Oregon Fishing Trip

[Adam Grace]

I fished with my fishin buddy Gregg and local guide Gino Bernero in Oregon over this past weekend. We fished the Applegate and Rogue rivers. Both were at low flows because of the lack of rain in the state of Oregon and other surrounding states.

We fished the Applegate river on Saturday. This trip was my first to the Applegate. The Applegate is a beautiful little river that is no more than 100' wide in the widest pool. Gregg landed his second steehead ever which was also his largest steelhead ever. (in the picture below)



Gregg also had his first experience with a fresh winter steelhead peeling off line. Unfortunately we never saw that fish but I bet the smile on Greggs face has not left since the fish took off

Gino was more fortunate due to his incredible fly fishing prowess. Gino landed a beautiful 7-8lb Applegate steelie that he landed so quickly that it had enough energy left to blast out of Gino's large powerful hands before I could take a picture.

We fished the Rogue River on Sunday, the water level was also low but still very fishable. Although I only caught one small jumpy half-pounder on the Applegate on Sunday, I managed to hooked into 5 and land 3 steelies on Sunday. Nothing huge and nothing super fresh but all very fun I did however have one fish peel off into my backing in about 3 seconds, super hot. While Gino proceeded to follow the strong steelie down river it shook my hook loose once it found a large swirling pool where I was very difficult to keep tension on the fish at such a distance. Very sad but very thrilling

Below is a picture of one of my freshest landed steelies.



I really enjoyed myself on Sunday. So did Gino, once again showing myself and Gregg how fly fishing is supposed to be performed. Gino landed this beautiful Rogue steelie in the middle of the day.



Gino and I also caught one fat Rogue rainbow trout each. (picture below)




The weather was extremely beautiful and sunny.

The company was great and we caught some steelies.

A great trip overall

[MSP]

Great photos and looked like a great trip! Nice to see you with that beautiful fish! I'm jealous! I want to go, I want to go! Now we'll have to get after those 1/2 pounders on the "A". Nice job Adam!

[Adam Grace]

Thanks Mike but Gino deserves most of the credit.

Gino is a great guide and a hell of a nice guy.

[Bstallings]

Thanks for the pics! Making the same trip starting 3/28; 29th & 30th on the Applegate & 4/1 on the Rogue. Have been getting excited but your pics have really go me going.

[Langenbeck]

Adam: Nice report from Southern Oregon. You did very well considering the circumstances. We have had less than an inch of rain in the last six weeks in the Grants Pass/ Medford region. The count of winter steelhead over Gold Ray Dam as of 5 March was 3,870 fish. At the same period in the winters of 2003 and 2004 the counts were right at 18,000 winter steelhead. March is THE month for winter fish on the upper Rogue.

[Adam Grace]

Bstalling, We caught fish one red and chartreuse #12 copper johns and I also caught fish n the new Jumbe John, #8 curved shank hook, rubber legs in the golden stone coloration.

I hope you enjoy your trip as much as myself.

[Hairstacker]

Wow, great report and photos Adam! Sounds like you guys had a blast!

[Gregg]

Wow. I'm still actually grinning about the one that got away... The trip was amazing. Every fly fisherperson (to stay politically correct) should make the short trip North to get into Oregon steelhead. The rivers are absolutley beautiful (Gordon L. has it soooo good, you think the pictures he posted were amazing???). Fishing with Gino was like fishing with my Dad. He took care of us at every turn, making us work to get fish but helping us when we needed it (which was most of the time! ) Gino is everything you could ask for in a guide: hard working, extremely knowledgeable, and kind. When ever Adam and I thought there couldn't be a fish in a certain slot, or after we covered it in great detail, Gino would toss out a cast and just rope a killer fish. I will never again say "there's no fish here...". I would gladly drive twice the distance and fish half as much, just as long as Gino could guide us again. The small amount of money is costs to hire Gino for a day is irrelevant when compared to how much you get in return. Thanks again Adam for the invite, and for teaching me to fish on Sunday (I got skunked while Adam and Gino slammed it), and thanks to Gino for everything, it is greatly appreciated.
Also, Gino's steelie that Adam posted the picture of was actually a monster. Gino is just such a big guy it's hard to tell the actual size of the fish. Had Adam or I hooked into that thing, we probably wouldn't have survived the battle to post all this!

[Gregg Machel]

I have serious envy now!

Glad you guys had a good time, and thanks for posting the pics and the stories. At least you brought a little bit of that back here to us.

[Jasonh]

Great report guys. Looked like it was a fun trip. I cant wait to get up there next fall to fish the the summer run fish with the spey rod. Maybe we can all take a trip together!

Jason