Salmon fishing on Oregon's famed Rogue River nosedives

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — It's been a dull fall for anglers on the Rogue River.

Spawning beds that are normally full of splashing chinook salmon in October look sparse. And anglers in drift boats aren't hooking the traditional numbers.

"We definitely have a poor run of fall chinook," said Tom Satterthwaite, biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Grants Pass.

That would be an understatement to Bob Rafalovich, the former owner of Rogue Wilderness in Merlin who still guides on the lower Rogue. He said it's been the worst fall fishing in his more than 30 years on the river.

"I hope this is cyclical," he said.

Fortunately for Rafalovich, it probably is. A huge upswing occurred in the late 1980s, including an all-time high of 89,000-plus spring chinook in 1986. That was followed by a downturn in the early 1990s, then a rebound between 1995 and 2000.

In 2002 and 2003, fish counts over Gold Ray Dam on the Rogue River included record-breaking numbers for two runs of steelhead and two runs of salmon.

Rafalovich, who started his career as a fisheries biologist, believes warm water off the Oregon coast since July is contributing to the poor returns.

Eric Schindler, ODFW marine biologist in Newport, said ocean conditions do play an important role in returning adult salmon and steelhead numbers. He said sport catches of salmon off the coast during summer were poor, and that warm water came in closer to shore than normal.

"With the warm water we had off the Oregon coast, combined with (nutrient rich waters) off of California, the fish simply may have not left California," Schindler said. "What we saw in the ocean this year was probably related to a lowered abundance of chinook."

ODFW also tracks fish numbers by netting fish at Huntley Park on the lower Rogue. Through mid-October, Huntley Park counts showed the half-pounder count was just 22 percent of the 10-year average. Half-pounders are steelhead that spend only a few months in the ocean, instead of more than a year, and come up the Rogue usually as 12- to 18-inches long.

Numbers for fall chinook (53.4 percent), coho (65.4) and adult summer steelhead (61.8) were not as bad compared to the 10-year average.