Upper Rogue River April 12th 2010

The Upper Rogue River is ready to fish!!

Once the water level came down and the sun came out, the Steelhead bite turned on. Fisherman have been having a good number of hook-up's side drifting bait from the Hatchery down to Dodge Bridge. With the current water color and level, The Seward Fish Company has been fishing mostly Bubble's and fly's. This technique is similar to drifting floats and jigs, but the bubble and fly is the most productive of the two techniques on the Upper Rogue. Many fisherman only use the bubble and fly when the Rogue is closed to bait fishing, this is when I learned the technique.
However, the bubble and fly is now my go to rig on the Upper Rogue especially from Mid-March through November.

In order for this technique to be effective you have to have the correct gear, a 10-13ft spinning rod is a must. Lamigals makes a great Bubble fly rod, it is basically a fly rod blank with a long cork handle; the rod eye's are set up for a spinning reel. In the past I would spool my reels with 6lb mono and use a 6lb leader; P-Line has introduced a newer product called Hydro-Float line. This line is incredible for any application like the bubble and fly, or floats and jigs, I even used this new line on the Smith this past fall when I was fishing floats and egg's for King Salmon. For flys I use a beaded ugly bug on my main line, a 12in dropper with a prince nymph on the bottom. Your overall length leader from the bottom of your bubble to your last fly should be the length of your rod, 12ft rod, 12ft overall leader.

The Upper Rogue River as of April 13th has 9971 winter Steelhead over Gold Rey dam, and only 2006 winter Steelhead have made it to the Hatchery, that means there is a about 8000 winter Steelhead between the dam and TouVelle State Park. This would explain the good numbers of Steelhead being caught this past week. The Upper Rogue River water flows, temperature, and fish counts can be accessed by calling 1-800-472-2343. The Hatchery has began re-running winter Steelhead that have made it to the Hatchery early, these fish on released below Gold Rey Dam on each Thursday; you will be able to recognize a re-run Steelhead by the hole-punch located on the gill plate.

On April 12th I fished from Takelma State Park down to Dodge Bridge, I put in at 7am and took out at 9:30am my son and I hooked four fish, and landed two very nice winter Steelhead, all these fish were hooked using the bubble and fly technique. At times the egg bite can out fish the bubble and fly, when I seen this or foresee this happening, I will put some Pro-Cure salmon egg oil, or some steelhead combo gel on my flys, now you have the best of both worlds. I have posted some bubble and fly how-to video on my blog page at http://fishsewardalaska.blogspot.com/ this video shows some tips and some great Steelhead fighting from April 12th.

now go catch some fish