I am going to Medford for T-day. This was in last thursday's addition of the medford paper. This sounds to good to be true!!!!!!!!. Makes me wonder if someone is BS'ing
Unlocking a steelhead treasure chest
TRAIL - When Andy Zwan strung up his 8-weight fly rod and waded Friday into the upper Rogue River's Hatchery Hole, he knew he was
about to unlock a mystery.
The quarter-mile-long hole along the side of Cole Rivers Hatchery had just opened to steelhead fishing for the first time ever, and Zwan
intended to discover whether this untapped vault contained steelheading treasures or disappointment.
"Like everybody, I've always wanted to fish it for steelhead," says Zwan, a 32-year-old Jacksonville fishing guide. "But I really didn't
know what to expect."
On his first cast, he caught an adult steelhead, which he released. On the second cast, he did the same. The third and fourth casts
produced large, feisty steelhead in the 4- to 10-pound range as well.
Then it got good.
"I went nine for nine - nine casts, nine big steelhead, and I knew then it was going to be a spectacular day," Zwan says. "It was just
gang-busters after that."
Zwan hooked and landed an astounding 36 adult steelhead in less than eight hours Friday at the newly re-opened Hatchery Hole, which
quickly has earned the new role as early November's top steelheading draw along the upper Rogue.
More restrictive angling rules in much of the upper Rogue, combined with the lifting of the traditional angling ban within the hatchery's
shadows, have created a vast shift in where and how anglers are now finding steelheading success.
Historically, the entire upper Rogue was awash in great fishing with roe beginning each Nov. 1, when the traditional flies-only fishing
season of September and October opens to bait-fishing for steelhead gorging themselves on freshly laid chinook salmon eggs.
But the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission this year banned bait fishing through Dec. 31 on the upper Rogue from Rogue Elk Park
downstream to Gold Ray Dam as added means to get more wild summer steelhead to survive fall catch-and-release fishing.
With most anglers favoring bait, that left waters downstream of Rogue Elk virtually unmolested by anglers other than a few such as
Doug Bresette, who hooked 11 steelhead and landed seven Tuesday while fishing plugs from Rogue Elk to Shady Cove.
"We caught fish everywhere and had a ball," Bresette says. "And there was no one else around. Everybody's going where they can bait
fish."
The bait fishermen packed themselves into the waters upstream of Rogue Elk Park - a 5-mile stretch where bait angling is now allowed
through December.
"I've had a lot of people come in saying they've caught two or three," says John Billows, owner of Pat's Hand-Tied Flies near Trail. "But
it's not like it used to be."
But what transpired at the Hatchery Hole more than makes up for it.
The hole, which opened temporarily last summer for spring chinook fishing, quickly became fly-fishermen's delight as they found willing
biters among the hundreds of summer steelhead holding in the river there before swimming into the hatchery.
Fishing was hit and miss, with Jim Mitchell of Shady Cove hitting it at just the right time Sunday evening.
Mitchell, 34, hooked and landed 37 steelhead in three hours of casting flies with a spinning rod Sunday evening. Most of the steelhead
averaged 22 inches long - a respectable Rogue hatchery fish - and they ranged from first-year spawning adults running 17-18 inches
long to fish about 26 inches long.
"It was like I had one every other cast, and it lasted for three hours," Mitchell says. "This was phenomenal fishing."
Bob Martinez of Medford hooked and landed a 17-pound hatchery rainbow trout that Cole Rivers Manager Randy Robart believes has
lived in the closed water for years, feeding on insects that flow downstream from Lost Creek dam.
But perhaps no one has tapped into the hole's potential more than Zwan.
Zwan tied the legal limit of three flies - a prince nymph, an egg fly and a weighted rubber-legged nymph - beneath a 12-foot leader and
cast the contraption throughout the hole's 1,150-foot stretch.
Zwan says he hooked and released steelhead as large as 29 inches Friday, with the action never slowing. The hook-ups were so
numerous that the novelty even started to wear off.
"I had over 50 hook-ups," Zwan says. "I got greedy and started to just yard them in. My arm got so sore I left around 2 o'clock."
But nirvana doesn't remain forever.
Those fishing the Hatchery Hole in the past two days have seen the catches plummet, possibly because there are fewer fish in the hole
now and those still there are a bit wiser.
"It's tough fishing now, not like it was," Zwan says. "We're still getting two to five fish a day, but we have to work for them. They've been
pretty educated."
Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at:
mfreeman@mailtribune.com
Winter Steelies?
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