Fishing Reports

Rogue & Umpqua River Steelhead Update Feb.19, 2012

2012-02-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Umpqua River; Sutherlin, Oregon –

River has colored up since last week, but Winter Run Steelhead are still being caught. After talking to some of the guides in the area, I have come to the conclusion that the steelhead are not spread threw out the river system, but have grouped together in pockets recently. Anglers have been staying in the same hole for several hours while catching multiple fish. Rather than drifting the river in search of a Steelhead here and there threw out the days fishing trip.

Umpqua River, North Fork; Glide, Oregon –

With the constant showers of snow in the passes in the evenings and melting during the daylight hours, the river colored became murky by the end of the weekend. This has also caused the temperature of the water to become much colder over the week, but it hasn’t seemed to of effected the Steelheads movements in the river. I am averaging a half dozen fish a trip and I have received reports of others doing better than that on some days. In a couple weeks this river will be in what we call prime season and number of boats catches can be in the high teens.

Rogue River; Grantspass, Oregon –

This is one of the few rivers that anglers are allowed to harvest a native Steelhead, but it must measure 24 inches or greater. This river also has a fantastic hatchery run of Winter Run Steelhead. Fishing is still spotty from Grantspass downstream to Graves Creek boat ramp at the top end of the wilderness section of the river. While some boats are catching 1 or 2 fish in a day of fishing, other boats have given me reports of having a difficult time finding a bite from even a trout. I did a two boat trip early this week and was fortunate to have caught 3 hatchery Steelhead in one boat and while the second boat didn’t catch any fish they did have half dozen good strikes that didn’t amount to the battle we are all looking for.

Curtis Palmer

River Secrets Guide Service

Field Reporter Western Outdoor News

Salmon Harbor Chinook's

2011-10-26T22:47:00.000-07:00

The water's around Salmon Harbor at Winchester Bay are boiling with the movements of circling salmon. These Hatchery Chinook's have no where to go until the water in the creek rises so they can run up stream. Until that happens, angler's are lining the edges of the harbor casting spinner's and lures for these chrome King's of the salmon world. Many fisherman are catching there limit's on a daily basis with these chrome salmon. If you are wanting somewhere easy to go and fish this is the place, but it is only going to be like this for a short time.

Coastal Lakes are Filling with Coho

2011-10-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

Siltcoos Lake is full of active Coho and the other lakes in the area should start having there returning Silvers around the first of November. This year's returning salmon are much larger than normal and biologists say that it is, because many of the fish are four year salts. Basically that means that these Silver's have stayed in the ocean for four years. Most Silver's return after two or three years in the ocean, but with good conditions in the ocean and an extra year of living out there growing to trophy sizes. Angler's have another chance at setting a new state record.

There are many ways to fish for these active salmon. Casting spinner's for these fish as they show them selves while rolling on the surface of the water in the coves and arms of these lakes. Many angler's choose to troll these same spinner's or plugs around while enjoying the colorful leaves of the trees and plants along the shore.

50/50 Coquille River

2011-10-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

On 10/13 2011 The salmon fishing on the Coquille river was off the hook. From the first moment we started to troll, until the last pass we had action. We started trolling up river at the 101 bridge and 9 minutes later we had our first Chinook in the boat. It seemed as if we had a rod bouncing in the rod holders every 15 minutes over the course of an eight hour day, but that would be over exaggerating a small amount. The three of us did managed to hook up 17 salmon before we decided to hang up the gear and head for home.

In the morning we seemed to be getting the attention of the Chinook salmon. While the second half of the day had us hooking mostly Coho salmon as we got closer to the high tide of the afternoon. I usually prefer to catch the King salmon, but when the Silver's are running 14 pounds and larger in some cases I find them to be just as much of an enjoyment to catch.

(Coho season closed on the Coquille river a couple days ago and all native Coho salmon must be released unharmed.)

Fresh salmon in the Coquille River

2011-10-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

All the Chinooks we caught today were some of the freshest fish caught this year in my boat. I believe these salmon came in this morning on the high tide. We had just about non-stop action from the time we started until we gave up trying to get that last fish. I saw plenty of nice King's being swept up in the net's along with about a dozen Coho. I saw one Coho at the cleaning station that hit 19 pounds on the guys scales. That was a super nice Coho and you won't find many of them any bigger than that one on this river. There were quite a few boats launching in the town of Coquille this morning and at Riverton as well. This river is my top choice for the month of October.

Fishing in Gold Beach

2011-10-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

The King's are not biting; do to the nasty weather of this storm. We are expecting some sunny days later this week and I have a feeling; that the Chinook's are going to go on a heavy bite just as soon as that weather changes. Jim Stanley put a 36 3/4 pound King salmon in my boat last Friday. That is just one of several large salmon being caught by various anglers over the last couple weeks.

Bad weather or not the Coho are actively attacking anchovies being trolled across the flats near Indian Cr. Over the last couple of days there are more hatchery Silver's being caught. Even though these salmon are considerably smaller than there cousin's the King salmon. They can be extremely fun to catch and are excellent table fare.