Come let us introduce you to our world-renowned Oregon Rogue River salmon fishing and steelhead fishing. We fish for these species, during these times:
We fish from our very comfortable dory style 'driftboats' manufactured locally in Medford, OR by Willie Boats Inc. All tackle provided. We use only top of the line rods, reels and fishing line. Brands like G. Loomis, Lamiglass, Rogue Rods, Shimano and Abu Garcia reels.
| Best months to fish by species | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| Spring salmon 'springers' | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | trip | fish | trip | fish | fish | fish | fish |
| Summer Steelhead | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | trout | boat | fish | trip | fish | fish |
| Fall salmon | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | rod | boat | trip | float | fish |
| Winter steelhead | fish | rod | float | drift | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish | fish |
Chinook Salmon or 'Springers' begin entering the Rogue River in April and arrive in the Upper Rogue area by mid-May. We fish for them by back-trolling lures such as Kwikfish or back bouncing clusters of salmon roe. We patiently teach you the methods that are most productive and provide all necessary terminal tackle and bait. All you need is a Oregon fishing license, and a willingness to try a new type of fishing. Licenses can be purchased after you arrive in town. As you can see this Spring Chinook salmon angler hit the jackpot. 2004 was a very good year for salmon fishing with plenty of large fish.
These trophy sportfish begin to arrive in our Upper Rogue River area (Shady Cove, Oregon) in good enough numbers in mid-July to begin targeting them while we fish for Spring Chinook salmon. Yes, thats right, we fish for both species at that time of year. August fishing for Summer run steelhead is really hot. This is a great time to take younger or first time anglers. We fish by back trolling lures, an angling technique that is very easy for first time anglers to master.
Salmon fishing starts to rock and roll mid-August and gets really hot in September tapering off around mid-October. We backtroll Kwikfish lures wrapped with a sardine filet. This is a very easy fishing technique to learn. We also side-drift bait (salmon egg clusters), a little harder to learn but very effective on these gigantic Fall Chinook salmon. This happy angler hooked and landed a 40+ pound Fall Chinook salmon side-drifting bait on a 9 1/2 foot, 6-10# line rated Lamiglass Noodle Rod and a Shimano Stradic 4000 spinning reel with 10 lb test Maxima ultragreen line. After a 45 minute fight the fish came to the net.
Fishing is best from mid-December to mid-April. We begin fishing the Chetco, Elk Coquille and Umpqua River and later, depending on water levels, we fish the Rogue River. We occasionally run a trip on the John Day River. However its very cold out there and only the hardcore, dedicated Winter-run steelhead fanatic will venture out there with us. Our season winds down around mid-April. This is when we fish the Upper Rogue River (Shady Cove, Oregon). Occasionally we hook the first Spring Chinook salmon of the year on these trips.
This is a 18 pound 'Wild' Umpqua River steelhead, caught by Justin Wright and released after a few pictures. It doesn't get any better then this.