RoGUE RIVER Fly Fishing Report

Overview

Welcome to the Wild and Scenic Rogue River!

Swinging flies for steelhead practically started here on the Rogue with Zane Grey being one of the first to write about this magical place and fishery. Now the Rogue River Summer Steelhead Run is famous all over the world and for damn good reason! We catch Steelhead (and Trout) on the fly 365 days of the year here, with fresh fish moving through different parts of the river(s) at different times. This is our home water, and some of the best steelhead fishing in the World is found right here from July through DECEMBER. Winter steelhead season on the Rogue goes from January through April, with March and April being the peak months.

There are many other great fisheries in our region that should be explored at certain times of the year as well. The North Umpqua River from Roseburg to Soda Springs is the other world famous steelhead river in southwest Oregon, and once you see the scenery and experience the pull from these wild steelhead you will instantly know why! There are steelhead moving through the N Umpqua all year too, and they are some of the largest anywhere in the world. The South Umpqua offers great winter steelhead fishing from January through early April as well. we do quite a bit of our winter/spring guiding on the Umpquas, as the winter steelhead run on those rivers is one of the best in the world and 15 pounders aren't uncommon!

The Applegate River is a nearby tributary of the Rogue, and can be an amazing winter steelhead fishery until closing April 1st. After re-opening in late May it's a beautiful spot to fish for trout, camp, and explore (UPPER APPLEGATE RIVER and carberry creek ABOVE Applegate Lake as well). The Illinois River offers incredible fishing and scenery for big winter steelhead as well! Many of the famous Rogue "half pounders" spend their fall near the confluence of the Illinois and Rogue, so you can have a blast with a 3 or 4 weight switch down by Agness in October. In the winter the Illinois gets many of the biggest steelhead that swim through the Rogue River Watershed.

All the steelhead in our area are very healthy and strong fish, as they have been swimming up Class IV+ rapids and waterfalls for generations. Once you feel the grab and your reel starts singing your favorite song you will know why so many fly fishers have come here and never left!

Trout fishing in southern Oregon and northern California is also world class!

The "Holy Water" at the top of the Rogue is a great stretch of trout water, and especially popular during the Salmonfly hatch in late May and early June. Trout season on the entire Rogue opens on May 22nd, which is generally towards the beginning of the huge salmonfly hatch. Some of our best days are during this time of year, as we throw big dries all day, get tons of action, and catch plenty of fish! The Rogue has some big cutties as well as resident trout, smolt, and the occasional early summer steelhead that eats the big dry fly!

Upper Klamath Lake feeds the Klamath River, which has great trout fishing in the Oregon stretch. And with the announced removal of Iron Gate and other dams we will once again have steelhead swimming in the Oregon stretch of the Klamath River in the near future. Feeding into Upper Klamath Lake are the Williamson and Wood, with the Sprague River feeding into the Williamson at Chiloquin. These rivers are home to some of the largest trout on the West Coast, as some of them are descendents of steelhead that were trapped when the dams went in. The season here runs from the end of May through the end of October, and trout can be caught every way possible. During the warmer summer months the rainbows leave the shallow lake and reside in the cooler more oxygenated and bug infested waters of the spring fed rivers listed above, so make sure and bring a 6 weight with you and be ready for a 10 pounder on every cast! The Upper and Lower Sac, Pit, Fall, McCloud, etc are all great options for trout fishing nearby in Northern California as well.

ALEX’s current FISHING REPORT

(UPDATED 4/23/24)

ROGUE

Winter steelhead season has been pretty tough here on the Rogue, as the water has been high, muddy, and cold much of the season. There also hasn’t been a lot of steelhead around when the river was in decent shape, which is certainly concerning for the future. There are still fish moving upriver, as the hatchery has had it’s biggest weeks of the year the last 2-3 weeks. Still worth getting out on your own a bit in the upper river, but we’re pretty much calling it a season.

Now we start looking forward to our best trout fishing of the year in southern Oregon, which happens when our fabled salmonfly hatch gets going in late May! My guess is it’ll be a later hatch like the last couple years, as we’ll have higher water like those years which takes a little longer to warm up. We also have cooler weather back in the forecast, so my guess is early June will be our best salmonfly action. These are some of our funnest floats of the year, as we just throw big dry flies all day to gorging fish. We have a lot of good sized trout on the Rogue, so some of our best days have us getting 10+ fish between 16-24 inches to take dry flies! Don’t miss out on the action as our calendar is starting to fill up, but we definitely still have plenty of open spots.

If you haven’t come out with Rogue Valley Anglers’ guides you need to, as I’ve guided for almost 20 years and know exactly who the best guides on the river are and won’t hire anyone else. My guides and I have floated the Rogue fly fishing thousands of days, and all caught/netted thousands of big trout and steelhead. This is our lives and passions and what we do every day of the year. We don’t work other jobs and dress up as fly fishing guides for part of the year like so many on this river. Every year I see more people guiding who just started fly fishing a couple years ago, got bought a boat, and have floated the river 20 times in their lives. I’ve even seen a couple guides running spey trips who don’t even own spey rods, much less know how to use them. Make sure you know exactly who your guide is and how long they have been a fly fishing guide if you truly want the best experience possible. Anyone who runs gear trips is not a fly fishing guide, although many will tell you they are because they “guide” fly fishing trips a couple times a year.

The Holy Water doesn’t have much pressure, and is a great place to go trout fishing. Blue winged olives and march browns are hatching dependent on the weather, which can lead to some great afternoon dry fly fishing. Make sure and remember that trout fishing is closed basically everywhere else except the Holy Water, so don’t be throwing little dry flies at Casey Park.

OTHER LOCAL FISHERIES

The North Umpqua had a resurgent run of winter steelhead this year, which is always good to see. Definitely the biggest run since 2019 or 2020, so Logan had a great season up there guiding for us. Hopefully the summer run is better, and most importantly hopefully that stupid dam gets taken out!

The North is one of my favorite rivers on earth along with the Rogue and Deschutes, so it’s truly sad for me to see the state of things up there so bad they had to close it again last summer. Winchester dam needs to be taken out of this river very soon, or we’ll eventually lose one of the greatest summer steelhead fisheries in the world. Unfortunately many of the rich people/local politicians living on the “lake” section of the river above Winchester dam will gladly destroy the fishery and local economy so they can ride jet skis every summer. Sadly their personal greed is going to destroy one of the treasures of the pacific northwest if change doesn’t happen soon and that dam doesn’t come out. We’ve seen down here on the Rogue how great it is for summer steelhead runs to have dams removed (6-10x the number of returning adult steelhead), which is sadly the only realistic chance to save this incredible place.

The lakes should start picking up with the warmer weather this week warming up the water and getting more bugs moving around. Bass fishing can be pretty good in April and May, and normally Klamath and Diamond start picking up steam in late April or May. California trout season opens in a couple weeks and most of those rivers should be in decent shape.

As always give a call to the shop for any specific questions and the most up to date info, as we live and breathe fly fishing and always know what's going on down here in beautiful southern Oregon!