Mexican Fish Report

What is undoubtedly the most-important meeting of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) regarding ocean groundfish, Pacific halibut and salmon will be taking place this week from March 7 - 13 at the Hilton Vancouver Hotel in Vancouver, Washington. During that meeting, the 2017 Preseason Report I for ocean salmon stock abundance projections will be adopted.

"Preliminarily, it looks like we may have some salmon opportunity in the (Klamath Management) Zone," says Richard Heap, the Oregon Sportfishing Representative on the PFMC Salmon Advisory Sub-panel. "It will be early most likely (Memorial Day - June-ish). North of Humbug will probably be slightly better, with limited coho. We are just too early in the process to have much confidence in anything."

Heap says that the main issue this year will once again be Klamath River stocks that are swimming in the ocean, which for consecutive years have been projected to be on the low side.

The PFMC ocean salmon season process involves first discussing the 2017 ocean salmon abundance forecasts, creating three alternative seasons and then finally picking one of the seasons which best suits a particular area. Keep reading this column to remain apprized of this and future PFMC meeting outcomes, and for more specific 2017 ocean salmon seasons.

Last week, anglers deploying a variety of steelhead techniques were able to put a few steelhead in their fish boxes.

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, fishermen were able to plunk their favorite-color Spin-N-Glo as the river dropped from 7,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) down to 3,700 cfs.

From Monday through Thursday, boaters side-drifting Puff Balls-and-roe combos began launching their drift boats when the river dropped from 3,500 down to 2,800 cfs from Monday through Friday.

Boaters like Mick Thomas from Lunker Fish Trips in Hiouchi had a great day where his clients landed all three fish that were hooked, and other fishing guides like Dave Carney took advantage of the dropping river as well.

But storms are predicted to raise the river up to 8,000 cfs over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

A slow-dropping river is then anticipated to once again bring plunking techniques to the forefront when the river lowers to 7,000 cfs on Tuesday and slowly drops throughout the rest of next week.

It is common to catch both incoming and outgoing winter steelhead on the Chetco throughout the month of March.

There have also been a few bluebacks showing up in the Chetco. On the Chetco and Smith rivers, bluebacks refer to steelhead that have a definite topaz-hue on their backs.  When the sun strikes these fish's backs, each scale shimmers like a sparkling gem.

The showing up of the bluebacks usually signifies that the steelhead runs are starting to wind down. However, there are still some mint-green-backed steelhead being caught in the Chetco, so the run is far from being over.

Don't forget that the color Gray Ghost, which is a combination of black and white vermiculations has always been a good color on both the Chetco and the Rogue, with several Chetco steelhead being caught on this 'cop car'-appearing color.

Many anglers are now rigging up their plunking rigs by using about 5 inches of 1/8-inch plastic aquarium-type tubing for a slider.  The tubing can be bought at Ace Hardware.

To rig up, insert the plastic tubing through the eye of a snap-swivel so that it is good and tight.  The size of the snap swivel can vary in size. This plastic tubing curls naturally, so make sure that the curve of the curl faces upward.  This keeps your tubing above the bottom and away from your sinker.

Insert your mainline though the plastic tubing, slide down a dark green 6mm bead, and then tie your mainline off to a number 7 barrel swivel.  The sinker of your choice attaches to the snap of the snap swivel.

Now tie a leader ranging from 24 to 36 inches and tie it to a 1/0 Gamakatsu or Owner octopus-style hook using an egg loop knot. Slide down a 5mm or 6mm bead onto the hook to act as a bearing against the next item - a rapidly-spinning Spin-N-Glo.  Tie the leader to your number 7 barrel swivel and you're good to go.

Tight lines!