Deadline to apply for a spring bear tag is Feb. 10

The controlled spring black bear season opens April 1.

Ways to apply for a tag

Best bets for fishing

• Friday (and maybe Thursday) is looking like the best day of the week to hit north coast rivers like Kilchis, Necanicum, North Fork Nehalem and Wilson. Some of these may fish this weekend, but with more rain on the way conditions may not be ideal.
• Several Willamette Valley fisheries will be stocked with brood trout this week.
• Anglers are starting to catch steelhead in the Tenmile, Coos and Coquille systems.
• Steelhead also are being caught in the Sandy and Clackamas rivers.
• Steelhead fishing on the lower Deschutes continues to be fair. Though numbers are fewer this year, fish are well-dispersed from the mouth to the angling deadline.
• The first winter steelhead are just beginning to return to the Hood River.
• Anglers have been ice fishing on several waterbodies including Kinney Lake, Lofton Reservoir, Magone Lake, Phillips Reservoir, Unity Reservoir and Yellowjacket Lake.

Check out 14 tips for ice fishing in Oregon.

Time to report your hunt

Hunters have until Jan. 31 to report their 2019 hunts. If you purchased a tag, reporting is mandatory even if you didn’t hunt or harvest an animal.

Ways to report your hunt.

Whale watching on the coast

During the winter, nearly 25,000 gray whales travel along the Oregon coast on their way to the warm lagoons of Baja Mexico (lucky whales). This migration will continue until mid-January, and Oregon State Parks lists 24 whale watching spots along the coast where you can enjoy the show.