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At the beginning of this month a series of storms passed through Southern Oregon bringing much rain and causing snow melt. Due to this large influx of water, on April 10th the Army Corps of Engineers released about 10,000 cubic feet of water per second from the dam at the top of the Rogue. This marked the highest river levels of this kind since the winter of 1996-97.
During times of high water the river can become unsafe and of course unfishable, but it is not all a bad thing as it can effectively clean the river system and draw more steelhead and salmon to the top of the river. Charlie and I also got the chance to take a "spring break" and headed south for 2 weeks of fun in the sun.
The 1st fishable day since the 4th of April was this past week. As we were pleased to discover, upon arriving home, plenty more hatchery (and native) winter steelhead have arrived in the Upper Rogue (near Shady Cove-Medford). The last 7 days have been productive trips and steelhead fishing should continue to improve as the water drops. With the river dropping, we will have the opportunity to fish a larger stretch of river, not just the very top, as was necessary during this high water.
The high water has made running plugs in the slow pockets and bobber dogging in the seams the go to methods. Both bait and pegged soft beads have worked.
In the next few weeks we will be doing some combination fishing trips, focusing on winter steelhead, but searching for the 1st spring salmon of the year. Spring salmon fishing has recently picked up at the mouth of the river. We have also had multiple days where river temperatures have been over 50 degrees which will make salmon want to move upstream into colder water.
Spring salmon should arrive shortly in decent numbers. By mid to late May spring salmon fishing on the Upper Rogue should be in full swing and offer some of the best fishing in Southern Oregon.
