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 12/23/24)

ROGUE

Steelhead fishing has been quite good on the Rogue the last 3-4 weeks whenever the river has been clear enough to fly fish successfully. As many know December is always sneaky good here, and we see some of our biggest wild summer steelhead showing up now. Those fish that have made a spawning run before know they don’t need to be in the river in August to spawn in February, so the biggest wild steelhead always show up late. Unfortunately it looks like we’re getting into the annual “couple weeks blown out stage” between Christmas and mid January, as there’s a lot of rain in the forecast. Will be some clear water right up by the dam, but that might be about it for a little while. High water should get some winter fish moving though, so hopefully we start seeing some winter fish showing up in Grants Pass by mid January. Also should have some fish in the Illinois, Umpquas, and definitely the coastal rivers after this rain and high water.

The hatchery steelhead run this year was extremely small, as the hatchery accidentally killed all of them when they were smolt three years ago (not the first time sadly). They were able to stock about 20% of the normal amount, so we’ll probably end up with about 700 or so hatchery steelhead making it to the hatchery. This kept fishing way slower during July/August, as the hatchery fish come early and the wild fish will keep piling in through December. We have about 65-70% wild steelhead when the hatchery counts are around 4000 returning steelhead, so there will still be plenty of steelhead just not as many as most years. The biggest push of wild steelhead leaves the ocean in the fall once the lower river cools down, so as always fall through early winter will be our best fishing as far as numbers go.

We’re mostly swinging with skagit heads and sink tips with the colder water temps now. Still generally darker color (black/red, black/blue, purple etc) intruder/hoh bo spey style patterns as the go to on sink tips, with a wide variety of classic flies working well. We also fish way more pink/red/orange stuff in the late Fall and Winter as they seem to like the brighter stuff more in the colder water.

Nymphing is always good using flashy stoneflies followed up by copper johns, steelhead brassies, egg patterns, and other bright colored droppers you like in size #8 -#12.

If you haven’t come out with Rogue Valley Anglers’ guides you need to, as I 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 religiously fly fishing 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.

I’ve gotten fairly mixed reports from the Holy Water lately, with some folks doing good and others not touching anything. In general you’ll want to fish small mayfly and midge patterns as well as stonefly nymphs all winter, as that’s the only real hatches (stoneflies live 2 years as nymphs so always crawling around the rocks). Swinging/really slowly stripping streamer patterns can also be effective in the winter.

OTHER LOCAL FISHERIES

The North Umpqua had a resurgent run of winter steelhead last year, which is always good to see. Definitely the biggest run since 2019, so Logan had a great season up there guiding for us. The summer run has been better than last year (meaning it hasn’t had to be closed to all fishing), but still not great by any stretch. That stupid dam needs to get taken out or the summer steelhead run will never recover! Already some winter fish coming up over Winchester Dam, so hopefully it’s another good winter run up there this year. Logan will be guiding for us up there from February through early April so give a call to get a trip booked as his schedule will fill up.

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’ve had to close it 2 of the last 4 years. 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 summer steelhead), which is sadly the only realistic chance to save this incredible place.

The coastal rivers should all have their first good push of winter steelhead around, as they all seem to noticeably pick up around mid December. Chetco, Smith (CA), Illinois, Umpqua(s), Elk, Sixes, Coquille etc should all have some winter fish around.

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!