The middle Rogue river has received an early run of "Summer Run Steelhead.

I had 2 recent reports that the middle Rogue river is having a good early run of "Summer Run Steelhead".



Just called Al Perryman who lives on the middle Rogue river at Gold Hill.

He has been catching 4 to 8 pound fresh "Summer runs" going out extremely early in the mornings now.

He usually uses an ACR #5 Spey rod, floating Scandi head, 15' leader and a #6 classic style dark winged unweighted wet Steelhead fly.

The hatchery got in a very large number of "Summer run Steelhead" recently.

The big month up there in his area for these Summer Runs is October but they got a nice run in early, in July.

I have fished the lower Klamath river in August a half dozen times and the only problem is the fact that you only get to fish 2-3 hours in

the very early AM and maybe 1-2 hours in the evening. We would take a large break mid-day and sleep in the sand under the willows.

Mid-day in August would be good for swimming or snorkeling?


The Rouge river is going to be the same thing in August.



Veteran Steelheader, Al Perryman, lives on the middle Rogue river and normally starts fishing there around the 4th of July, daily.

He goes out in the dark so he is on the water just as you can start to see something.

Most years he said are not very good in July and August but this year is very different with a good run already.


Even in September on the Klamath and Rogue rivers you need to get up very early to get the best fishing.

I learned most of what I know about the Klamath and Rogue river from old veteran anglers and old top guides.

I started fishing those two wonderful "sister" rivers over 50 years ago.


Retired Klamath river veteran fly fishing guide Bruce Slightom just told me that the lower Klamath was ~70 degrees.

He recommends going to the lower Klamath in a jet boat on about September 15th to have a better chance to have good fishing.


Al Perryman just told me, again, that mid-August is when the Half-pounders normally enter the lower Rogue river.

The good thing about this lower Rogue river is the fact that you can "drive, park on the gravel, walk and wade.


On the Klamath and Rogue the general timing is Sept/Oct/Nov with October my favorite time.


Most all the top Fall Steelheaders are fishing long leaders and unweighted flies classic winged flies.


Last Fall I heard the Klamath river had a good run of Steelhead.




My two life long passions are Fall Steelheading and fishing in the summer for juvenile Tarpon. The casting is so nice and those fish all

seem to jump a lot after you stick a fly into them.




As I have said before I started fishing barbless in 1974, influenced by Bob Giannoni. This is for freshwater and saltwater.


Veteran fly fisher Chuck Campana converted me to mostly fly fishing with a floating line, tapered leader and unweighted fly.

Chuck is gone now but I met him over 50 years ago and he was one of the best and a mentor to me as well.

You have to really 'pick your battles' well but today all I fish is top water for everything. The casting is divine.



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I was very fortunate to have a group of good men of the Greatest Generation around me my entire adult life in the fishing business.

Al Perryman labeled them as the old "Gezzer patrol."

They were all like uncles to me and I was highly influenced by them and their values.

They were all involved in World War II and had all gone through the Great Depression as kids.

They all loved this great country of ours and would have died for it too.

They grew up in very simple times, many in rural settings, so they hunted and fished their entire lives.


My dad and my uncles were all in World War II and had a big influence on my life as well.


They are all gone now which is a huge lose to the World......

This from the ODFW: "The summer steelhead run has been very good for still being very early in the year... As of July 6, 437 new summer steelhead entered the hatchery, making the run 1097 fish for the year (the highest return over the last 10 years to date)."

Well, let's hope that trend continues, and we have a great half-pounder run on the Rogue this year.