WINTER steelhead, SUMMER conditions.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

What was expected to be another strong winter steelhead season on Oregon coastal rivers is rapidly evaporating amid a long stretch of unusually dry weather.

While most coastal streams were expected to see better-than-average runs of steelhead this winter, you'd never guess it talking to fishermen. Catch rates have been generally poor, and angling pressure is down sharply even at the most popular holes.

The reason: an El Nino weather pattern that has left rivers low and clear and steelhead easily spooked and reluctant to bite.

So brothers Billy and Jason Keating of Lebanon were the only ones fishing Tuesday morning just downstream from the hatchery deadline on the North Fork Alsea River. A normal February morning would find a couple of dozen or more anglers jockeying for a spot on the bank.

Between them, the two Keating brothers say they've tagged eight steelhead so far this season - well off last year's pace.

The North Fork Alsea is flowing "at summer levels," said Matt Frank, manager of the Alsea Hatchery. The Alsea River gauge at Tidewater read 3.6 feet Wednesday, just half of the 30-year mean for Feb. 9.

The low water, however, appears to be taking a heavier toll on the fishermen than the fish. The steelhead are still able to get where they need to go to spawn.

For example, some 1,100 steelhead had returned to Alsea hatchery by the end of January. That's about 400 fewer than the average for the past 12 years, but still well above what the hatchery needs to meet its egg production goals.

Indeed, Alsea Hatchery has already "recycled" about 800 winter steelhead, Frank said. The recycled fish were divided among four different downstream release points to give anglers another chance at them as the fish make their way back up to the hatchery.

So there's plenty of fish available.

"I've had a lot of folks say they're watching their baits and lures just go over big schools of fish - and the fish are just not in the mood to bite at it," said Mike Gray, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's district fish biologist in Charleston.

Angler success rates have been "like a yo-yo," Gray said, going up and down with river levels. And lately, they've been mostly down.

Gray said there seems to be ample numbers in the Coquille, Coos and Tenmile basins. Brood stock collections are on pace, although a greater percentage than normal is coming from netting this year.

"The netting efforts have actually been pretty good because fish are kegged up in some of the holes," Gray said. "The angler donations are down quite a bit just because the success seems to be slow right now."

Meanwhile, Bob Buckman, the ODFW district fish biologist in Newport, said steelhead numbers appeal to be "below average pretty much across the board" in his district this year.

"We've had enough rain to bring them into the lower parts of these rivers at least, and the fishing has been fair at best," Buckman said.

"I think we're all a little disappointed that we don't have more fish back, and better fishing," he said. "But we do not have good methods to predict winter steelhead" run sizes.

Many anglers, however, are holding out hope that this year's run could just be arriving later than normal, and that a couple of good rainstorms will produce more steelhead and better fishing conditions.

"The next rain - when and where we get it - should tell the tale," said Todd Linklater, a Eugene-based fishing guide.

Even in low water, however, persistent anglers have been able to catch steelhead.

Take, for example, the 84 anglers who paid to enter last weekend's Umpqua River winter steelhead derby, an annual fund-raiser in which teams of anglers spend two days fishing with professional river guides.

"Overall, the catch was 95 steelhead," said Dave Loomis, an ODFW biologist who is one of the event organizers.

That's a catch rate of better than a half-fish per rod per day, which is not considered bad for winter steelhead - except in comparison with last year's derby. The 84 participants in the 2004 event boated 230 steelhead.

"Last year, conditions were ideal," Loomis said, and derby participants were able to scatter on the South and North Umpqua rivers, as well as on the main stem.

This year, water was too low to allow safe drift boat passage through some areas of the tributaries, so everyone crowded onto the main river, were flows are less than 30 percent of normal for this time of year.

"The guides I'm talking to are just moving around to find water to fish on, and they when the find good water they're finding fish," Loomis said. "There just aren't that many spots. ... The bank anglers, spots where they're normally fishing, they can go out and build a fire on."

To catch fish in such conditions, Loomis said, "you've just got to go to lighter gear, smaller bait and look for slower, deeper water than you normally would.

"And you just can't go through the same hole five times - the fish get too spooked."

Fishing in the Siuslaw River basin of western Lane County has been poor this winter, except for a few days during brief rises in river levels.

"It's always hard to fish when the water's low and clear," assistant district fish biologist Derek Wilson said. "The fish are spookier and just not as aggressive as when the water's murky and you've got an overcast sky."

Wilson said a total of about 375 steelhead returned to broodstock-gathering fish traps on Whitaker and Greenleaf creeks in January.

"That's less than last year, but greater than in 2003," he said.

"A day or two after each of the last two rains, the traps were full," Wilson said.

Biologists agree that it's impossible to know whether this will be a smaller run that expected, or just later than usual.

Cindy Heller, who helps oversee the Salmon Trout Enhancement Program hatchery at Letz Creek, said the coho salmon run in the Siuslaw Basin last fall was "significantly later than usual."

She hopes the same is true of the winter steelhead because they have yet to spawn any fish at Letz Creek. Last year, steelhead spawning started in mid-January.

If Western Oregon does get enough rain to bring rivers up to normal winter levels, "there could be some really dandy late winter steelhead fishing," said Loomis, the Roseburg-based biologist.

And that late fishery could last longer than winter steelhead anglers are accustomed. The 2005 angling regulations extended winter steelhead fishing through the month of April in many southwest Oregon river systems that previously closed March 31.

For a rundown on winter steelhead angling opportunities in Oregon, see the `2005 Winter Steelhead Report,' an online primer produced by the ODFW. The 21-page report provides a zone-by-zone overview of the state's stocking and fishery management work for the highly prized sea-run rainbow trout.

"The annual winter steelhead report includes information important to anglers - everything from local fish-stocking figures to management and regulation changes to tips on where to find bank and boat accesses," said Rhine Messmer, the department's Recreational Fisheries Program manager.

It can be found at www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2005/january/014.pdf.

CAPTION(S):

A pair of anglers do some winter steelhead fishing on the North Fork Alsea River on Tuesday. Fishing has been poor, even though more than 1,400 steelhead have returned to Alsea Fish Hatchery this year. Mike Stahlberg / The Register-Guard Ray Valburg of Albany says he was "pretty fortunate" to catch this winter steelhead Tuesday, given the low water.