The weather is still the same: hot and hot.

But, that shouldn’t put a hitch in your plans like visiting in-laws might. Local lakes and ponds are seeing good bass activity; supposedly someone at work pulled two 5lb plus bass out of Emigrant Lake on Wednesday. (I don’t know if I buy the guy’s story; he made it sound like one of the bass pulled him in the water and almost swamped his boat it was soooo big, like something out of Old Man and the Sea). But I do know from firsthand experience that Applegate Lake has some decent size bass along the shoreline. Don’t be afraid to fish on top, with flashy poppers and frog patterns.

Not to be outdone by the warm water opportunities, the Rogue is starting to get pretty, pretty, pretty interesting. Decent steelhead numbers are moving into the upper Rogue; the Holy Water has some nice caddis and evening dun hatches stirring it up. Not a bad time to hit the Holy water for some nice Rainbows and then drift nymphs for steelhead downstream.

This weekend is looking hot. And not the freshly showered and ready for action kind. Or, maybe more in the vein of this site, the thick clouds of caddis over the water or extreme hopper activity kind. Hot as in the only time of day worth checking out the river or stream you’re thinking of is before the sun comes up or after it goes down.

The Upper rogue is having some luck for summer steelhead, but the bright sun and warm air is putting them down except for early and late in the day. Try hitting runs with deep water or boulder stretches with shade with deep nymphs and streamers. Trout fishing has been good with the same steelhead pattern as above, with evening caddis hatches providing some dry fly action late.

The Rogue above Lost Creek continues to perform well for small to midsize stockers, providing a fun time during the weekend on a 3- or 4-weight rod. Union creek fished really well this past weekend on mosquito patterns, and the shade of the trees is a nice relief from the extreme heat.

Local lakes are seeing good bass and bluegill fishing, with Applegate fishing especially well on the beach side of Hart-Tish Park with big noisy streamers and leach patterns. This past week we’ve heard stories of two 3-5lb bass caught on fly rods from float tubes along the rocky coves along the main road, so watch out for likely spots to throw a line.

But, if daytime fishing on a river is your thing, head to the Southfork Umpqua. I’ve seen a few reports this week that bass have been hitting it hard. And the weather is supposed to be a bit (no much, but some) cooler than here in the Rogue valley.

Best of luck!

The past two weeks have been quiet here on the piscatorial journal. Hopefully someone other than the obligatory family member has noticed…

I’ve been on the yearly visit-every-family-member trip that took my wife, daughter, and I to North Idaho and Western Montana. During the trip I had the fortune of fishing twice with my grandfather, the man who taught me how to cast a fly-line, helped me catch my first steelhead, explained to me why you release a fish, and made sure I knew at an early age it is always a rod, never a pole.

In years past he was the one who manned the oars of his drift boat, working hard to put me over fish on his home water of the Kootenai River. He made it a point to fish as much as we could get away with whenever I was there, up to the point my grandmother would start getting upset, but never staying on the river too much to get either one of us in too much trouble. And if we did tick off the other visiting relatives by being away from the family too much, he’d look at me and say, “Oh hell, let’s go fishing some more.”

This year I was able to convince my grandfather to let me do the rowing; he’d just been cleared by his doctor to start being physically active due to a back and leg surgery. And while all those fish he’d helped me catch over the years are special to me, the fish he caught this week while I rowed meant much more. Having the chance to get out on the water was nice (especially after the train wreck of a week I’d spent with the in-laws prior to seeing my grandparents), but having a chance to give something back to my grandfather was better than any fish I may have caught over the years.

I’m all for experimenting. With fly tying (nothing weird). There are fly patterns using Ziploc baggies, condoms, Christmas ornaments, all kinds of dead animals, and the list goes on.

But there are bad ideas, or at least ideas we’ll never get to try. Recently I was reminded of this during several different conversations. So here they are:

-My cat’s wife’s tail will never be used as a pike fly. I suggested this after 43rd time Luc(ifer)y my wife’s cat took a big ol’ leak on my clothes drying in the laundry room. This cat has it out for me, and I for it, but the cat has my wife on its side.

-Suggesting that a new idea for a Great White shark pattern might be a bloody life jacket. This after driving by our local sporting good store that had a display of different mannequins in life jackets, and then driving by a butcher shop that had a side of beef in the window. And of course my mind made the connection: the first Great White shark pattern for a fly rod. You’d basically take a harpoon, soak a life jacket in cow blood, and then tie the two together.

-Using my boss’ very “loud” and bright hair ties as bass plugs. She thinks that bright, crazy colored, and “buggy” looking hair ties really do go nice with professional clothes. I told a friend/coworker that I think her hair looks like a willow tree that has three or four bass flies stuck in it.

We’ve been waiting for the spring water flows to arrive; they did this week. See the spill gates below at Lost Creek Dam on the upper Rogue this past week below; looks like a continuous save crashing into the pool below the dam.

Tried putting some nymphs below an indicator through some of the slow water; nothing. Hope the outflow slows down, as nothing much is moving on the Holy Water right now. If nothing else, it’s worth driving by if you’re in the upper Rogue area.

Weekend fishing report

Gumbo. That’s what the forecast is predicting for local streams and rivers after the recent storm sets that have rolled through. With the hills full of snow, the clouds full of rain, and temperatures in the 70’s, we ought to see most of our streams and rivers fill with muddy slop and the occasional misplaced lawn chair on a voyage to Gold Beach.

If you’ve got the time and means, we’d recommend a trip to your favorite lake. People have been hitting Fish Lake in the evenings with hatches of PMD’s and having good results.

Bass have begun to move into the shallows of most local ponds and lakes, but the latest storms have put them off the bite. Look for the nice weather forecasted the next couple of days to improve Bass movements.

The Holy Water is definitely going to be some high water, but will still be clear, and with the nice weather we ought to see some Salmonfly activity increase. Be ready for crowded banks, less room with the higher water, and of course a few crazy idiots trying to crowd on top of you when you start hooking into fish.

With the main Rogue almost for sure to be blown out, watch out for high water the further downstream from Lost Creek you move. But, it might be worth checking out, what with the epic Spring Chinook run providing a real chance to hook into a fish of a life. Most fish are being caught on gear, but we’ve heard of long days with a fly rod in drift boats turning up 15 pound fish on tube flies, mostly in purple and orange.

So no matter the fish or location, get out and wet a line.

If we could actually turn the corner from winter/spring weather to spring/summer, there are hordes of stoneflies along the Rogue waiting to hatch. The Holy water is shaping up to have some great stonefly action; but we need the weather to warm up for a few days.

Managed to hook into a few decent fish last weekend during a small hatch of the giant flies. Nice to fish topside after nymphing for the last few months. And these fish are absolutely some of the prettiest I’ve had the pleasure of catching.

Watch out for the stonies handing onto the trees and bushes along the river; it can be a little unnerving to look down after moving a branch out of the trail and see 5 or 6 giant insects crawling up your arms.

As the winter run of Steelhead on the Rogue is winding down, and my fly-fishing travel fund has yet to materialize, most of the posts to come for the next few months will focus on the Steelhead’s homebody cousin, the Rainbow trout. With many local trout streams and lakes close to home, plus a few out-of-town family trips over the summer months taking me to western Montana, central Washington, and parts of Idaho, you’ll notice a trout theme until steelies start showing up in the middle and upper Rogue.

And, if the weather around here turns into the surface of the sun heat, as it did for quite a few weeks last year, the occasional bass trip may have to be made. So stay tuned for steelhead trips to come, and enjoy the trout and bass fishing available during the summer.

I’ve not had the good fortune of hitting the Deschutes salmon fly hatch just right, or being on a Western Montana river in the middle of extreme hopper action. I’ve had good days, plenty of ok days, and many not so good days.

Sunday was a truly epic experience. Around 2:30 in the afternoon what was a pretty standard hatch of Caddis flies turned into something that made me hunker down in my shirt like Bazooka Joe hiding in his turtleneck. The slight upstream breeze carried clouds of freshly hatched flies the size of Icelandic Volcanic clouds.

Needless to say I hooked into quite a few fish, many pushing the 24 to 30” size and bright Chrome. It was a welcome change to the winter norm of swinging nymphs and wet flies.

Here’s hoping it’s only a sign of spring and summer fishing to come.

Good news for chrome. After blocking the river in 1980, the Applegate Dam on the Applegate Dam (important tributary of the Rogue River) may now be less of a detriment to returning steelhead. State biologists are looking to test how well fish released upstream of the dam in Carberry Creek (not a bad trout fishery itself) can handle a trip through the dam and the roundtrip known as a steelhead’s existence. If enough fish can make the trip, the state plans on trucking the fish around the dam to spawn upstream in the tributary streams.

I’m optimistic, hopeful, and looking forward to a successful reintroduction of steelhead to the upper Applegate River. And I’m even willing to pay for the 3 more years the program will need to determine if the idea works. Let’s hope it works; the idea of more steelhead in the river and not less is a bright spot in the usual dark news of fish habitat.

So, if you’re fishing Carberry Creek this spring make sure to release any fish with care. You might be holding a future catch that makes someone’s day.