the Rivers

The Mighty Rogue RIver

The Rogue River is our home water, where you can fish only 10 minutes from our fly shop in downtown Medford. The Summer Steelhead run on the Rogue is one of the best anywhere in the World...period! The season gets going in late June with the hot early chromers, and lasts through December. October is generally the peak for great fishing and great weather, but I've had incredible days from late June all the way into January; when weather permits. Summer Steelhead show up in the Upper Rogue River starting in June, and by July there are enough chromers around to hook several fish daily. We normally fish the cooler waters from around TouVelle State Park all the way up to the Lost Creek area from June through mid September as the middle and lower river are too warm. The preferred method is to nymph from the drift boat, and then stop at the best runs to swing flies with Spey/Switch Rods. Obviously if someone wants to just swing (or nymph) that's fine with us; but we truly love teaching both methods and find it makes for the best overall experience. As the fall gets here we also start to fish the middle Rogue around Grants Pass. There is a fun mix of half pounders and adult steelhead down there, and great scenery making it a great place especially to swing flies!

By Christmas time our attention starts to shift to the West with big chrome winter steelhead starting to enter the lower Rogue. When weather permits we also guide the middle Rogue (the Grants Pass area) for winter steelhead starting in February, and then we start guiding the upper Rogue (Medford area) in March and April.

Trout season gets going in April as the winter steelhead season ends, with many of the lakes fishing well in April and May. Northern California trout season opens towards the end of April, and then Oregon officially opens trout season on May 22nd. The season opening generally coincides with the giant salmonfly hatch on the upper Rogue, and it is a special time of the year! We float the river casting huge dries to cuthroat, rainbows, and even the occasional steelhead...lots of fish and lots of action make these days a ton of fun! Even after the salmonfly hatch ends in June we get great hatches throughout the summer (golden stones, caddis etc), so trout fishing on the upper Rogue stays really good most of the summer.