On the Rogue again

Katie and I decided to take an early three day weekend and head down to Medford to see the parents. The girls spend the days doing “crafts” and I got to head back onto the water were I started this obsession with fly fishing, the Rogue. It is always a blast getting to go fishing with my dad and even more so on a river where you can fish for steelhead and in the same drift dry fly fish for trout.

The day started much differently than what I am used to, it started at 8:30am instead of my normal 6:00am. We were on the water by 9:30am and fishing shortly after with no other boats in sight, it was already turning out to be a good day with no boats and a bit more sleep. As we made our way down river we had to pick our slots a bit more than normal since the river was running a bit lower than usual. Once submerged rocks are now sticking out of the water and many troughs and tail outs were a bit shallower than we would have liked, but it makes for a challenging day on the Rogue. Right at noon and about halfway through the drift with no fished hooked, a very nice hatch of what seemed to be a cross of a bwo and an emerger started and would last the rest of the float. After watching the hatch get swallowed by some feisty trout and eating some lunch we were back after the big fish.

We came to the last riffle of the drift that could have the chance of holding some steel. After making 2 or 3 passes with me fishing we decided to switch rolls and I would man the oars and my dad would fish. Now I don’t know if it is luck, skill, or a combination but sure as a frog has water proof ears my dad lands this nice native fish.

After he posed with the fish it was returned back in the water unharmed and a bit wiser not to eat everything it sees, I took my dad back upstream and fished the run once more. Nothing happened this time, which leads me to believe it was luck. He offered to take me back upstream once more before moving on, and I am glad he did. Nearly at the very end of the run I landed this mixture of a steelhead trout. It was not big enough to be a full steelhead but it was one of the larger trout I have seen on the Rogue, so for the sake of the season I am calling it a steelhead, small but a steelhead.

There you have it, the first day of a three day weekend in Medford. Oh, I almost forgot to mention my meeting of the Rogue legend, Odus. Odus is a 90 year old man who dry fly fish’s right around 350 days out of the year, this guy is the creator of some of the deadliest flies on the Rogue. LTD