Commission offers compromise with new fishing regulations.

Byline: INSIDE THE OUTDOORS By Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

If fishing were presidential politics, all this flip-flopping would be on the 6 o'clock news. But a certain amount of slipperiness is to be expected when dealing with fish, so these changes of position are probably of interest only to anglers.

I'm referring to the latest edition of the Oregon Sportfishing Regulations, adopted earlier this month by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. The new rules, which take effect Jan. 1, include changes on two waterways where the method of angling has been the source of long-running controversy.

And where the regulations over the years have bounced around like a fish out of water.

Most at issue during the "angling regulation review process" for 2005-2008 was the use of weighted flies on the North Umpqua River's "fly waters" and the use of bait on the upper Rogue River.

Weighted flies - which make steelhead easier to catch because they sink down to where steelhead are resting on the bottom - have been an on-again, off-again technique on the North Umpqua. Currently, they are off-limits on the fly waters - which is just fine with fly-fishing "purists," but a source of irritation for many other anglers.

Effective Jan. 1, weighted flies will be back - nine months of the year. Weighted flies will be allowed Oct. 1-June 30 and prohibited during July, August and September. Only single-hook, barbless, unweighted artificial flies will be allowed during those three months.

The "compromise" is intended to help provide some refuge to summer steelhead during the period in which water temperatures are highest and flows are lowest, while allowing anglers a better chance to catch steelhead in the winter and during periods of higher flows.

On the upper Rogue River, meanwhile, the commission again tinkered with fall bait-fishing bans on portions of the river, an issue that has long polarized anglers into two camps. The bait bans were adopted in an effort to reduce mortality on wild steelhead, which have to be released unharmed.

The commission decided to give bait fishermen a little more opportunity. Starting next year, bait fishing will be allowed during November and December from Cole Rivers Hatchery downstream to the boat ramp at Shady Cove. The revised rule provides a longer "float" for fall chinook bait anglers while continuing to restrict anglers between Gold Ray Dam and Shady Cove to artificial flies and lures.

A proposal to also expand the use of bait in the Rogue's Wild and Scenic canyon area was rejected. Artificial flies and lures will continue to be the only methods of angling allowed during September and October from Foster Creek upstream to Whisky Creek. That rule is intended to protect wild "half-pounder" steelhead.

Marla Rae, who was appointed to chair the commission earlier this year by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, said she prefers to find a "middle ground" when a regulation is not a biological issue.

"The commission is mindful that if it's not a happy medium, we'll hear about it," she said.

Meanwhile, in less-controversial rule changes, the definition of steelhead was reduced from 20 inches in length to 16 inches in all Northwest and Southwest Zone streams. The change will allow anglers to legally harvest smaller "jack" steelhead. Three proposals to reopen various coastal rivers in the Northwest Zone to the limited harvest of cutthroat trout were all voted down by the board.

Finally, anglers will have to wait only a few more days to take advantage of a regulation change approved recently by federal fisheries managers. The change opens Siltcoos and Tahkenitch lakes to wild coho salmon angling Oct. 1 through Dec. 31.

Wild coho are protected by the Endangered Species Act, but federal and state biologists agree that coho populations in those two watersheds are thriving and that a limited harvest would do no harm. Harvest quotas were set at 600 coho on Siltcoos and 400 for Tahkenitch.

Mike Stahlberg can be reached at [e-mail].