Another Great Rod From LTS

When a certain rod matches you its pure Magic! That is what I am finding with the LTS rods. I'm not sure what they are made out of, but they are nothing short of amazing in my book. Donna, from www.fishon-sports.com let me play with yet another LTS....The Most striking of all them...the 1309-4 Across! Check out my review below!

A week full of Rogue River Spey! Tug is the Drug!

The Upper Rogue River is full of fish, and I am blessed enough to be spending these fall days on the river. The water is staying under 45 deg f most days making swinging tough, but we are still picking up fish. This is the first year I have had more Spey fisherman than nymph fishermen in the boat, and I'm Loving it. Sure swinging brings less fish, but the fish it does bring are the Alpha Monsters Of the Run..the ones that were aggressive enough to slam the Intruder of their underwater world. If you haven't caught steel on the swing, you need to. Experience the pure aggression of this fine river predator, once you do, you'll be tempted to throw away your nymph gear, and spend the rest of the time searching for the TUG.



Good Coffee, Great Line!



A whole Pile Of Spey...put me in coach!

 



The most demanding clients yet!


But we made them happy!

Waiting for battle


A week full of loops like this!

Been there, Done that, Wanna go Back!!!!!!!

I spent two years in this magical place, if you like Salmon, Steelhead, and Trout you need to go!

"The Kodiak Project" trailer - by LDR Media | Fly Fishing Movie from The Fly Fishing Film Tour on Vimeo.

A Great Day for Spey--Rogue River Style

I started the day off at the annual Two hands at Touvelle event. What a great time, I got to cast the newest and the greatest. I also got to try out a Airflo Rage for the first time...Wow, What a great dry line. There is something cool about being able to just grab a rod and go cast it, it close to being in steelhead heaven. While there, I met a cool young man named Kellen who was testing rods 3 at a time--my kind of guy.  As the gathering wore down I knew that I had to get on the water so I drove to the river, knowing that I was in for a good day. Within three cast I got a tug, and a few later I was hooked up. I was all alone until I noticed a young man make his way to the beach. A few minutes later I noticed he was hooked up and having a hard time beaching the fish by himself so I made my way up river to help him out. Once I got there, I realized it was non-other than Kellen! I tailed the nice hen for him and we both admired the nice fish.

With Smile on his face Kellen Said "Everyone says you have to have a bobber and a Nymph to catch steelhead on the Rogue, Why is that?"

I laughed, and answered, "I don't know, we didn't even know what a indicator was when I swung flies here as a kid." We both went back to swinging the run--Kellen ended the evening 2 for 2 and I followed 1 for 3,  missing grabs in between fish--not bad for a couple of hours. 

We were the only two people within sight on a Saturday night- just us, the ducks, and steelhead -Have I ever mentioned I love the Upper Rogue in fall.

Going Back

Nice Little Male

Kellen with his nice Rogue River Steelhead

Grilled Rogue River Steelhead

People who know me know that Hatchery Steelhead don't make it past my boat. there are a couple of reasons for this. 1. We don't need them breeding with the Rogues Wild Steelhead. 2. Rogue River Hatchery Steelhead taste so good! Please help the river and keep all hatchery fish.

My absolute favorite way to cook a steelhead is on the grill. here is a recipe that will bring everyone to the table.

Take a Nice Rogue River Hatchery Steelhead, Fillet it and cut to portions. 

Mix 1 to 1 ratio of pancake syrup and soy sauce. 

Pour marinate in a suitable container, add some fresh garlic, add fish meat side down. Let it soak for at least 15 minutes and no more than a hour.

Take left over marinade and reduce it to a thick basting sauce.

Treat the grill with oil so the fish doesn't stick (do this before you start the coals if you like to keep your arm hair)

Lay fish on grill skin down, and away from the coals, as we will cook with indirect heat. close the lid and keep the grill at about 400 deg. F (notice the fresh garlic)

Cook for about 15 minutes or until the steelhead is flaky. A good way  to know when its close is to watch the skin, when it shrinks to make the edges of the fillet rounded the fish is about done. Properly cooked, the skin should fall off, but there should be a little moisture left in the meat. pepper to taste and serve with a nice salad, and your choice of beverage. YUM!

 

Summer Steelhead On the Rogue River-- How to Catch Fish in the Heat.

We have had a unseasonably hot weather on the Rogue the last couple of weeks. If you watch the river temp it hovers around 60 deg F, in such weather. I have found that water temp is one of the biggest factors that affects the bite. Until I got the USGS River Flow app for my Android smart phone I didn't realize how much the river temp changed during the day--Now I can Almost time the bite with the info my phone provides, but I have also found some tricks to catch fish in the middle of the day, when water is at its warmest.

1. Fish Deep. You all have been swimming in a lake where the top layer of water is warm, then you dive to find that it cools drastically about 10 foot down. The Rogue Steelhead are masters at finding the, comfort  of the right temperature of water. People look at me funny when I pull out the heaver tips and fish the deep stuff in summer, but if your having a hard time in the heat try it .

2. Fish the Shade. This goes without saying, but I see people standing in the mid day sun and fish the same run they fish for winters. The classic steelhead run is 4 to 6 feet of water and is moving at the same speed  as you can walk--not in summer if the sun is high and the water is warming, the fish are cold blooded animals, they cant sweat they need to find the cooler areas of the river.

3. Fish Structure, this is much like fishing shade, but what I'm referring to are the ledges and boulders that are under water. I found this theory one day when I was snorkeling the deep holes on the Chetco. If you have ever swam in the Chetco during the summer you know how warm it could get. I snorkeled the river to clean it up after fishing season. One day I saw a lure that was tucked under a basalt ledge. it wasn't Particularly deep so I took a gulp of air and dove to it, once I got to the edge of the ledge I could feel the water cool. Under the ledge it mus have dropped more than 5 degrees. Trout were stacked in that cooler water--steelhead are no different.

4. Use Big Dark Flies. Dark because you don't have to worry about off colored water as you would during high spring and winter flows, and big because, much like winter, you have to move their lazy butts. the fish slow down in warm water as much as they do in cold water, you have to play on their predatory instincts. Just look at what your plug pulling friends are using, I guarantee their plugs are bigger, and move more, than most of the flies we fish, yet they catch a ton of fish. Why is that? They have tapped into the predatory instinct that all steelhead have to act on, our flies should do the same. 

These are just sole of the tricks I have came up with over they years. Give them a shot on your water. I have included a couple videos to illustrate the above points. Don't let the heat get you down.

 Fishing Summer Holds

You Need Movement

 

Rogue Summer Steelhead have hit the Upper River and they're taking swung flies-- A Rogue River Steelhead Report

I had a couple of hours tonight to be able to swing one of my favorite runs--a real breath of fresh air because most of my clients pick indicators and nymphs, over swinging. Although nymphing is probably the most efficient way to catch a fish, it lacks the grab of the swung fly, and
Rogue Steelhead have slammed a well swung fly for close to a hundred years. If clients would give it a try they might never go back.

 I started with a floating Skagit tipped with a clear intermediate poly leader swinging  a Silver Hilton. Within a couple cast I got a bump, then another, but it was one of those Rogue Steelhead short strikes you have to get use to if your going to fish this river. I continued to hit the water until I was sure the fish wasn't going show agian, then I switched rigs. I took off the floater and changed it with a intermediate Skagit. I tipped it with a 10 foot section of T10 and finished it off with a cone head bugger. It only took a couple of passes and SLAM, the rod about came out of my hands. The fish ran, jumped twice then was gone. It was a good size Summer Steelhead. A little disgusted, I halfheartedly swam the fly through the same slot. Just after the second mend my rod doubled again. This fish was smaller but you would have had a hard time convincing him of that. The little guy ripped into the current and made several aerial attacks, but within a few minutes he came to bay.

It was a great couple hours, If you have never swung a fly for Rogue River Steelhead you really should, ask the Legends, they never used a indicator and they caught a ton of fish. Best Fishes     

Great Water

Do you see the Slot

Nice Rogue River Summer Run

He Slammed the Rogue Wooly Bugger

A Good Description of the Rogue River

for all of those who are coming to Two Hands @ Tou Velle event.

Swinging Rogue Ugly-The fly of many faces!

The Rogue River has such a abundant run of summer steelhead that it gives you a ton of time to experiment. The old Ugly Bug, or Carpet Bagger, as Neil would call it, has became the go to fly for most Rogue River Guides, but what about the guys that like to swing also. Or better yet what about the guys that employ a dead drift until the fly gets to a place to swing. I have found this method to be deadly, as a  rising fly induces some elicit instinct that will bring savage strikes. I found this method by accident, when I was a kid. I had tossed my nymph upstream and mended it the whole way down. Somehow I had created a huge knot in my fly line, so I just let my rig swing across below me, as I tried to untie it. As tension on the line made the fly ascend, a massive strike about jerked the rod out from under my arm. I started employing this method with all of my fishing. Its easy to do, but you have learn how to fish the dead drift without a indicator--something we did before indicators were used a lot. Then, one day I thought why not add some movement to a pattern that already has proven itself and just like that the Rogue Swinging Ugly was born. Since then, this method and the fly it birthed, has saved the day on the river. Its an easy fly to tie, here is the recipe. Swing On...Nate

Weighted For Deep Pools

Add The Chenille of your choice, but if its for the Rogue River It better have Black  in it. 

Add the rubber legs you like ( I tie all sorts, for different taste)

Add a nice webby hen hackle.

And wa la, you have a fly as versatile as a switch rod.  

You Know I love to Swing but.......

There are times when the fish just wont move, so you have to take your offering to them. There is no easier way to do this then with a nymph and bobber (oops I meant "indicator") set up. You have to start with a line that has enough forward mass to turn the whole mess over and with enough body that you can mend it for long drifts. On most nymph rigs for the Rogue River you will find a good ole double taper, but I have found that Airflo's Speydicator works better for my switch rods and the Clients find it less fatiguing at the end of the day. Know, I know  what your hard core swingers are thinking, Spedicator blasphemous!  I felt the same way to , but it didn't take long for me to see the benefits in deploying such tactics. First it has opened up the sport to potential future swingers. Once you catch your first steelhead you'll be hooked, and like all of us the natural progression through methods finally ends in the purity of winter fish on the swing, but everyone has to start somewhere, and the more people that love these fish the better they will be taken care of. I no longer look at nymph fishing as the dark side, but rather an introduction to a sport that I love--and after all we aren't throwing worms.
It kinda seems weird feeling like I have to defend nymph steelhead fishing but i think its one of those things in the double handed world that people haven't really sat and thought about it. The advent of the switch rod has brought this form of fishing to a whole different level. with the added length and casting styles we can achieve drifts on seams that seemed impossible years ago. The ease, and lack of false casting' is what led me to outfitting my boat with these miniature spey rods. Even the greenest of clients can become proficient enough to fish well with about 5 minutes of instruction--not to mention water born cast save me ear piercings.
 The way I set up the rig isn't that much different then your average trout rig--just longer and heaver. Speydecatiors come prelooped so all I do is add a but section of 25 lb HARD mono, like Maxim Chameleon due to its abrasion resistance, then add a mid section of 0x fluorocarbon, finishing it off with 2x fluorocarbon for tippet. All sections are cut 40" in order to get 36" sections after knots are ties. I loop both ends of the rear section, one loop for the line to butt connection and another loop that to the forward two sections. This allows me to change the front section out without having to change my indicator position. I can control depth with the pre-tied front section and flies. You have to run heavy line in the rear and check it constantly as casting indicators are hard on it. the forward two sections are linked by a surgeons knot. This setup gives you 9' to your first fly under the indicator--a set up that will fish 90% of the Upper Rogue. If you are in a shallower run just loop on a shorter forward section. I ALWAYS run two flies. the first fly is tied through the eye to the tippet with a improved clinch, and the dropper is tied to the shank with the same knot. Dropper length is something you'll have to play with for your conditions, but 24" is a good place to start. Remember use the lightest line you can get away with so that dropper fly will swim right. One note to point out here, the more slkack you have in your leader system, the longer it takes to indicate a strike, so make your leader match your run. I have picked up fish behind people who probably had strikes in the hole but didnt know it because their leaders were way to long and the fish probably spit the fly way before the indicator took up the slack of the leader to tell the fisherman their fly had stopped. If your having a hard time hooking fish, shorten your leader.

Speydicator works wonders!

What you Need

Keeping it local

Loop to Loop

The Whole Shebang!

Total Blasphemy, well not really. 

This is a highly effective way to catch Steelhead and has introduced many to the sport we love, so the next time your on the river give it a try--if you have some one you want to introduce to fly fishing for Steelhead, give it a shot, and don't worry they will look forward to the day of of that tug only the swing can produce. Nate

 
     

Its On!!!!

The river was beautiful tonight, Gage my Son,  and I swung for summer steel. He managed to conjure up a nice little Cutt on a Kerry Special. we admired it for a moment and got back at it. I finally tied on my steelhead prince and swung it as deep as I could. I couldn't move down from where I had to fish from,  so I worked in a foot of line about every three cast so I could cover the whole pool. About 20 cast in, it happened...the Tug we are all after. I was taken completely buy surprise, so much so I didn't even set the hook well. My line shot out of the water fallowed by a beautiful chrome summer steelhead. Oh how I've missed this Ran through my mind, then sure panic, fight him you twit!!! I jerked the rod, but all I could see was my fly dislodge itself out of the corner of the chrome rocket's mouth. My line went limp, I realized that I had a permagrin that I knew wouldn't go away for a while. They Are Here! Its On! oh how I love the Rogue's Summer Steelhead.

I got back to the house and found out from a friend of mine,  that works at the hatchery, that there are over 500 fish up there already...Its On Indeed!!!


The Permagrin

Nate's Steelhead Prince





What is this thing we call Skagit?

As Steelhead season is just around the corner here on the Rogue River, and with the Williamson and Wood fishing well , I thought it might be fitting to introduce you to the swing. Those of you who know me, know that I love to fish the swing with the fly rod. For large rivers there is no better rod than the doublehander for this purpose. If your new to this form of flyfishing I have found a video that will help you understand the systems used, Enjoy...Nate

Waiting for steel! Swinging for Cutts! Rogue River Style!

If you know me you know how much I love to swing flies, but there is one thing I like better, watching my wife swing flies, then hammering a huge Rogue River Cutthroat. Outside of the Holy Waters the Rogue isn't known as being a blue ribbon trout stream, but if you know where to go, what to use, and how to use it, you will be rewarded. We missed several more and broke one real monster off-- might have even been a early Steelhead--it was enough to get my blood pumping for sure.

Misty's nice Rogue River Cutt!

Got to love the Rogue!

New Website!

I'm proud to introduce my new Website http://www.southernoregonflyfishing.com/ It's a work in progress so please check back often.

Two Hands @ Tou Velle, Rogue River and Spey Rods

This Will Be Good

My Favorite Piece "Four Hour" Water!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LllLjiQkJ8A&feature=player_detailpage#t=0s

When the October Caddis come out on the Upper Rogue River this is where you will find me fly fishing. This is a great piece of skating, steelhead water that comes alive in August!

The Williamson River an old Friend!

Brent at the office.

The fish of the evening. 

I grew up fishing this river and always did well, but last night was better than I have ever seen it. A large part of that was due to Brent Hublitz of Trophy Troutfitters. He fishes the Williamson different than I ever have, which added some tools to my box. Brent clearly out fished me, even to the point of talking to a potential client on the phone while fighting a fish. Thank goodness I landed the biggest fish of the night or I would have to listen to how bad he out fished me  until I get him on the Rogue later this fall. Not really-we had a great time.

Awesome River

Vacation...Someday!

I love Southern Oregon, we have one of the most diverse landscapes that provides us with more adventure in one season than most people see in a lifetime, but someday I want to catch Tarpon out of float tubes like they are in this Video! Absolutely Cool!

Battle Lines Have Been Drawn

The winter steelhead run was less than great this year, but the Springer run looks to be awesome. The problem is, as most of you know, it’s real Hard to get your fly in position, and stay there long enough to aggravate them. I have been busting my butt trying to figure out how to do this. Well I think I have it part of the way figured out. I took my 8wt spey rod, lined it with a skagit and a t12 tip casted the whole glob ,  up stream and mend my way through. This is kinda like hi-stick nymhping only treating your tip as a leader. I made three passes this way then I felt a little strike, I made a half hearted jerk, thinking I might clear the smolt off the fly, only to feel the full weight of a submersed freight train! It has been several years since I have been Chinook fishing, as I usually turn to trout this time of year to avoid the crowds. The fish took to the air dragging the skagit head and heavy tip out of the water like it was dental floss! It made a run towards the frog water up stream of me, giving me the false sense that I might actually land this brute. Then he swapped ends again, took to the Air, gave me the middle fin, and dashed down river combining all of his muscle and the mighty Rogue in its fight against me. The clicks of my reel became screams which drew the attention of the whole river bar, people were pointing, and laughing at the noise, until the mighty brute decided to make himself present in their lives also. Not, 20' off the bar the salmon took to the air only to return to the water with a crash that would put any cannonball to shame. People screamed, mothers gathered their children, and a Pit bull whimpered, stuck its tail between its legs, and ran under the nearest pickup.  People became silent; some even started to pray as they realized that I, standing in the middle of the river, was connected to that Monster. Coil, after coil departed from the reel taking with it any feeling of control that I might have ever had until I started to see the bare arbor and the tiny knot that would have to take the brunt of this frontal attack. I knew there was no way the small dacron knot could hold up, so I bowed the tip of the rod, in surrender, and held fast on the spool. The brute didn't even give me the satisfaction of seeing him when he turned my heavy forged hook into a strait pin. The line when limp, I breathed a sigh of disgust mixed with relief, ok mostly relief as I knew I had no control over this fish. People left the river bank as if they had just watched a movie with a bad ending.  Others, laughed, whispered something among themselves, and pointed in my direction. My dog, ya that’s right my dog, left my side and found a tree to hide under. I had been schooled by the River King—telling me to head to my usual sissy haunts on some small brook trout stream and leave his subjects alone.  Laughing rose from the emerald depths provoking me to shake my fist in a vow to return and declare battle once more. Mighty Rogue King, you may have won this battle but, I WILL WIN THE WAR!

Nate's Wired Worm

There are flies that just work regardless of rather you think they should or not. The Brassie is one of those flies, but good isn't good enough when you can improve on a design. This flies success is most likely due to its diving ability-the thing sinks better than a rock. It flows through the current like a real bug, but what if it had arms to match the drift, well that's where my wired worm comes in!

I always start with a heavy hook for Steelhead nymphs 

Add a bead (I super glue them on) and add a couple of rubber tails (they suggest several different bugs) 

Tie in the color of UNI Wire you like (I tie this is several colors)

Wrap the wire forward making a abdomen, tie in your favorite chenille give it a couple wraps to make a wing case.   

Add hackle 

Wrap hackle forming the beckoning moving legs that a Upper Rogue Steelhead  cant  resist.

I fish this fly dead drift until it reaches quartering down downstream then I will swing it to dangle. Try it on your rivers!