umpqua smallies?? john day smallies??

[SalmonJeff]

I have a few buddies that are really into catching smallies and they are trying to talk me into a drift baot trip. I am a steelhead/salmon fannatic but i used to bass fish all the time when i lived in Nor cal. but what would be your recomendations on either river ? I heard from june into september can be amazing on both rivers. any tips on launches at either place? I have a kicker for my drifter to help move along in low flows.

also what kind fo gear do you recomend ?? thanks for the help!

[Tar Heel]

Hey, Jeff! I was more of a trout steelhead guy after moving here in the 80's but after floating the JD, then fishing the big C a few times, I am back to my bass fishing roots too. I drift the Jd average once a year with a buch of other families and we always have a great time. the best fishing is on the dropping water as it clears a bit. JD gets pretty sulty in peak runnoff, and is more fun to fish as the pools and pocket water get more well defined. I hear it has a half way decent steelhead run, but the water is so low in the Fall you would oretty much have to canoe it. I would really try to put on during the weeek to miss the worse crowdsas the camp sites, though penyful, can be taken on weeeknds. If you put in on a Tuesday or Weds you will be best, but even if you do pt in on a Friday you'll survise. It can produce some 4 lb fish, but there is an over pop probelm, and the dinks are everywhre.
The stretch I do is Twickingham to Clarno.You can add about 8 miles of floating if you put in at Serve Creek, and the Service toTw. can be done as a day trip. Service has a much better put in, but I don't think that stretch is as scenic, so Twickingham is the best for me. Clarno to Cottonwood is a trip I want to do, but I have never taken the time to do it.
Most of the kids use spinners or a zoom lizard on a small jif head. The spinners are great for numbers, but your bigger fish hang in the primo feeding stations and deeper, so getting it down to them w/ the jig helps. Popping bugs, crayfish, wooly buggers and crayfish imitations work on fly rods.
There are som many nice camp sites, and i dont know their names, but one is on a big sweeping bend below burnt ranch on our last night next to soe long deep pools perfect for shore fishing and swimming.
I want to float the Umpqua, and from the pictures I have seen on here, you may find more big fish there. Not sure if it's and overnighter or if the campping is as good as JD.
I would say the perfect combo of enough water to avoid alot of shallow rocks and slow pools (terrible in the afternoon winds) is about 1200 cfs, but 2000-750 is a pretty good range. I did it at 650 once without too much trouble, but whaen the pm winds pick up, and they almost always do, you are rowing 3x as hard to get 1/2 as far.
One of the last overnighters that doesnt rewiure a regulated permit.
Hope that helps. the whitewater is pretty week, and that sint the reason to do the JD

[07clackapramowner]

I run down to the Umpqua a couple times a summer and drift from the town of Umpqua to James Woods boat ramp. Its only a day trip from the Salem area and usually in June/early July you can also catch a few shad too. Pretty easy drift in a D.B. but usually the wind picks up in the afternoon so you'll want a motor. My minny 80lb works great and also helps out when you're trying to fish in the wind. the next couple weeks should be kicking off the summer bite if the weather holds out. Lotsa fish too, usually 100+ fish days!!!

[SalmonJeff]

sounds awesome! Iam looking at the 3rd week in june...

what gear recomendations do you gusy have ?? I always fished tubes or crawdad imatations on jig heads and did ok.. would that get me by ? I might bring some popers for my fly rod too.

thanks for all the help:flowered:

[07clackapramowner]

They'll eat anything they can fit in their mouth! Try 2.5" Gulp! minnows or berkley p-bait frogs on a #1 gami splitshot /dropshot hook with a splitshot about 2' up the line...

[OCdude]

I've made a trip down the JD from Cottonwood to McDonald's Ferry every year for the past 10 years and consider the annual trip some of the best vacations I've ever had. We tiypically float down on pontoons in late June early July and the flow has been anywhere from 1200 to 140. The 140 trip was one of the better ones for quality fish, we only had to do a little draggin' at about a half dozen spots. The Bass will take just about anything from roostertails leech fly patterns to crankbaits and plastics. Although I've seen some real monsters, my personal best on the JD went 20".
Last fall I got a chance to float the Umqua from Elkton to Sawyer rapids with my childhood bass fishing buddy and his three kids. It was a long trip compared to the amount of water I typically cover on the JD and I spent more time worrying about getting off the river before dark than fishing but let's just say I'm going to be making a few more trips on this river. There definitely is a quality fishery there!

[Don Fischer]

Where do you guys get these flow rates from?

[OCdude]

I look in this website "USGS Real Time Water Data for USGS 14048000 John Day River at McDonald Ferry, OR" every week or so to keep an eye on what the river's doing. Because the JD has no dams you can get a feel for how quickly the river levels drop. In the summer it is influenced by irrigation so a hot June will pull a lot of water out pretty fast.