A little bit of summer from the cold

[eat, sleep, fish]

It's been nothing but cold and dry down here in Southern Oregon for the entire month. Despite the lack of precipitation the late summer run fishing is holding on strong on the Upper Rogue.

Yesterday morning started out hot with hooking, and subsequently long distance releasing, a fish on my first cast. I followed that up 10 casts later with the first fish to the bank.



Check out the deformed mouth...



A little while later I found this acrobatic fish, that wanted to put on an aerial display after being hooked.



Ended the day going 2-3 on only a couple hours of fishing. All the fish came to XFactor Tackle mini egg clusters in peach. 2 while drift fishing and the last one under a float.

 

[Johnny Southpaw]

Nice report and great pictures! Good to see some fish-there hasn't been many picture reports of late...c'mon rain!

 

[billfisher]

looks like a blast, some nice color on those beauties!

 

[rippin fish lips]

nice report man.

 

[markasd]

Funny mouth on that one.. nice pics, thanks for putting up some fish pics.

 

[fish4life]

Amazing that fish survived, would have thought it would make it hard to eat. Job well done at least someones getting into fish.

 

[nwkiller]

great photos and post!!!!

 

[troutdude]

Looks a bit like a shark w/ the odd shaped mouth.

Looks like a great day on the water for ya!

 

[alm21]

Cheers!

 

[Mad dog]

Very nice fish!!! Beautiful coloration on those late season summers! I'm sure the stable flows and temps coming from William Jess dam are keeping the fish on the bite. The North Umpqua is like ice water right now....pretty slow from what I hear!

Was that deformed fish a hatchery? If so, the injuries probably happened in the rearing pond I would imagine. I look at fish in the Winchester viewing area almost daily and get to see a ton of salmon and steelhead as they move up the North river, you would be amazed at the amount of fish I see with injuries or other deformities that keep moving right on up the river with no problems! I've seen fish with half their heads eaten away by sealions and they still make it to river mile 110....amazing!!!

Of course there are those that think if you hold a fish up for a 5 second picture it is going to shrivel up and die! Ya, right....they are not that fragile!!! Pretty freaking tough critters really, strong instinct to survive!

 

[nwkiller]

of course there are those that think if you hold a fish up for a 5 second picture it is going to shrivel up and die! Ya, right....they are not that fragile!!! Pretty freaking tough critters really, strong instinct to survive![/QUOTE]

amen

 

[eat, sleep, fish]

Was that deformed fish a hatchery?

Yep it was a hatchery fish. I figured either something happened in the rearing pond, or it was hooked as a juvenile and got damaged that way. I was surprised that it could even try to suck the egg into its mouth still.