Rogue river around Medford, what to use?

[kfallscody]

I am HOPING to go over to Medford this weekend. The plan is for my GF to drop me off at the river, somewhere around shady cove, while her and her son go do some shopping. This will give me 2-3 hours of time on the river... now here comes the question.

What to use??? Argh!!! I am a "read and figure it out" kind of guy but wow, trying to decide what to use is driving me crazy. I am hoping to catch a steelhead or maybe a salmon.. or both.. whatever wants to bite my lure.. . I was at bi-mart earlier with half a dozen jigs in my hand for float fishing and put them all back because I just don't know what to use. I've read of some using spoons, spinners.. roe..jigs.. some use certain lures for summers, others for winters... and yet others for salmon! I've been on this site for months, reading daily and while I have a much better understanding of how to fish for them, it is the what to use that boggles me. Being a trout/panfish fisherman my whole life means I know next to nothing about fishing for these ocean going fish..

So please.. HELP.. Any hints, tips and obvious "use this lure Cody" will all be GREATLY appreciated! . If I need to order stuff, I will have to do it soon and hope it ships from within the state..

 

[Mad dog]

Forget the steelhead....only 73 over Gold-Rey as of may 31st, they usually don't start showing in the medford stretch until august or even sept.

The salmon fishing has been fairly good this year though! You might try corkies, corkies/yarn, beads work well from the bank. Never had much luck on that river with spoons or spinners. Lot's of boats will be fishing kwickfish, back bouncing roe or fishing roe under floats. These salmon see a lot of roe on this river. I suggest pink/pearl corkies with a touch of baby pink yarn sented with sand shrimp oil. Use just enough yarn to hide the hook. You will get more biters by dropping down to 1/0 hooks and leaders less than 15 lb test. Beads work well on the Rogue also, I prefer red or orange but green seems to be the old Rogue river standby!

Also, the salmonflies are hatching and there are some nice trout above shady cove. If you flyfish, the afternoon action can be a blast.

Casey state park is a good place for a 1st timer to try his luck on the Rogue. If the big hole at the boat launch id too crowded, fish upstream a bit in the shallower riffle water, the salmon will hold there as well.

Good luck!

 

[kfallscody]

Thanks mad dog for the quick reply. I do have a question though; when you say a bead, do you mean a red, orange or green bead slid down the line right in front of the hook, just like you would a corkie?

Thanks again!

 

[VagrantAngler]

Let me know how you do. I'm going to be there the last week in June and want to get into a few. Good luck:yay:

 

[Mad dog]

Cody, go to Wal-mart's craft section, they will have big bags of different colored beads. One bag and you will have a ten year supply....for cheap! Just slide them down your line to your hook like a corkie, the work good on sunny days or when the water gets low and clear.

Here is a pic from this morning.

 

[kfallscody]

Wow, well can't complain with those results . I will have to swing by walmart later and see what they have. thanks again!

 

[kfallscody]

Well I am back empty handed. I only had about two hours on the river but in that time I saw nobody catch anything. I did see three salmon jump but none seemed to be interested in anything anybody had.

I tried the corkie/yarn, corkie, beads and a few jigs under a float all without any success. Even the boats that went by had no reports of any luck today.

So here is hoping for better luck next time.. . The plus side is I did learn several things today, all of which will make things easier next time. Thanks again mad dog!

 

[VagrantAngler]

I'm headin down Weds and have a few days to give it a go. Hopefully...

 

[kfallscody]

I'm headin down Weds and have a few days to give it a go. Hopefully...

I hope ya have better luck than me! Let us know how ya did!