Rogue river recon

Bankbound · 05-24-2003, 10:53 AM

I had never even seen this part of the state before, man was I impressed! To all those who sent me email and gave me pointers

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]
So the chronicles are as such. First day we are there we go exploring, what a blast. We end up at this big diversion dam that has fish stacked up above and below it. It's illegal to fish there so we just stared in awe for about 30 minutes. This pool was full of some of the biggest salmon I've ever seen! They looked like torpedoes, big and fat. We decide to head down river to find a place where we can fish. We end up at this little boat ramp just upriver from the town of Gold Hill. Second cast FISH ON!!! Dad and I took turns catching 12-16 in trout for about an hour. We were using #2 all black spinners (thanks for the tips flatfish), and just killed em', we lost count of the fish. Have the Hogan boys lost their skunk!
The next few days go like that untill I lost both of the lucky spinners So I go to the local sporting goods store to buy some goodies and sap the owner for info. He was all about pointing us into fish. He put a few more lucky spinners in my bag and I was off. This time to the Coyote Evans state park. This is the Jobsite that My dad will be working at (replacing a bridge).
I tie on the new lucky spinner (to the end of my trout rod ) and away we go. I'd just been drifting the spinners as there is enough current to keep em' working the entire drift. Sure enough I get to the end of the drift and let it swing when WHAMMO! ZZZzzzZZZzzZZZzzz!! God I love that sound. BIG fish on, I run upriver tripping the whole way, wait, wait let's go downriver now! ZZZzzZZZzzZZZzzzzzZZZ! I'm running the best I can and POP goes the leader I officially lost the biggest steelhead I'd ever encountered and it did'nt take long at all. I was used! So I put the trout gear in the truck and pull of the steelhead stuff, It's big right? Well mister salmon disagreed with me. Remember that current I was talking about? The fish did, and the same thing happened with this fish as the last fish. ZZZZzzZZZZzz....gone! (insert favorite string of expletives here) So I'd lost both new lucky spinners AGAIN and could not get another take out of anything.
So dusk starts to roll around so we decide to go throw some bobbers and eggs in this really boily fishy looking hole. Two hours of watching my bobber float around got pretty boring (no hits no fish even with Amerman eggs). So out comes the trout rod bubble and flies...FISH ON! Not a salmon, but just as fun. So once again dad and I took turns catching trout until the sun went down. I have not had such a fun week fishing I think ever. In short I love the Rogue!

Things I noticed:

every other salmon fishermen was lining! We got the wierdest looks with bobbers, sorry guys 12ft. leaders and kegged up fish arent my game.

Most steelhead fishermen are using nightcrawlers bounced on the bottom. Not as popular up here, but the name of the game down there?

It's hot down there! I got eaten alive by bugs every day. I think these ones are trained to like the smell of OFF

Waders are almost useless down there as it's five feet or deeper less than a foot from the bank (most places) and hot 90 yesterday and 87 on monday when I got there.

If you don't have good luck with the big fish the trout are always hungry!

It truly is God's country down there.

Mike Hogan----

Bendman · 05-24-2003, 11:29 PM

was there very many salmon being caught when you were there? I'm going to be working down there to and am looking forward to getting into more springers.

Jet Drifter · 05-25-2003, 01:04 PM

Seems like you got dialed in there Mike. Great report, thanks

Bankbound · 05-26-2003, 10:14 AM

Bendman.
The only ones I saw caught were lined...let's not get into that. So Truthfully other than the few I lucked into I have know idea who was catching what where. Where are you working? Need a fishin' buddie? Send me an email, maybe we can figure all this out together.

MH

Thanks Jet

[ 05-26-2003, 11:15 AM: Message edited by: Bankbound ]

wannacatchem · 05-26-2003, 01:22 PM

Can somebody explain what "lining" for salmon is?

Just tying to get smarter, thas' all

Bendman · 05-26-2003, 06:08 PM

Lining = Snagging

Grantspastor · 05-26-2003, 08:11 PM

Bankbound...now you know why (along with many others)I sort of like living here. Yesterday Finreaper and I limited on springers. 90 pounds in four fish. Just wait til the fall steelhead get here (Sept-Nov) You'll learn to love the river even more.

Straydog · 05-27-2003, 05:58 AM

Now you know why some of us have made many life decisions based on the abilty to remain where we were born and raised.

It is also why some of us dedicate a lot of personal time and energy attempting to keep it the special place it is.

Grantspastor,

Did you catch your fish around town or fish up river, above Savage Rapids someplace???

Grantspastor · 05-27-2003, 03:46 PM

Straydog...we got those fish in the upper river. I'm going to try Pierce again this week

Straydog · 05-27-2003, 09:38 PM

Good job Grantspastor!!

I am thinking of hitting the river on Friday but not sure where yet......

Good luck!!

sinker · 05-27-2003, 11:00 PM

About 7 or 8 years ago the wife and I took a trip down the OR coast and into Northern Cali.
Didn't take any fishing tackle though due to the fact we were camping all the way down and back up out of an '89 Toyota Tercel. Took some inventive packing on our part.
On our way home the last night we stayed at a Forest Service campground on the Rogue. That is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I can still picture it and the campground perfectly and can't wait to get back there again.

We drove up the road as far as you can go on asphalt. I'm surprised that road is still there though. There was some major dips on the river side of the road where the bank was slowly sliding away.