Current Fishing Report

We had another outstanding day on the Lower Sac today.  I guided Dave and Jeremy from southern California.  We spent a lot of time wading and it was highly productive.  Dave and Jeremy both found spots where they hooked about 6 fish in one spot.  All of the fish we hooked while wading were over 16, and a few were over 20!  There is a great mixed hatch of caddis and PMDs and fishing is pretty phenominal from 11am to 4:30pm.

Today was one of those rare days on the Lower Sac when we could successfully blind fish with dries while drifting downstream.  From noon to 4pm the fish were CHOWING dry flies.  PMDs, baetis, and caddis.  Edward and David got tons of grabs on dries.  We spent most of the day wading and casting to sighted risers.  Edward landed a couple of nice 16 bows on dries.  David landed his first-ever trout on a dry fly.  The wading and dry fly fishing is at its best right now - get up here in the next 2 months if you enjoy this kind of fishing!

Edward with a nice dry fly bow

David caught this one on a dry

Edward got this one on a dry

Over the last few weeks, we have had some truly amazing moments.  We've hooked many fish that were in the ocean just hours before, and even landed quite a few.  There is nothing like hooking a winter steelhead shortly after they enter a river...very coveted in the angling world of a true steelheader. Dennis Taniguchi, star Confluence client for many years has been here for 10 days.  He has hooked over 20 winter steelhead with Gino fishing on the xxx, the xxxx, and the xxxxx.  He got skunked a few days also, which is part of true steelheading.  Committment brings rewards to the true angler. My client Mark landed a superb chrome hen yesterday on xxxxxx, and my client Francis hooked two epic fish today swinging the first riffle above tidewater on the xxxxx, after sight fishing on the xxxxxxxx and xxxxxx.

this fish was in the ocean that morning

this fish was in the ocean that morning too

seriously, look at this amazing steelhead

The Lower Sac continues to fish very well.  Randy Hamann and I enjoyed a great day of scouting.  We had a wide-open dry fly grab from noon to 4pm.  There was a mix of PMDs, March Browns, and caddis.  I also got to try out my new Echo Dec Hogan 4wt spey rod.  The whole idea behind this purchase was to get a spey rod that could easily cast 70+ feet and make a 12 trout feel like a good fish.  I was very pleased with how this rod fit the bill.  I matched it with a Scandi Compact 300 grain head and a 10ft fast-sinking versileader.  It cast this set-up beautifully.  I hooked about a dozen fish with it and had a blast.  A 12 trout feels just as big on this rod as on my 6wt single-hand rods.  This 4wt spey rod is a great tool for covering water quickly with traditional swing techniques.

Randy with Mt. Lassen in the background

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!

strip tease steelhead

Randy and I did some scouting today...

we floated through that

The Southern Oregon and Nor Cal Coastal rivers have seen some excellent conditons over the past few weeks.  Winter steelhead conditions change daily, and hourly for that matter.  We have been hooking fish very consistantly on a variety of techniques for the past few weeks.  Today we fished in bright sunshine, warm temperatures, and very non-steelheady conditions and still somehow hooked 5 fish.  We did not encounter another angler.  Epic. Nor Cal and Southern Oregon Coastal rivers should all be in great conditon this weekend if we keep getting consistant rain. 

The Gooch..about to close the deal with G man l

Yep..this big wild buck was fun

Donald, via Jonny on the spot

Fishing continues to be good on the Trinity River.  We had great weather, plenty of action, and hardly saw any other fishermen today.  Dana and Steve from Chico both landed the biggest fly-caught steelhead of their lives.  The big fish liked the small flies today.  We had a great hatch of march browns, but it was a little too sunny to have a lot of rising fish.  Dana rose two fish to his dry fly, though.  Steve and Dana are headed to Eagle Canyon tomorrow as part of our Combo Special, just $325 per person for two great days of fishing.

Steve with a wild buck

Dana with a wild hen

The browns were very active today

The Lower Sac was about as good as it gets today.  The caddisflies are hatching in huge numbers, but not so thick that the trout are stuffed!  The wild rainbows are feeding ravenously both on and below the surface.  For nymphs, all the small dark caddis patterns are working well.  If you want some great fishing for big wild trout, get up here soon!

Lots of quality rainbows today.

Steady rain has kept all of the Southern Oregon steams in fishable conditons.  The rivers should all stay pretty good these next few weeks with on and off days of rain in the forcast.  Some prime days are coming up.   

Chrome glow, less than a mile from the ocean

Small stream winter steelhead fishing

A fine specimen, yez

The Trinity is still producing steelhead.  We had an eight-mile float all to ourselves today.  I had Bob and Bob in my boat today, aka Bob squared or front Bob and back Bob.  We hooked a few trout today and had a great hatch.  Brown trout were rising to a tan mayfly size 14-16 after lunch, but the fish were super-spooky.  We had better luck with the steelhead, which were scattered throughout the float.  We picked up two fresh wild fish and one downstream hatchery fish, all on nymphs.  River conditions are perfect right now.

Some much needed rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and into next week. The smaller rivers are low and clear, but we still managed to hook a few fish the last few days. The next few weeks are shaping up to be good after more fish move in after the next series of rain events.

It is raining here today in Southern Oregon.  The smaller rivers needed a fresh rain to hit the reset button and bring more fish in, while the larger rivers like the Smith, Chetco, and lower Rogue are in excellent shape for speycasting and swinging for winter steelhead that will trinkle in for the next month or so.  The Chetco in particular is around 900cfs, which takes some of the gear pressure off the river and opens up some excellent swing water if you don't mind fishing among others.  You can always find some solitude if you are willing to do a bit of hiking. There will be a break in the weather after this rain for a few days then more rain expected next week to keep bringing fresh fish into the entire system.  I have been doing a mix of both hiking and using my raft to explore the many unique rivers within a hours drive of our home base between Brookings and Gold Beach.  My client Michael encountered fish all three days this past weekend, and really progressed at his speycasting.  We fished a different river each day. Below is a very rare photo of Gino's clients Scott and Don with a winter double.  It is about as rare as having a photo of Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness Monster.  Crazy things can happen on the Coast...  

This is a very rare and epic moment for winter

solitude swinging

we hooked and lost a beast in this spot

Flows on coastal rivers have dropped into shape. We have been hooking bright winter steelhead almost every day both swinging with spey rods and tight line nymphing. The weather has been superb. We will need more rain soon to get a fresh push of fish into the smaller rivers that are dropping fast. The beautiful Oregon coast is truly a unique and special place. The abundance of excellent steelhead rivers are a bonus. Confluence Outfitters offers incredible ocean front accommodation, intimate knowledge of these rivers, and are among the best spey casting instructors in the west. If you are a true steelheader, this trip should be a priority in the next few months.

We hosted Veterans First Fly Fishing at Eagle Canyon today.  This is a group of volunteers that helps provide therapy to our armed forces vetarans through fly fishing classes and outings.  The participants have been going to fly tying and fly casting classes on a weekly basis.  Some even fished today with flies they had recently tied.  The volunteers, headed by Ken Brunskill and Larry Lack, put on a great lunch and assisted the participants on the water.  It was a great success and we look forward to hosting this group again next year.

The Trinity continues to fish well for steelhead and brown trout.  I guided Steve and son Henry from Santa Rosa the past 2 days.  The water was a little high for us the morning of our first day, so we pulled the boat out and hit a different float in the afternoon.  We didn't see a soul and had some very good fishing.  Today was much the same, with hardly any other anglers, great weather, and lots of hookups.  Most of our fish today were browns and half-pounders.  There was a great hatch of mayflies starting at 1pm today.  We had one good opportunity to catch a brown on a dry, but it was a spooky fish.

We're catching a lot of browns

The fish at Eagle Canyon are feeding heavily on midges on and near the surface right now.  It's really exciting to see huge rainbows sipping midges off the surface!  A small parachute adams or griffith's gnat can do the trick.  Sometimes a small nymph fished less than a foot below a larger dry works even better.  Try a size 14 parachute adams or callibaetis with a disco midge, brassie, or micro mayfly dropper.  Streamer and indicator techniques are also working well.

I have never seen as many trucks at Steel Bridge or Indian Creek as I did today.  It's a busy weekend, lots of people are fishing with guides, and everyone was confined to the upper river today.  Despite the crowds we did just fine.  Carl was a fish-hooking machine.  Landing fish was a challenge today, but some days that's just how it goes.  We hooked fish on pink egg patterns and copper johns.  The clarity of the river is improving rapidly.  Carl even landed a nice 17 rainbow on a dry fly in the afternoon.  There is a great hatch of mayflies and the dry fly fishing should be good when the water clears up even more. 

Today was my first day of two with Carl and Jim.  Carl got off to a great start with a steelhead on his very first cast!  Jim landed one shortly thereafter.  Action was great for the first hour or two.  Then the river got really off-color and fishing was challenging for a while.  We hooked a couple more fish later in the day, all on egg patterns.  We have a clear sky tonight, so the snow-melt shouldn't be as bad tomorrow.  Fishing should be great for the next week as the river drops and clears.

Carl got this one on his first cast

Jim got this on a fly he tied

I had a fun day with Josh and Michael from the Chico area today on the Trinity.  It rained for quite a while overnight, so all the tributaries were pretty high and muddy.  The river started off a nice steelhead green and by the end of the day was sort of a boat-ride brown.  Fortunately we did well in the morning when the conditions were best.  Big bright egg patterns were the ticket.

Josh with a nice wild buck

Michael got a nice fish, too.