It’s springtime here in Oregon and our summer steelhead are beginning to fin their way to the North Umpqua. The floating lines and skaters are beckoning to be thrown to a distant holding lie. There is the anticipation, though being a month and a half away, of seeing that first steelhead explode on the dry, and which of the famous North Umpqua runs it will come in. If you have yet to experience the North Umpqua it is a must for any avid steelheader.
The North Umpqua is probably the most rewarding fishery for steelhead, being that it is very challenging, exceptionally beautiful and the steelhead themselves are in my opinion the prettiest to swim and aggressive to the surface fly. Most of the fish we catch throughout the summer are on the dry, only in the toughest conditions will we go to a sink-tip.
Please take the time to check out a video a friend and I put together last summer,
The Rogue is another summer-run headliner we have here in So. Oregon. Though the Rogue turns on a little latter than the North Umpqua the steelhead usually continue coming through November and into December. Contrary to what you might here from those that have fished the Rogue, it is truly a great swinging river. Typically we fish sink-tips from August till she blows out, the Rogue steelhead are very grabby towards the swung fly. Here I use a raft to access water that most can’t get to on foot, the raft is just transportation from swing run to swing run. While not in a canyon setting as the N.U., the Rogue offers great scenery of the Table Rocks and Mt. McLoughlin, it is no doubt beautiful in its own way and I fall more in love with each time out. The Rogue can also see some amazing returns of summer steelhead which can turn into steelheading that defies what we have come to expect from a days fishing. A popular trip come September through October is a few days fishing dries on the North Umpqua and then a few on the Rogue getting after them with the sink-tip.
Thanks to all that I got to fish with this past season, hope all is well.
Rich & Bo
The winter steelhead season itself was a pretty tough one. On the North Umpqua it just seemed like we were chasing the end of the rainbow. The steelhead just never showed in the numbers we're used to seeing. Something has to be said about the fact that this would be the first generation of fish we've seen from the year wild fish were allowed to be killed. I know it was tough fishing throughout the Northwest for winters, so I'm hoping we'll see a healthier return next year.
