Rouge River Tidewater

[fishpatrol]

I'm a new member of your forum. I plan on fishing the Rouge at the end of the month with the wife and kids and I'd appreciate any tips provided. I plan on throwing the kitchen sink, kwickfish, divers, rotary killers, apex, spoons, and whatever the local tackle shop will sell me until I hear different. I will be fishing from a boat.
I usually fish the Klamath, Trinity, Mad and Eel rivers.

Thanks

[Hookset]

Welcome fishpatrol, nice to see you join the group. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

For the Rogue fall chinook fishery, there are 2 basic setups. Actually, both setups are also used for the river anchor spring chinook fishery too, except blade sizes are reduced.

Rogue anchovy spinner rig - This is a staple most people try first. A spinner blade rigged in front of a bent anchovy catches a large portion of Rogue chinook each year. I use 5 foot 30 to 40# leader, tie a double over hand knot on one end, used to thread a trebble on later, just dont make the loop to large and trim off excess tag end close. Run a size 1 hook down the leader, tie with an egg loop knot using 20# dacron to rig as a slider. Above the slider thread on apx. 6-8 plastic beads, I start with larger 6mm beads then gradually work smaller to 2 1/2mm, next slide on a quick change plastic clevis, designed to interchange blades. Last, tie on a duolock snap to end of leader. To rig, use a colorado style size 3 to 5 blade attched to the clevis in gold/green or any other salmon catching colors, G-spot blades are popular. Thread the loop end of leader through an anchovy and out the anal vent, push loop through eye of 1/0 trebble and wrap loop around the points, pull tight. Pull up slack so hook eye is pulled inside anal vent, burry one point into the spine from underneath, to hooks will extend on each side. Next run the upper hook underneath the mouth and up and out between the eyes. This holds the mouth closed and anchors the bait. Now draw the leader tight and put a slight bend in the anchovy. The anchovy will have a arc bringing the nose and tail down. Check the spin action and increase or decrease bend to reduce or extend the roll. I like a small tight lazy spin.

The second item is a spinner. Your favorite salmon spinner with a inline 2/0 trebble works well. The trebble should stick straight back either by tubing or tied with wire. On the Rogue I use size 5 to even 7 cascade style blades, size 6 is my favorite in gold with kelly green tip. For spacers, I like green size 10 or 8mm beads. Again,good blade colors are made by G-spot.

With both rigs, use a spreader with swivels on all ends. Use can also use a slider on the mainline and attach a lead dropper line to this. Dropper lenght is 24 inch 15 pound leader and 36 inch 30 to 40 pound test leader lenght for spinners.

Have fun and good luck, give us a report when you get back,

Gregg

[TheRogue]

FP...

Remember that this bay is very SHALLOW!! Other than 20-30 ft right under the bridge, it averages 8-12 feet in most places, at high tide. On a minus tide, with all the sand that's filled in the bay, it doesn't even look like tidewater! Be careful where you're going, and follow the crowd.

Keep bumping the bottom, and be prepared for bumping boats. My favorite spinner is a gold, hammer-backed CV-7 blade with a gold 1/0 treble, and just enough 5mm chartreuse beads or tubing to keep the blade out of the hook!! I love using spinnerbaits, but they spin can be tough to work just right with the inline spinner, it interferes somehow. If I'm fighting crowds, running the boat, and baiting for other people in my boat, I tend to stay with metal. If you have access to good green label anchovies in Eureka, bring them with you....the bait quality in G.B. really is crappy this year (and last). You would think that some enterprising person would've netted about a million pounds out of the boat basin in Brookings and vacuum packed them!

Good luck, hopefully Crusin will see this and post with an up-to-date report. The fishing went to total crap when the cold water release from the dam hit the bay, the fish jetted up the river. It's definitely not too late, though, the Indian Creek fish won't really have entered the bay yet. Hogtide and Highwater should be on the water as I post this, hopefully things have picked up.

T.R.

[ 08-14-2001: Message edited by: TheRogue ]

[Phish_on]

Also remember that rouge is that red stuff that you put on your face and rogue is the name of the wild and scenic river in southern Oregon.

I mention this only to save you the ridicule that I myself have endured for the same misspelling! (Not on I-fish, of course ... these guys are all so polite ... and illiterate - - sorry that big word means "real nice folk") [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[FISHFINDER]

Fishpatrol,

Fished the Rogue last Friday. Not too much happening but seemed to be lots of fish around. A 54#'er was reported the day before I was there. I only managed a jack and a steelhead (released).

TheRogue kinda knows what he's talking about as far as the salmon go, but don't ask him about steelhead. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Good luck,
FF

[fishpatrol]

It must have been that creole I ate. I'll try not to let ignorance show until later posts.
(Louisiana, Baton Rogue, just in case the creole ref didn't work)

[Crusin]

The bite has been on and off.but yeterday there were over 15 fish taken, maybe more,I got sick of listening to all the fun and turned off the marine radio at work...there was a nice picture of that 54 pounder caught by Helen in the paper, heard but cant confirm it that a 56 was caught tuesday..Btw watch out for that ol log under the north end of the bridge..probably enough gear on it now to open a tackle store...Anchovy's are still rare, I have one of my drivers headed to Eureka today to pick up a load for the Rogue Outdoor store, that is if they came in...

[highwater]

I got back yesterday from fishing the Rogue bay for 6 days. We got one 37 3/4 lb. button fish. Caught one coho, which we turned back, and one jack, had some other hook ups. Fishing there is very very slow, alot of the guides are doing nothing. The bay is just full of bait fish, I have never seen anything like it. My fish finder would not go through the bait fish. I will say the fish that are getting caught are big fish. Fishing there you have a great chance of a fish 30 to 50+ lbs. I took bait from here, I wish I would have had some 6" or larger anchovies, would have been easy to rig up. I find the smaller ones are harder to do and take more time, but they work as that is what we got the fish with. There is no bait to be bought, they got some in Wed. and it was gone quick, Jots will sell it to you for
$6.00 a tray, Rogue outdoor has none, but the guides come first......If you plan on fishing in the derby next week have bait, the guides will. If you fish the derby you will be fishing against the guides, last year Chris Young's wife took one the womens division, fishing with Pro guide Chris young. I think this going for a good cause, but I do not like how they run the derby.
It can be a great place to fish and have fun and the fish are great to eat. So the Rogue is not red HOT, 15 to 20 fish was the best I saw in a day, 150 to 175 boats. No bait, rember to take bait, you will not get any, the guides get first crack. One last thing if you go take a marine band radio, you can listen to Guide Don Pedro, talk, talk, talk. Have fun...........

[fishpatrol]

Thanks for the tips. I will be fishing in the derby and I will bring plenty of bait. We have a pretty good supply down here and I have been freezing some that I caught in the bay. I don't think I'll be much competition for the guides, but I am hot off of a win in Kenai. Just a small derby with 100 guys, I won it with a 54, small for AK.
I mainly want to get the boat wet and have fun with the family, I'll save the serious stuff for the rivers I know. Again thanks for the info!