For now my drift boat will stay on the trailer. The less social contact we all have for now will help us get past CoVid-19 sooner and that would be good.
How much things have changed over the last couple of weeks is a little hard to get your head around.
My last fishing report was full of excitement for the wonderful prospects of the upcoming spring. But a different kind of reality has fallen on us and like many it has temporarily forced me to change the way I personally conduct myself, the activities I participate in and the places I go.
Last week all of the events that had been on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s schedule were canceled.
Locally that includes ”Family Fishing Days” at Row River Nature Park (April 4th) and at Alton Baker Park Canoe Canal (May 3). The ODFW will re-evaluate their calendar and have an announcement on May 10th about the balance of the remaining 2020 events.
I spoke with Jeff Ziller, the head of the Southern Willamette District of the ODFW. Ziller tells me that even though all the ODFW sponsored ”learn to fish events” have been canceled, the ODFW are still stocking trout to the schedule currently published on their website. Ziller explained that the hatchery is a little like a factory that is always in production. Without a place to store the mature fish they will have to be released into the wild.
At any other time I would enthusiastically recommend you take advantage of all the planted fish. But like where I started, so much has changed in such a short time and that recommendation will not be forthcoming this week. Also, where you would normally fish, you will likely now find no available restrooms, many gated public parking lots and a wider lack of any of the services that you would expect to find. My advice is to stay home, be safe and follow the advice of public health officials.
The Chronicle’s publishers have asked me to continue my biweekly column, so until things get back to something more normal, I will be ”changing it up a bit”. I have recently spent some time with a few fishing legions and will be sharing the highlights. Also, I have a lot of ”fishing skills” information that I don’t always have room in my biweekly reports to share. Look for more of that information too.
You can contact Frank Armendariz at [email protected]
