tonight,” said Mapleton senior forward Tucker Ford. “We just need- ed to make sure we never let up. We out-hustled them all four quarters.” second half to defeat Mapleton. Not this time. See SAILORS 3B Final decision reached on ATV travel routes Decision finalizes long-running ODNRA routes project WALDPORT — After a multi- year analysis and review, including input from thousands of members of the public, the Siuslaw National Forest has published the final Record of Decision (ROD) designating motorized travel routes and areas in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area (ODNRA). The final ROD designates routes that are open for motorized use in the 10(C) management area (riding on designated routes only) and shifts some areas from 10(C) to 10(B) (open riding permitted). It differs slightly from the draft ROD (released September 2014) in that it includes some minor clarifica- tions and adds three supplemental maps. This decision does not affect which areas of the ODNRA are zoned for motorized use and which are zoned for non-motorized use. It does not close any areas current- ly designated for open riding nor open up any non-motorized areas to motorized use. “We were pleased by the amount See DECISION 3B Steelhead Steelhead fishing is slow to fair but should start to pick up in the coming weeks. Fish can be found throughout the river for both bank and boat anglers. See FISHING 4B T IDE T ABLE Entrance Siuslaw River High Tide Low Tide Feb. 21 1:32am / 8.3 1:41pm / 7.9 7:42am / 0.5 7:58pm / -0.1 Feb. 22 2:15am / 8.3 2:35pm / 7.3 8:35am / 0.4 8:42pm / 0.7 Feb. 23 2:59am / 8.2 3:34pm / 6.6 9:31am / 0.5 9:30pm / 1.4 Feb. 24 3:47am / 7.9 4:40pm / 6.0 10:32am / 0.7 10:23pm / 2.2 Feb. 25 4:41am / 7.6 5:57pm / 5.6 11:39am / 0.9 11:25pm / 2.9 Feb. 26 5:42am / 7.3 7:20pm / 5.5 Feb. 27 6:48am / 7.0 8:37pm / 5.6 12:52am / 1.0 12:40am / 3.2 2:02pm / 0.9 S S IUSLAW IUSLAW N EWS 148 Maple St. Florence 541-997-3441