Umpqua smallmouth

[ted1]

Hoping to take a trip late august if Baja doesn't send me to the poor house. It doesn't seem like they are hard to catch, so I guess my first question would be, what kind of boat can I get by with? 16' bass boat? (Runs in about 2 feet of water) 12'? Pram? Float tube?, or should I just wade? I really don't want to use a guide, I would prefer to fish for 3 days or so.

I'm also having a hard time finding specific runs to fish. Can anyone suggest some decent launch points? It seems like Roseburg is a good area to start. It seems like the S. Fork has the best smallmouth fishing. Correct me if I'm wrong please!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think the lower Umpqua River below Interstate 5 around Elkton has lots of private ranches so the access might not be that easy.

Lots of people go to the Big K Ranch and fish with their guides in drift boats.

http://www.big-k.com/

Maybe someone will come on here who know about some of the access that is open to the public.

[jcsesica]

I fished it pretty much least once to twice a year from 1994 through 2002. Then you could stay at the Big K and they would let you fish their private stretch of the river.

For public water you can launch upriver from Elkton at "the slide". Just like it sounds, a big 30' gravel drop down to the river. We launched the drift boat there. A good all day drift takes out downstream at the County Park (Downstream left) where there was a launch ramp or sorts.

I LOVED those smallmouth on a fly. Most folks sight fish the deeper water (6-10') with a #6-8 rubberleg pattern....but NOTHING beats casting a bass bug in towards the shelves that run along the banks. Those small mouth will swim up and suspend under the fly until the first twitch/strip and then EXPLODE on the fly. A real adreniline rush.

Smaller fish on the public stretch. Some real monsters in the private water (Smallies over 5 lbs).

Though I fished with Mo out of the Elkwa River Lodge (Long since gone. Cecilia's cooking was legendary!), and once with Todd Hannah, we eventually started floating it ourselves.The store in Elkton usually was able to arrange a shuttle for us.

Whether or not you could manage it in your bass boat....I'd ask at the store or Big K. I ould think so by late July, August.


Good luck and post when you get back!

[Dave E.]

I was one of a group of six pontoon boat anglers that ran the same section as jcsesica did in the mid 90's time frame, using the same put in and take out area. We had caravanned up there, so we had plenty of vehicles to run our own shuttle.
The fishing was as jcsesica describes it.

I don't know if any of those places are accessible any more or if the Elkqua Lodge where we stayed is still in business. Other than the row through the frog water in a less than swift pontoon boat ( a product of it's day ), the entire drift was a hoot. I wouldn't launch a float tube in that water and attempt a drift, If I remember correctly, there was a fairly narrow turbulent chute above the take out.

Sorry for the lack of additional details, but if it's still viable, it's worth doing.

Dave