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Jasonh
07-02-2005, 09:09 PM
I was looking at the southern oregon fly fishing board and noticed that a few people are hooking into summer steelhead already. Already 600 over gold ray dam which is a big number for this early in july. I cant wait to get up there in September when the upper rogue is fly fishing only! Summer is going by too slow!

Jason Hartwick

Darian
07-02-2005, 10:01 PM
Hey Jason,... I agree but not for the same reasons. Summer is going by too slow.... :x :x Can't wait for Stripers in the Delta.... :D :D :D

Bill Kiene semi-retired
07-03-2005, 12:39 AM
I think that traditionally some rivers get summer steelhead in their lower reaches by early July.

August is hellish hot on most rivers but real early could be good for an hour then.

September is better but it is still early and late with sun off the water. Pretty short periods of fishing for that much driving. Great for locals like Gary Anderson, Al Perryman and Gordon Langenbeck. They can fish a few hours in the AM and/or a few hours in the PM.

October is the big month in the Upper Rogue River for steelhead but by then the water is so cold (-50 degrees) you need top fish 11am till 5pm on the bottom.

Langenbeck
07-03-2005, 07:46 AM
Bill,

Your observations on the Rogue are right on target. From about 1 Sep through the first week of Oct it is the first hour in the morning and the last hour at night. Almost all the early Rogue summer fish are hatchery fish up until about 10 Oct. After that I catch about 85% wild fish.

For someone coming from the Sacramento area I would not drive this far until about 10 Oct. If you come earlier you are pretty much restricted to good fishing in the Shady Cove area as the dam releases keep this section quite cool all year. It stays good until at least the first week of December. If I had to target a week it would be the middle of November. To me the ideal situation is a very cloudy day in mid-November.

Bill Kiene semi-retired
07-03-2005, 09:04 AM
Thanks Gordon

That is the kind of info we like to know.

Do you have an idea where a good map of the Rogue river is on the web?

Do you think the fishing is best from mid-Oct through November or longer?

What is the prime window up there?

Langenbeck
07-03-2005, 12:13 PM
Bill,

Don't have a source for a good map of the Middle & Upper Rogue.

Fishing is consistent from about 15 Sep through 10 Dec barring any heavy rains.

The very prime time for me in the Grants Pass area is 15-30 Nov.-add in a gray overcast day during this period and I almost always take fish.

Steelheading is not easy under the best of circumstances. I typically hook 80 adult fish and land about 55 from the period of 1 Sep-10 Dec and usually fish every day. You have to pay your dues.

The pictured fish is a prime summer/fall Rogue wild steelhead..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/gordonl/26SteelheadOval8Nov04.jpg

Josh_White
07-27-2005, 05:26 PM
There are really three different fisheries on the Rogue, the Upper, Middle and Lower. They do not fish alike. There are plenty of fish in the upper river already, with neary 3500 over Gold Ray. This time of year can actually be the best fishing on the upper river if the fish are there, as the water temps are perfect (52 at the hatchery). As we get later into the summer the water temps in the upper river will fall, making the fish a little sluggish. When the water temps are low, it fishes better mid-morning on, after the sun has warmed the water a bit.

This time of year, the middle river (Rogue River-Graves Creek) is pretty much a wast of time, as the water temps are right arround 70 depending on where you are at. As the temps start to fall the fishing will pick up, late August, it is morning/evening, and this continues through early/mid Sept., but by the first of Sept. I EXPECT to catch at least one adult steelhead every time I fish. Sept. is a little unpredictable, because of the weather, if it is hot, the fishing can be tough, but if its cool the fishing is fantastic throughout the middle and upper river. In Sept. there are also Sping chinook spawning in the upper, while the fishing can be good, anglers need to AVOID WADING THROUGH THE REDDS! (This can be a big problem, and anglers need to help protect the resource.) Once the chinooks start spawning in the upper, it works its way down the river. In late Sept. through Nov. the fall chinooks are spawning in the middle/lower river. Durring Oct. steelhead are spread thoughout the river. Nov. can be fantastic, or it can be a total bust, it just depends on the first hard rains. A little rain is great, but too much and the fish shoot up the river, and the spawning tribs...and there gone....

Another thing that most people do not know is that there is a summer run and a fall run. The summer run fish are headed for the upper river, and they follow the spring chinook up, while the fall run are bound for lower in the river, and follow the fall chinook up. The biggest fish tend to be the Summer run and the late fall run, with the early part of the fall run being made up of of smaller fish (3-6lbs) The majority of the 10lb + fish that I take are in late Aug/early Sept. or late Oct/early Nov.

Josh

Jasonh
07-27-2005, 06:08 PM
Nice post Josh. Do you like to fish for these summer run fish with nymphs or fishing traditional dries and wet flies. With the warmer water temps (52) this would be a good time to fish on the swing. I have never really heard of many fish on the rogue caught skating dries. next time i am up there i would like to give that a try.

Jason Hartwick

Josh_White
07-28-2005, 08:51 AM
I take a lot of fish on swung flies but only a few on dries, even though I have watched summer fish feed on dry mayflies in sept. This time of year is the time to swing the upper river, forget it when they drop the water temp. move down river to Grants Pass. I catch a lot of fish swinging in Grants Pass Sept. on, late sept/oct. most of the fish come on nymphs because they are feeding on them so well. You can take fish on skated flies in the Rogue, one of the largest fish I took 2 years ago I took on a unweighted Green Butt Skunk, on a dry line, when the fish took it came clear out of the water....No question that fish would have taken a dry! That fish was in the 33" range... Who says Rogue fish are small..... :wink:

jbird
08-28-2005, 12:52 PM
"Who says Rogue fish are small..... "

They are some of the smallest in the state, but make up for that rep with good numbers and aggressive troutlike feeding behaviors.

Josh is a well respected rogue guide and youd be wise to take his advise indeed.

I am personally a rogue addict and find myself handling close to 200 flycaught steelhead a year (all runs combined). The only contridiction I would make to the previous advice is, I catch 95% of my fish mid day. I stay away from GP area when the temps are high. Gold rey dam is kind of my seperation for techniques. nymph above, swing below. That is not in stone and I do break that rule periodically. I have had a handful good mornings...starting at ohdark30 at peak season. Otherwise, I just as soon wait for the morning crowd to get their fill and I'll get on the river around 11am.

Here are a couple nice bucks I took on the rogue. The first was july 2 this year, swinging on the middle with a type 3 head. The second pic was last sept. upper river, nymphing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/DSC02381.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/DSC01708.jpg

MSP
08-28-2005, 05:14 PM
Great report and some very nice fish Jbird. Can you send some of those fish South to the Klamath and Trinity for me :D