By Larry Coonrod, Lebanon Express writer | Posted: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 12:00 am
There's nothing quite as relaxing as spending a day fishing on a secluded river or lake. Unfortunately, seclusion and fishing don't often go together these days. Usually it seems like there are more fishermen than fish. Unless, of course, you're a member of the Oregon Fishing Club (OFC).
For less than the cost of a three-day guided fishing trip, OFC members have private access to 18 river sites and 21 lakes and ponds. Anyone who's ever spent a day in shoulder to shoulder crowds on a coastal river in search of salmon and steelhead will appreciate the solitude on rivers such as the Salmon, Nestucca, Little Nestucca, Trask and Wilson.
Club president Bruce Harpole came up with the idea of the OFC one morning in the spring of 1988 after he and his father were the 21st drift boat to launch at the Wiley Creek boat ramp in Foster. This Sept. 15 will mark the 20-year anniversary of the first club member sign-up.
Today there are a tad over 700 members. Harpole said he expects the club to reach its 1,000-member cap in about five-years.
There are even a few celebrity members - fishing celebrities anyway. Nick Amato, the editor of Salmon Trout Steelheader magazine, and Dave Hughes, nationally renowned fly fishing author, are longtime club members.
Club memberships start at $445 for one-year plus $89.25 a quarter in maintenance dues. Multi-year memberships are even more economical: $595 for three years, $895 for six years and $1,195 for 10 years of access to the club's properties. Lifetime memberships are also available.
"If a blue collar guy wants this, he can afford it," Harpole said. The club will finance the membership cost and any member who spends at least four hours a month helping with property maintenance gets a month of club membership for free.
Memberships allow unlimited family access for a couple and their children up to 21 years of age (24 years if they are still living at home). Members may bring two adult guests up to six times to each property. The first two visits to a fishing spot are free and then guests pay a $25 fee.
Most of the club's stillwaters are catch-and-release using barbless hooks for trout and bass. Anglers can keep up to four trout a month at the half-dozen ponds where bait-fishing is allowed.
The club relies on the honor system when it comes to the rules, and that has worked out well so far.
"In 20 years, we've only had to ask two guys to leave," Harpole said. "For the most part guys join the club to get away from bad behavior."
After the club signs a lease with a landowner, it spruces up the property by cutting brush away from trails and access roads, putting in plants, portable outhouses, picnic benches and, if the owner agrees, campsites.
"It improves the value of the property immensely," Harpole said. "We've taken sow's ears and turned them into silk purses."
The club treats every new property, even if it's a one-year trial lease, as a long-term project.
"We think like we're going to be here for 25, maybe 50 years," Harpole said.
In 2007, OFC spent about $32,000 stocking its lake properties with more than 12,000 trout 12 to 16 inches long. The osprey, heron and cormorant population disregard the catch-and-release rules. Last year, Harpole estimates predators made off with about< B> < B>$12,000 worth of the club's stocking efforts.
"The Audubon Society ought to give us some kind of award for all the fish we've put in birds' bellies," Harpole joked.
Over the years there have been some legendary lunkers landed by members - like the 32-inch rainbow several members caught.
Harpole dismissed the first report of the big fish as nothing more than fishermen's well-known propensity to exaggerate. That is until other members started bragging about landing the same Moby Dick of a trout out of the same pond. At another pond, the same 24-inch hooked-nose trout kept showing up in photographs.
"Catch and release works," Harpole said.
In addition to good fishing, members get some security while fishing. Properties are gated and Harpole said he isn't aware of a club member's vehicle ever being broken into or vandalized.
"Advantages of OFC? While there's more stuff closer to home, so there's less travel time, more fishing time," Harpole said. "Our guys just get into more fish."
Oregon Fishing Club
The Oregon Fishing Club is a private organization that leases property on rivers and stillwaters for use by its members. The club has access to 18 river sites and 21 lakes and ponds. Members pay an initiation fee and quarterly dues to help maintain and improve the leased sites. Membership fees are:
€ One year - $445
€ Three years - $595
€ Six years - $895
€ Ten years - $1,195
€ Lifetime (non-transferable) $2,195
€ Lifetime (transferable) - $2,995
€ Quarterly dues - $89.25
More information is available online at www.ofc.org or by contacting OFC president Bruce Harpole at 967-6592.