Well..... we hooked a couple of winter steelhead swinging the Lower Rogue Friday. I had the brother tandem of Bob and Scott Lee. Scott fished hard all morning and when he decided to take a break and insisted I fish for a spell, well..... things happened. A chrome wild hen ate my fly while stripping in. While this is not normal behaviour for any steelhead, this is most certainly unusual for a winter steelhead. Just so happens that last winter a lower Rogue steelhead also ate my fly on the strip. Both flies were blue. Coincidence? Bizarre none the less. And it wasn't on the first strip. Both came on about the 5th strip.

So after that encounter we had lunch. After lunch Bob and Scott jumped back in for more fun. Bob was so curious about fishing conditions that he decided to get a closer look. He pretended to slip on a rock and plunged himself into the frigid waters of the lower Rogue. Head down and arms paddling, Bob got a good look at the river bottom and such. When he came up for air we had a good laugh and asked him if he saw any fish. He claims he didn't, but I wasn't sure if I believed him. It wasn't long after that Bob had a hot winter steelhead ripping line off of his new spey rod. While I was coaching Bob on rod angles for fish fighting, the hook pulled out. I felt terrible as it may have been my fault. Sorry Bob! I'll leave you alone next time!

We still have a couple weeks left on the coast for any last minute bookings. Our next venue, for March, is the Applegate and Upper Rogue. The Applegate is a sweet little Rogue trib about Trinity in size and can get some good runs of steelhead in March. Drop us a line!