LA GRANDE — Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) announced today the adoption of a temporary administrative rule increasing the daily bag limit for trout at Thief Valley Reservoir. The rule is effective May 1, 2010 and increases the daily bag limit allowed from five to 15 fish, with no minimum size limit. The possession limit of two daily bag limits remains in affect as do all other Oregon sport fishing regulations.
With below normal precipitation so far this winter and spring, ODFW fisheries managers are anticipating water storage levels at Thief Valley Reservoir will be low enough by mid to late summer to cause significant mortality of stocked rainbow trout.
In previous years ODFW has waited until low reservoir storage levels are imminent before making rule changes to facilitate harvest of trout before they are lost. Anglers have reported fishing conditions in mid summer are poor and reasonable opportunities to harvest these fish are extremely limited. In response, ODFW is liberalizing the bag limit immediately to provide better opportunities to harvest these fish while angling conditions at the reservoir are good.
Thief Valley Reservoir is located on the Powder River near Baker City in the Southeast Oregon fishing zone.
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