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The North Umpqua is really coming into shape, for leafers. As far as for steelheading it’s pretty tough. Had my first guided trip that we blanked for the day and we fished really well, which is really suprising for this time of year. Up until that the North has been consistent. Spent a few days with Lance Watkins from my old home town of Newport Beach, Ca. We did pretty good for three days. Lance had started steelheading this past winter with me on the North, he caught the smallest winter-run fish I had seen on the river, about seven pounds. This time he saw why I chase steelhead, a few pics.

Lance's 31" hen

 

We had to chase this one down a few sets of rapids

Also fished with Andy Hoag and his dad Tony for three days on the North and the fish were still there. Andy is just undertaking steelheading with a spey rod, it was really cool to watch him progress for three days.

Andy's first on the dry

Andy was a true pro when it came to staying calm and not jerking when a fish took the fly, and it paid off or him.

Another big hen 29.5"

A nice buck that wouldn't give in

A few hours south on the Rogue, the fishing is really tough. We are still getting our shots each day, but it is not what I’m accustomed to this time of year. I heard that down in Grantspass it has been fishing better than last year so, those fish should be here soon.

This fish came to the fly, but really lazily and wouldn't come back

Another nice beginning on the ever beautiful North Umpqua

 The North continues to be good, though are fish numbers over Winchester dam aren’t good at all. You really have to admire these North Umpqua steelhead for their eagerness to take a fly. Granted we aren’t seeing banner days like I here coming from the Deschutes but, we are still getting 1 to 3 opportunities each day.

Paul Byron with his first steelhead, congrats Paul

The Rogue is also starting to fish well. Mornings have definetly been producing better, but the evenings have been doing ok too.

29" Rogue steelhead

 Spent some time in northern California, all I want to say is that is was good. A few head shots.

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Fall is definetly on it’s way, these are the days steelheaders dream about all year. Enjoy it.

The beginning signs of fall on the North Umpqua

Early morning

 The North is fishing pretty consistant these days. We’ve been seeing fish each day and that is about all you can ask for on the Umpqua. There is 2,161 steelhead over Winchester Dam as of July, 9th.

The Beginning

With the Williams Creek fire now in mop up stage, you can once again park along the highway from Susan Creek to Mott Bridge. This should do a lot as far as spreading out the pressure.

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The Rogue has been seeing good numbers of fish over Gold Rey, and the fishing is slow. Seen some good fish though. The fishing on the Rogue will improve as the river level drops and the fly only restrictions go into effect.

Rogue hen in the am

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We’ve seen some pretty good fishing so far this year, it has just started to taper off a bit. Though I’m hoping the slow fishing is due to our first real heat-wave this year.

Lindsay Lee's first steelhead

 

Lindsay's second

This was Lindsay’s first attempt at steelheading, congrats on two nice fish. We had to end the day short due to wader failure, so I got to go out and fish the evening. I rose three to a pointless dry, all of them grabbing hold. Spent a great day with Steve Wagner of Spokane, WA. We ended the day 0 for 3 but we did see some good action.

Dan Lamoine into one

It’s early, but…

there seems to be a fair number of fish around. Had my first guide days this weekend and we did pretty good. It was hard to believe, but the river was pretty crowded, I’ll get used to that but it just seems early for such pressure. I got to fish with Peter Tronquet for two am sessions. Saturday we rose two, but couldn’t get them to eat. I’d never seen a fish move so much water to get to a fly, but it missed. Sunday we were lucky enough to have one eat the dry, this fish gave us an epic battle, we must have thought we lost it at least three times. The odds were against us with that fish, but someow we landed him. Maybe the fish gave Peter a break for all the work and time he has devoted to saving them.

There's just something about steelhead

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I’m off the river for about a week.

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Good-bye Skagit, it’s been fun

So I switched from throwing the big extension cord that is a Skagit line, I put the insanely large intruders away and put on a light scandi head along with a dry fly. I have to say the conversion took a bit of getting used to, but damn it felt good. I fished two runs without a rise, no big deal it’s still only June. On my third run I got to see my first rise of the year and to my surprise I didn’t jerk it away. I didn’t hook the fish, he just got pricked and didn’t come back. The next peice of water I fished was a personal favorite, they just don’t get any nicer as far as what I look for in a steelhead run. With high anticipation and the fly coming into the goods, the water erupted in a surging rise. The fly kept floating along as if nothing happened, he missed. It looked like a good fish, I got that old funny feeling back, I can’t explain it and wont try to. I brought the fly back to me and changed it to another dry. Put the new fly back out there, as it skated happily I thought “oh that looks too good”. The fish ate and was stuck. Beautiful.

June steelhead on the dry

Satisfied, at 9am, I drove up Steamboat Creek to see if there were any fish up that way yet. ODFW had cleared the fish ladder at Steamboat Falls as of the 18th.

The first steelhead to arrive in it's summer refuge

Spent most of the rest of the day visiting with a friend and walking the creek to see if we could see anymore on their way.

We didn't find any

Pretty awesome place nonetheless

Hooked a really hot fish this morning that took the fly like a porpasing killer whale, then took off up and down the run cartwheeling the whole way. I did all I could do to keep up but I couldn’t. Life is good. It’s summertime.

Ready

The Needle

So there is usually a push of early summer-runs that come up the North in May, somewhere between 50 to 200. They run hard until they reach the holding pools of Steamboat Creek. This is one of those May fish.

Words cannot describe how hot these fish are. The Peerless reel in the picture can’t handle these fish. Each time I’ve tied into one something happens to the reel, though it’s never failed completely, I’ve fought through screws loosening, a nasty grinding sound, to it just tightening up and being hard to crank, this time was no different. The reel has caught plenty of hot steelhead, the only time this has happened is with these early wild fish. I wouldn’t have it any other way actually. These fish give you that “oh-shit” factor again. There is no time to think with a fish like this, just to react and deal with whatever it throws you.

My dog  Bo was so excited, or maybe he was just overly pleased with me he did about 10 tight butt scoot’n circles around me after we released her.

So as always seems to be the case with the North Umpqua the steelhead over shadow the trout. But the trout fishing has been pretty descent, even with the high flows. I went out for a few hours throwing a streamer and landed a half dozen with a bunch a follows and other grabs. The salmon flys are really starting to patrol from above, but have yet to really make an impact on the trout, yet…

A mouth full

Just spending time on the river casting blind for nothing is enough at this time of year, it just doesn’t get any prettier. The river corridor is as green as it gets, the wild flowers are going off and the trout are eager and there are few, but some steelhead around.

A nice bow

Cutthroat

A good trout pool

There is 134 steelhead over Winchester Dam as of May 21st

Summer Outlook

 

 

 

It’s springtime here in Oregon and our summer steelhead are beginning to fin their way to the North Umpqua. The floating lines and skaters are beckoning to be thrown to a distant holding lie. There is the anticipation, though being a month and a half away, of seeing that first steelhead explode on the dry, and which of the famous North Umpqua runs it will come in. If you have yet to experience the North Umpqua it is a must for any avid steelheader.

 

An early morning beauty

 

 

The North Umpqua is probably the most rewarding fishery for steelhead, being that it is very challenging, exceptionally beautiful and the steelhead themselves are in my opinion the prettiest to swim and aggressive to the surface fly. Most of the fish we catch throughout the summer are on the dry, only in the toughest conditions will we go to a sink-tip.

 

Please take the time to check out a video a friend and I put together last summer,

www.vimeo.com/3375725  

 

 

Sunrise on the Rogue

 

 

 

The Rogue is another summer-run headliner we have here in So. Oregon. Though the Rogue turns on a little latter than the North Umpqua the steelhead usually continue coming through November and into December. Contrary to what you might here from those that have fished the Rogue, it is truly a great swinging river. Typically we fish sink-tips from August till she blows out, the Rogue steelhead are very grabby towards the swung fly. Here I use a raft to access water that most can’t get to on foot, the raft is just transportation from swing run to swing run. While not in a canyon setting as the N.U., the Rogue offers great scenery of the Table Rocks and Mt. McLoughlin, it is no doubt beautiful in its own way and I fall more in love with each time out. The Rogue can also see some amazing returns of summer steelhead which can turn into steelheading that defies what we have come to expect from a days fishing. A popular trip come September through October is a few days fishing dries on the North Umpqua and then a few on the Rogue getting after them with the sink-tip.

 

   

Thanks to all that I got to fish with this past season, hope all is well.

 

Rich & Bo

 

 

 

The End of a Season

What most of our winters are doing now.

The winter steelhead season itself was a pretty tough one. On the North Umpqua it just seemed like we were chasing the end of the rainbow. The steelhead just never showed in the numbers we’re used to seeing. Something has to be said about the fact that this would be the first generation of fish we’ve seen from the year  wild fish were allowed to be killed. I know it was tough fishing throughout the Northwest for winters, so I’m hoping we’ll see a healthier return next year.

The only one I got to hook, play and land this year

The Rogue seemed to fair even worse, but the killing of wild fish continues here. I just don’t get the logic of killing wild fish on the Rogue. We have two hatchery programs on the Rogue system, one below Lost Creek dam and the other on the Applegate. There should be plenty of hatchery fish to take home to the table. Science has shown wild fish are key to the future of healthy fisheries and history has shown hatcheries don’t work. I wish I could just have happy steelhead stories, but the Rogue needs our help. Look for more on this in the future.

Rich

Steelhead behind bars

Winter Steelhead Update

California's Smith River

The fishing seems to be picking up a bit. Seems like we are a few weeks behind on the fish numbers up here on the North Umpqua. The fish are continuing to come over Winchester in good numbers, so it is only a matter of time before they show in the Flywater. We have been hooking fish each day, but we have definetily been working hard for’em.

Jim Zondanos form Australia with a 36 x 21 inch buck

I think our best fishing is still to come, I still have a few dates open in the next few weeks so if you’d like to do some fishing holler at me and we’ll see what we can do.  Here are a few pics….

The "Web" fishing a classic steelhead run on the North

Peter Tronquet grippin' & grinnin'

 

David Morris working the Smooths aka "Slim Shadies"

 

 

A big wrist

 

The fishes view before the big pull