PHOTO PROVIDED Heceta Beach State Park, lighthouse keepers home in the distance. Winters on the Oregon coast can get a little wild – a delight to storm watchers. When Pacific storms sweep in, they often bring strong winds, giant crashing waves and heavy rainfall. But the storms pass, leaving weather[Read More…]
Author: FRANK ARMENDARIZ for The Chronicle
Oregon coast is perfect place to watch whales
FLORENCE – California gray whales can live to be 70 years old, can grow to nearly 50 feet and adults can weigh 60,000 pounds. Gray whales can dive 500 feet and are able to stay underwater for 30 minutes or more. Their annual migration covers about 12,000 miles. Photo courtesy[Read More…]
Steelheads are here, and plentiful; be safe, honest about boating skill
Lake Creek, looking down river from Deadwood Boat landing. Two days after I took this picture the Lake Creek rose a couple of feet but should be excellent for New Year’s weekend. Happy New Year’s everyone … The beginning of winter ushered in a couple very powerful storms that brought[Read More…]
Gift of angling: A lifetime adventure that connects family, friends, history
FRANK ARMENDARIZ THE ANGLER’S LOG My earliest memory of fishing wasn’t the time I actually caught my first fish. It was of my grandfather Manuel plucking me out of the surf by my pants belt after taking a tumble when the 12-foot surf rod I was so anxious to hold[Read More…]
First steelhead adventure provided lifetime of memories
FRANK ARMENDARIZ/THE CHRONICLE I was a freshman at San Jose State University when, on a three-day weekend, I went on what was my very first steelhead fishing trip on the Klamath River in northern California. It was 1973. I had heard about this hard-fighting fish since I was a kid[Read More…]
It’s important to understand weather’s impact
FRANK ARMENDARIZ/PHOTOPhill Strader of Glide is about to release a wild steelhead from the Umpqua River that I caught last February. The presence of an adipose fin required that this steelhead buck be released. A couple of Pacific storms came onshore last weekend, bringing strong winds along the Oregon coast[Read More…]
Good news! Steelhead are on the way
FRANK ARMENDARIZ/THE CHRONICLEWinter steelhead (note the jawline on this female) start showing up in most of Oregon’s coastal rivers around Thanksgiving. The silver (or chrome) lining of November is that winter steelhead will soon be in most rivers all along the Oregon coast. Steelheads actually range and are native to[Read More…]
After wildfires, lower McKenzie provides an alternative
FRANK ARMENDARIZ/THE CHRONICLEFall has come to Lane County and so has fall fishing. The hot weather for now is a memory and wild trout in the lower McKenzie and Willamette rivers are active again. If you look around there is little doubt that with the certainty of the sunrise, winter[Read More…]
It’s make-or-break time for salmon
FRANK ARMENDARIZ/THE CHRONICLE A view of the lower Siuslaw River. The river bar was dredged last winter making a crossing less perilous than in recent years. On days that the ocean calms down the bottom fishing has been excellent. A flyover of Lane County leaves little doubt that fall has[Read More…]
‘So humble and lucky’
FRANK ARMENDARIZ/PHOTO Blue River, a scene repeated all over the McKenzie River Valley, where over 800 homes and structures have been lost. Friends and neighbors, it is a calamity of an immensity our county has never seen. Yes, we have had powerful wind storms, heavy snow storms and major flooding[Read More…]