New Year, New Post, New Direction?
Todays post is the first one on here in a year, it hasn’t been because of a lack of fishing. I can say my passion for writing blog post has come and gone and come back through out the years. But it didn’t help when about a half a year ago my laptop crapped out on me and not even a week later the email address I’d been using for around thirteen years got hacked, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to recover it. That really pissed me off and I stopped spending as much time on the net. I wasn’t sure if id even be able to get back on here and post.
The picture above was taken last summer during my first backpacking journey, a friend and I hiked 23 miles around beautiful Waldo Lake and this was one of the many small unnamed lakes that surround Waldo. Hiking was just one of the fun things I got into last year and hopefully ill be able to share more of the fun stuff iv been up to in the past and future!
Cheers from a Willamette Valley reservoir on Christmas day, the fish didn’t cooperate for us but we did find some nice rocks.
Tight Lines!
Colby Pearson – Trick Cast
Trokar hooks which is part of Eagle Claw is doing a competition right now having people post videos online of them self’s doing trick shots with a fishing rod. My good friend and fishing buddy Colby Pearson put together a video that is awesome, sick, dope, out of this world etc etc. In other words it’s pretty dang cool!!!! Iv seen him make some great cast’s just fishing along aside of him but one day we stopped at a pond after a day of fishing and seen him do a cast that is indescribable. If I said the cast he made that day was epic I would be calling it short. But anyways that cast’s wasn’t part of this video but even without it, I can see my friend winning this competition. Enjoy the video. And good luck to Colby!
As always thanks for reading and watching the videos. Tight Lines!
May 29th Bass Video
Long time no post, not that anyone cares. This video is now a little over a month old, iv done a lot of fishing since then but I havent been doing any recording via video. Iv taken a picture here and there since this video, nothing spectacular but im enjoying my time fishing, as you should be if your reading this.
All six bass from the video were caught on a Reactions Innovation Kinky Beaver soft plastic bait texas rigged with a bullet weight. My buddy Patrick gave me these baits earlier this year, and I must say they are killer baits!! Real fun to fish and they get the bass to bite real good!
As always thanks for reading and Tight Lines!
Couple Recent Bass Fishing Videos
Well I haven’t been in the blogging mood very much lately, iv still been fishing just haven’t taken the time to write about it. Guess that’s the cool thing about video, the words aren’t as important.
The first two clips and picture on this video were from April 7th fished with my buddy and his grandson. The rest of the clips and pictures are all from various trips earlier in the year.
This video was filmed April 16th in my buddies pond. I caught five dinks that day and got four on video.
BTW both songs have hiphop music playing so you were warned!
Tight Lines!
Good Story (Colby Pearson)
This story is brought to you by my good friend and trophy bass hunter Colby Pearson. This young man has more passion for bass fishing then anyone iv ever met. In the Northwest where we live bass fishing isnt quite like other parts of the country, its the step child to Trout, Salmon and Steelhead. I’m not gonna say bass fishing isnt good out here because some places out here is impeccable namely the Umpqua and John Day for Smallies. I’m just gonna get to his story. This fish was caught the beginning of March which is cold water fishing for warm water fish, go figure… lol
All last week I tried to fish, got out Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Something very interesting happens in later Winter/early Spring, in some waters with significant Northern bank access within this state. Fish get shallow. Every February/March for the last few years it seems like the state receives an unusually warm trend for about a week, for many of us, that was last week.
Noting the high on Friday to be in the 60’s, a 10-20 degree difference between most days as of recent, I was on cue for this interesting movement of fish that I’m willing to bet, that most people don’t even know about. I spend Tues & Thurs, observing what I could…Water clarity, quality, movement, what banks received sun and when.
Determining where I needed to be and at what time, I focused my morning waiting above a submerged ledge on Friday. The ledge crests in about 7′, but slopes down to 19-20′, key observations of this ledge included its general position, not only within the reservoir, but in relation to the sun. After an hour I see a fish move up, around 2.5#, I don’t cast at it, but it gives me a restored sense of purpose. The day slowly begins to wind past noon and I adjust my position setting myself on another ledge faced in the opposite corner, NE.
NE corner receives significantly more sun, especially in the noon hours. Like the first spot, I wait hours. Finally around 5pm, I see a black shadow pull up to the crest of the ledge and sit there motionless. Noting this fishes demeanor and activity level, I know it is simply up to sun and progress digesting faster. Watching this fish, I pitch to it and it slowly, passively dissipates from view. It was probably an 8+lbr.
When trophy hunting in the Winter, seeing your quarry can be a dead give away if you can interpret that fishes future movements in relation to coming/going weather patterns.
Many anglers would have thought they had blown their shot right then and there. I get home and get ready for the next day, I know that fish is entirely catch-able and will make one of two moves- it would either push down the ledge positioning itself immediately below on structure elements in the general vicinity, or it would push up even further given ample weather Saturday.
Saturday morning I arrive, see nothing in a significant amount of time, I wait all day.
Finally slightly before I saw the fish the day prior, I see a fish accompanied by two smaller but respectable fish (4&5lbs). The fish was seen two days in a row during the same time frame, a valuable observation shedding light to the hypothesis, that trophy fish are active during specific windows thru-ought the day. Ironic the fish was seen two days in a row during the same time frame?
Judging that fishes activity level I see its still super lethargic and just hovering slowly like a ghost in the late afternoon sun. I back off, rig and come back to watch. Finally as the day dwindles and I can barely see in the water, the fish moves, slightly faster than previously noted and toward a visible cover element, and ambush point via a point.
Seeing that finally the fish has shifted into a neutral mood, my presentation comes into play. Recognize that fish fish is not in a feeding or aggressive mood, but as the angler I see its my opportunity to present my bait in a manner that appeals to the bass’ senses and predatory habits I visualize that bass’ path toward the point, placing my bait on the eastern slope out of sight I begin slow rolling my swimbait…….nothing.
Adjusting the cast I cast over the point on the western slope, assuming the fish held on the point corresponding with the depth it was cruising my cast subsequently will place my bait on the crest of the point at around the same point the fish is sitting.
Slow roll, as the bait comes to the crest of the point I slightly hesitate the reel and an ever so slight pop then wind, the second my imparted action ceases, THUMP.
I recall David Dudley once stating something along the lines of.”I try to gather enough information from each catch to write a 1 page write up about the observations regarding that catch”..I truly think that if we all used similar tactics we would become better anglers.
I personally kept a complete log of fish over 5lbs I caught in 2012 from public waters (46), including moon phase, time, spot/setup/ bait etc…It’s a truly valuable document because even with that relatively small # of upper class fish I notice real tangible patterns, and I don’t meant tournament style patterns.
The fish ate a custom rigged swimbait I use to specifically catch giant fish in this type of scenario, I wont go into detail as to what the exact rigging is, dont want to over analyze bait rigging, hehe.
I truly believe this fish would not have eaten another bait no matter how it was presented in the time windows I viewed the fish, no…not even a senko. Not even a similar swimbait, end of story.
Here is the fish:
I hope the time it took to write this story was worthwhile and I can change at-least one persons mind set when thinking about bass and giving them credibility. There’s a lot of big fish to be caught in this state that simply aren’t even believed to exist. They are there.
Big thanks to Colby for putting this on here for me! Look forward to more guest writers on my blog and other good stuff!
Tight Lines!
2012 Video Review
I put together a little video with some of my favorite clips from the past year. I had my Kodak Playsport video camera since around May. Enjoy!
Tight Lines!
Blogging Again! Version 4.2
Iv decided to take this blogging stuff serious once again. No slacking, anymore. Ill be updating some old post and also adding new post from this past year. Look forward for some really sweet reports, pictures, and videos. And Ill hopefully be doing some contests and other cool stuff, so be ready! So But for now Iv got some good news Id like to introduce my newest sponsor, The Creek Company. Iv been using one of their pontoon boats for about three years. And iv caught many nice fish from it and had many more nice days on the water, whether it be a river, lake or a pond. I contacted them recently about sponsoring me and my fishing adventures and they have decided to do so!
Picture taken at Wickiup Reservoir: Oct. 2012
In other news id like to help promote one my buddies. NorthWest Killers Fishing Is doing a steelhead tournament, called The ChromeDome Challenge. And it starts tomorrow December 1st. and goes through February 31st. Each month is a separate tournament and cost $10 a month or $25 for all three months (only if you sign up today!). First place each month is the longest Hatchery Steelhead, grand prize is the longest Hatchery Steelhead for over the 3 month period. Id get in on The ChromeDome Challenge as I have. Just for entering you get a free shirt, also there are prize give a ways even if you don’t get a top three fish!
Tight Lines! And good luck to those that enter!
Good ol’ Pond Fishing
You can probably tell lately iv been really enjoying doing little fishing videos, well here’s another one! This one starts off with me pulling a bass out of a bunch of crap. I caught it on 8lb mono and it went straight for the shit! It got hung up in it for a few minutes and when I finally decided to go over to where the line meets the water I found out the bass was on top of the water! Then its onto some more pond fishing but this time Ted and myself were fishing for carp but caught these squaw and sucker fish instead! Last clip is my friend telling a story about a encounter he had with a ‘friendly’ Nutria.
Thanks for reading/watching! Tight Lines!!
My First Halibut Trip
Last week I was on one of the Northwest fishing websites that I frequent (Ifish.net) and I seen an open seat posted for Halibut. I haven’t done much ocean fishing let alone Halibut fishing, I knew they are one of the best tasting fish out there so I sent the guy a PM and hoped I would get the seat. He sent me a message with the details and Saturday morning at 530 am I would meet up with him and fish for Halibut out of Newport! I arrived to Newport on Friday the day before, that way I could sleep in a little and make sure I wouldnt miss the 530 departure. I did a little bit of fishing off the jetty but I really didnt know what i was doing so I did more beer drinking then casting.
The Captain Randy was a great guy, he went through all the safety details before heading out. Stuff like how to use the radio, how to deploy the 4 person raft, how not to fire off a flare. It was about 30 miles out to the Halibut fishing grounds, we fished an area that’s called the chicken ranch. After a couple missed bites I ended up bringing in the first Halibut of the day, a tiny one that I didnt know was on there until I brought the whole rig up from over 500 feet down. It was probably about 16 inches and we quickly tossed it back out, so it can be a 50lber some day! After that fish it died down for us quite a bit, but over the radio we heard multiple boats limit out and heading back fairly quickly. We wound up trying drifts in different areas and around 330 in the afternoon it finally paid off!
This is my biggest fish ever caught! A really nice 43 inch and tasty Halibut. I didnt get any footage of me fighting it but I did get some cool video of Steve Fighting his big Halibut, it was just about the same size as mine. I also got video of Miles reeling up a smaller one 32inches and the Captain Randy bringing in one with his electronic reel, but his came unbuttoned right before he got it to the surface. The fishing and the company on the boat was awesome, couldn’t of asked for better people to fish with. The only down side to fishing for Halibut was the fact that they were 500 and 600 feet deep and we were using three and four pound weights, so when we had to reel up to switch spots or do the drift over, it was a reel BITCH. Here’s the video I made, it’s a little long at 8 minutes but I still think its worth the watch.
If you think all fish should be caught and released you should probably not watch this video, the Halibut gets a well deserved beat down by Miles once in the boat! He lost a few expensive rigs to the bottom of the sea, so he let his frustration out on the poor fish. It was a great experience for which ultimately ended up being the best fish iv ever ate!
The three we ended up keeping, next to the No Bail.
Thanks for stopping by and reading. Like always… Tight Lines!!!
The Senko Bandit
I had the pleasure yesterday of fishing with my buddy Dave in his back yard pond. I must say, fishing private water is some of the best fishing for Large Mouth Bass there is. Dave was throwing primarily top water baits, things like frogs and and a mouse bait, and he had a bass attack his frog shortly after we got there but it didnt stick. I kept my white tube on that I was using the day before on The Umpqua River, and ten or less minutes into fishing I got a really nice bass on it. It started pulling quite a bit of drag so I tightened it up, and soon after that my knot failed on me. I guess yesterday I didnt take my time tying up my knots for the little Smallies we were catching. After that i rigged up a baby bass color senko worm with a sliding weight, texas rigged, which is weedless.
Shortly after this was the result. This fish blew up out of the water and was pretty sweet to see.
The senko is my go to bait for bass, usually in any shade of green.
This one really took me for a ride. Like the other bass this day it did some acrobatics, then I got it near the boat but it decided to go under it bending my rod near the breaking point because it came so close to touching the boat. Dave had a real good time watching all this happen.
I ended up catching a few over three pounds and one or two that was over four. About five that were between one and two pounds. And I missed quite a few bites as well, plus the big one that broke me off on the tube. I had an absolutely awesome time, catching big bass is super fun. Also ill put my stamp of approval on the baby bass color senkos! Dave missed a couple fish but he still had a great time telling me where the bass were and where to cast to, and most the time when I did cast to where he pointed out Id hook one lol.
Thanks for reading and tight lines!!
Lost Creek Reservoir
Back in June we had some some nice weather and my Brother Louis and my niece Tahleena were heading to Lost Creek Reservoir for some Bass fishing. So of course I went along too. We got their in the evening around 4-5. Louis has a nice bass tracker boat, and after we put the boat in he took us to his favorite little cove. I tied a 3″ Yum Dinger bass worm on wacky style. Not long after I got the first small mouth bass of the day, not big, little under a pound probably. Still fun to catch! I got one more from the same cove on the wacky rigged dinger. I was using my Shimano Symetre spinning reel with my bass worms, it was really nice to finally get some use on my reel after John from The Reel Tech took it apart and cleaned it recently. Make sure to keep on an eye on where you sit your fishing reels, especially if they’re expensive. In February I had caught a nice Steelhead and the excitement came over me and i didnt pay attention to where i set my reel. I set it right on the beach at the river. Not long after I noticed a grinding while reeling, not a good feeling on a reel you spent $100 dollars for. Reel Tech did a great job with my reel and I recommend him to anyone.
The bass and my niece are both smiling.
It was a good evening of fishing. We each caught around 5-7 small mouth bass. It took Tahleena a little bit to hook one. But after some smack talk by me and Louis about not catching one, she started bringing them to the boat! I caught the weirdest looking small mouth. Two tone with claw marks. Pretty interesting.
Thanks for reading! And I plan on bringing more reports to the light of day! Tight lines!
Not a Fishing Report?
If you’ve read my blog at all before you can probably tell the way my posts are formatted. I like to write about my fishing experiences, show photos, and quick reports. Some times it involves fish other times it doesn’t, i am doing a fishing blog, not a catching blog. So with all that said. This post wont be about my amazingly awesome fishing adventures, it’ll be about other cool and great stuff 😀
First thing id like to let y’all know about is a cool online business selling very affordable fishing flies. They have tons of flies, they’re local to Oregon, they have free shipping, usually flies are only .50 cents each. But right now they’re doing a memorial day sale until the 4th of June, Flies are only .45 cents a piece and shipping is still free! Iv made more then a few orders from them and shipping is always here in a good time. Iv only caught one fish with the flies but iv only used them a couple times. They definitely look very fishy and im sure ill be catching a lot of trout with them later in the year. So I recommend StreamFlies.com for some good affordable fishin flys!
Secondly Id like to shout out to a local business from the Rogue Valley, but don’t worry they are also online, The Reel Tech. John Strenk of The Reel Tech is the best out there in the servicing and repairing of reels in my opinion. I know what its like to have a high end reel that you expect to perform wonderfully but something happens and the reel doesn’t preform at the best of its ability’s. Salmon fishing wears and tears on reels, my friend Charlie Brown of FishingTheRogue.com can attest to this. He had his two back bouncing reel serviced with John and now the Abu Garcia Reels work great. And we’ve landed some really nice salmon since the works been done on them. Get a hold of John of The Reel Tech for your Reel needs, I’m super glad i took my my Shimano Symetre to him. PS. He gets the work done on them in a very timely manner, a big plus!
Thirdly I want to thank my friend and fishing partner Phil Trip. We haven’t been friends for a long time, but I’m glad we met and became such good fishing pals. Iv had lots and lots of good fishing memories with this guy, and most of our fish are on video and pictures, which is sweet! So do your self a favor and go over to his youtube video channel and watch this guy and his friends catch some amazing fish!! Thanks for all the boat trips we’ve done Phil, its always a good time!
Fourthly. Is the rafting stuff I briefly mentioned a couple posts back. My friend and fishing buddie Charlie Brown. As you probably know hes a fishing guide, he’s also a white water rafting guide for Rogue Klamath River Adventures. Three or four weeks back Charlie invited me to come along with all the guides that were doing a trip for fun on the Scott River in California. This trip was a blast and was only the second time that I had done white water rafting. So I got to talking with the owner of the company, and we worked out a deal where he let me attend his rafting guide school in return id do work for him at his property. Great trade on my end. I had an absolutely awesome time, learned a bunch and met great folks. Hopefully this will be something I can do for more then just fun in the future!
And another thing! Fishing Forums. A lot of my readers come from them, a link in my signature gets them here. Oregon Fishing Forum was the first one I joined. It was before I even started blogging, I mostly lurked but i did an occasional trout report. Not long after joining OFF i began blogging about my fishing trips. I mostly did it so i could post my pictures of the trips so people not from my area could see Oregon. I then over the years would join the occasional fishing forum, some i would be a regular for a bit then id drift away and stick with OFF. Now I mainly only post at OFF and give short post’s and reports on Ifish. Ifish is a bigger community and with that comes with a lot of varying opinions which is a great thing and also a not so great thing some times. But iv read a lot of great stuff on there and i continue to be a member. There’s a couple other places i post at just not very frequently, one is Small Stream Salmon Fishing and the other is North West Outdoors. Both are good forums and have things the other two don’t have. It’s a lot to take in but if your a Pacific Northwest fisherman id suggest checking out some of these forums and maybe even joining some.
Well there we have it! Ill be getting back to the fishing reports so stay tuned for the good stuff. FISH PORN!!!!! 😀
Rogue River May 6th
Another old report… I know i know. Ill try to get on top of writing them the day of the trip. But an old report is better then no report, so enjoy! Today i fished with a couple cool guys who happen to both be guides. Charlie Brown from FishingTheRogue.com and Brady Rogers of Bradys Guide Service (ill get his website address soon). We all met up at Sportsmans really early almost two hours before sun rise. Brady and Charlie are good friends and you could tell by the way the jokes were flying around. Fishing was slow this day. But on the bright side I learned how to back bounce for Salmon. And it was also the first time Brady had taken his boat out with his new motor. The whole new motor thing became hairy a few times, mostly because Brady was learning how to run it. We only went into the trees a couple times and almost sank. Quite an adventure! But we made it out of all the sketchy situations unscathed. Like i said it was a slow day. We didnt get into any real fish until hours into the float. We dont count the smolts/trouts. My rod got the first steelhead of the day near Rogue Elk Park. Turned out to be a spawned out hatchery steelhead that we released so it could come back as a bigger fish in the future.
Then it died off again for another hour or two. Charlie got a nice little steelhead late into the day. Or it could of been a native trout. Who knows, i dont. Both of our fish came on plugs. Was a great day fishing with friends. A slow day of fishing wasnt that bad because we all had some great laughs. I did film a small clip of Charlies fish so ill throw that up on here and call this report good!
Thanks for reading and tight lines
Links and Stuff
Id like to give a little recognition to a few web sites out there. First id like to mention one of my very few sponsors. X-Factor Tackle. They are based out of Grants Pass, Oregon. Jeff runs the business and is a really nice guy! He actually made me a pro staffer. So im gonna have to catch some nice fish on the tackle he gave me. They make baits for bass and salmon/steelhead. I think im gonna really like the artificial egg clusters. Using real eggs isn’t my favorite thing. It gets messy and the eggs don’t like to stay on the hook for very long. The bass worms look really good too, cant wait to put them to more of a test. Thanks for the baits and sweater Jeff! Also thanks for donating bass worms for the prizes for the little tourney we had up north with Oregon Fishing Forum members.
The next link i want to show some love to is my friend Stevens fishing blog, Southern Oregon Fishing. Steven has been fishing the Rogue River for quite some time, and you can tell by his videos and pictures, hes quite successful! On his blog he writes about his fishing reports and also lately he’s been doing a weekly fishing report for our region which is great! So check out his blog and watch the videos they’re pretty cool! He also got a limit today of real nice big spring chinook salmon on the Rogue River. Check out the X-Factor Tackle sweater he’s wearing! We both got one yesterday and he got pictures of fish with it today! Good job Steven!
The next person i want to congratulate and give major props too, is my friend Colby Pearson. Last weekend him and his buddy drove 4 hours north to the Columbia River, a place neither had fished before. They had entered a State wide high school bass tournament. The winning duo goes onto west coast regionals, then the winner of that goes to the national finals which is held in Arkansas. Colby and his buddy Jacob got first place last Saturday. They caught some hawg small mouth bass. I think he said they won by over 2lbs which is pretty dang good! Colby also makes really awesome youtube fishing videos, and has been doing it for awhile now. So look out for this young guy on the pro circuit soon, or maybe the World Fishing Network tv channel!
The next person i want to give thanks to. Charlie Brown. Charlie is the owner and guide for FishingTheRogue.com. If you’ve been reading my blog lately you probably seen the link and name before. Charlie is an awesome guy and a pretty good fisherman, as you can tell from all the fish iv been catching lately. If you goto facebook type in FishingtheRogue.com and like the page and you can see a bunch of picture and videos! Also Charlie is giving readers of my blog a discount on fishing trips. So book a trip and mention this blog for a good deal! Here’s a picture from last time i went fishing with Charlie and his Brother Bart. 4-27-11
thanks for reading and tight lines!
April 27th Rogue River
I got that call im always looking forward too. Charlie wanted to know if I wanted to float the river again, im sure he knew my answer before he called. I met Charlie and his brother Bart at Rogue Elk Park around 515am. Bart was up from California visiting his brother, think they are doing some camping and white water rafting right about now. We got down to Sandy Bottom and were the first ones there as usual. We set up both rods with plugs and waited for the blood pumping take down that usually happens not long after you set the rod in the holder. And it happened minutes before 6am on Barts rod. This fish hit the plug then proceeded to go ape shit. Once it got hooked it performed a little dance routine for us on top of the water, it jumped over 30 times in less then a minutes time. After we watched it do its little dance, i grabbed my camera and started to get the fight on film. So here ya go, my 2nd ever youtube fishing video! The tunes are Courtesy of the band Primus.
It was a some what slow day for Steelhead. Although we did get into a few. But Bart did get his very first Steelhead this day and even got his limit of real nice chromers to take home to Cali. I got to fight and release a real big native steelhead, no pictures were taken of her though, quick release. But ill end you with the picture of Barts 2nd ever steelhead! Thanks for reading, and tight lines! Oh BTW. It’s now Salmon season on the Rogue River, and there’s still some steelhead left. So book a trip with my friend Charlie Brown contact him at FishingTheRogue.com
Boater Exam Oregon
With Trout season just starting up and the weather finally becoming consistently good for us in Oregon, more and more boats will be out on our local lakes fishing or just having fun in the sun. So id like to remind everyone that if you intend to use your boat that has a motor that is over 10hp (if it doesn’t have a motor or is under 10hp its not a bad idea either) on our public waters, you need to get your boaters safety card. BoaterExam.com Is the place to get this card online. Boaters Exam offers a fully animated and narrated study guide, and over 300 detailed illustrations. In addition, BoaterExam is the ONLY online boating safety course where you will see visual aids in every exam question (a must for visual learners!) One cool thing about this course is you can study online before plunging into the test. Also whats really great is you dont have to pay until you’ve passed the test!
I’m not sure if this person had their boaters safety card or not. But its very important to get your card, if you dont want to end up like this person or even worse hurting other people while out boating and enjoying the water. So please help in doing your part in making sure that we’re all safe our there in the water. Its a terrible way to end a great day at the lake by having a mishap that could of been easily avoided. One last thing that isnt probably in the course, i want to point out. Id hope everyone with a real nice speedy boat would be some what courteous to boaters like my self, with inflatable boats or small kayaks. Your big wakes aren’t exactly fun for us, especially when the waves are breaking out in the middle of the lake. Fines in Oregon for not having your boats safety card is $142. So id say its definitely worth spending 30 for the Boaters Exam instead of getting a fine or even worse…
Basstastic Weekend!
I did four days straight of bass fishing, with most of it done up in private ponds on the weekend of the 23rd and 24th. The bassin weekend started out thursday night. My sisters boyfriend and I headed out to White City to fish the VA Domiciliary. This was my first time fishing there, but my friend has told me all about it. I guess its not a bad spot. I missed one fish, crappy hook set. But my friend caught a tiny one. I took a picture anyways. Just for shits and giggles lol.
Friday afternoon I picked my friend Colby Pearson the bass master up from his home because we had a weekend full of bass fishing planned, at private ponds up north! We stopped by the Umpqua Fish Ladder on our way up and seen a few steelhead going up the ladder, they have a viewing window there and it was my first time stopping, pretty cool to see the fish on the other side of the glass. Then we stopped in the town of Sutherlin to get some lunch and to fish a Lake i hadnt been to in a few years, Cooper Creek Reservoir. We fished there for about an hour and decided to leave since neither one us got a bite, there were quite a few trout fishermen there and also a bass boat. Didnt unpack my camera so didnt get any photos of Cooper Creek, but ill fish there again some time this year and get a better report of the place done! We ended our day at our hosts house we were staying at for the weekend, Dave and his Wife Lisa aka Mr and Mrs Polebender. I met Dave last summer, we’re Oregon Fishing Forum members and last year he came down to Medford for work and wanted to do some bass fishing when he got off. So we met up and did some fishing and became fishing buddies! He’s from the Eugene area and has private pond access, so the past couple years he’s invited people from the forum over to one of the ponds for a day of fishing. He calls it the Polebender Invitational. This year he got prize donations for biggest bass and heaviest limits. I even brought up a couple prizes donated from Xfactor Tackle located in Grants Pass Oregon. The grand prize was an awesome custom made bait casting rod made by Ryan808 who is also a forum member. It was valued at over 300 bucks!
Saturday morning started out really slow. I met alot of the forum members and made some small talk, didnt really fish too hard because i seen the fish werent really cooperating. I witnessned my friend Colby catch the only bass from the event. I was about 75 yards away and could see it was about two pounds, turned out to be 1 pound 15oz. Id say thats the best fish under 2lbs my friend Colby might ever catch. It got him a sweet custom rod that he is using this weekend in the Oregon High School Bass Tourney. If he wins he would end up fishing in Arkansas against the best young fishermen in the country. When he competes in the local tournaments he’s up against adults and does very well. And hes been doing that since he was 11 and hes now a junior in high school. In todays local newspaper ‘the mail tribune’ Mark Freeman wrote an article about Colby and his buddy Jacob and their Tournament this weekend on the Columbia River for the high school state championship!
Thats the group of us that made out on that Saturday. We all ate rotisserie chicken that Dave cooked on the open fire, and cheese burgers on the grill, and i even brought some smoked steelhead! I counted and i think 18 of us are Oregon Fishing Forum Members. So it was really cool meeting these guys and gals in person. Jeanna Jigs made it out since trout opener got snowed out. I made a post about Jeanna and her walk for breast cancer a few weeks back. She had a donation jar and raised 100 dollars at the event this day! Click right here if you would like to donate, anything will help! Since Colby caught the only bass of the day we ended up putting everyone’s name in a hat and letting one of Dave’s grand kids pick a name out of it. That way it was fair for who got the prizes except the grand prize went to the bass master himself ‘Colby Pearson’ for catching the only bass at the invitational, there was also couple sucker fish caught too but those dont count during a bass tourney. Not long after we took the group picture i started to gather my stuff together because Chris another forum member invited Colby and myself to go over and fish his pond for a few hours. We had planned to fish most of Sunday there but we couldnt deny a offer of fishing there after a really slow day at the first pond. Colby caught the first one right after we got into the water probably three cast into this new pond! It’s the first picture below. Id say he caught about four or five real nice 3-4lb bass to my zero. Then he said he would hand off the next one he caught. I said ok, just so i could feel a fish after fishing all day. Well he got one on soon after and landed it because it was near some heavy cover, i told him no worries because i wanted to catch my own fish anyways. Then not to long after i tossed my jig near some cover, let it sink, reeled and felt a fish and gave a little hook set and i had a real feisty large mouth bass on! Over 4lbs. Great first bass of the year and also my first bass on a jig!
We came back the next morning bright and early about 630am. This time Dave, TTFishon, and Ryan808 all came along. I rode along with Chris and Colby again and Ryan and Dave both brought their little boats. We all had a great day! Our boat probably boated 30 bass that day alone. Only one was under three pounds, the average was from 3 to 4.5 pounds with a few going over 5.
Thats the rod Colby won and put to immediate use
That’s our host Chris holding a nice bass from his awesome pond
The last picture was probably the most memorable fish of the day. I had been recording video on a few different occasions trying to get the hook set on video. Well id film for about a minute or so when we came up to a good looking submerged tree. This time i turned it off after recording almost 2 minutes then 20 seconds later Colby and Chris had a double! Bad timing for video. But a good picture! Id like to thank Dave and Lisa for letting me and Colby stay at there place and fish their pond! Also big thanks to Chris for letting us come over and catch some nice fish from his bass mecca, cant wait to go back during the summer for some top water action! Thanks for reading and tight lines!
April 11th and More
Charlie called me and told me he had one client and wanted to see if i wanted to come along to fill the boat. I’m sure Charlie and Phil both know by now i wont turn down a offer at fishing the Rogue River in their boats! Last time out fishing with Charlie i mentioned if he only had one client and i came along i had no problem handing over my rod if it gets the first take down. Iv handed off steelhead a few times to Phil, but i usually reel most of them in. We all met at the boat ramp at the hatchery at 530am this Monday. We fished the very top hole also known as sandy bottom for about an hour. We were surprised we didn’t pull at least one steelhead out of there, Charlie says usually you can get two in that hole. So we floated down to the next hole known as the chief hole. First pass through my rod got slammed and had a fish on for about 10 seconds, until it surfaced and jumped then broke the leader. Darn! But only about 10 minutes later my rod had another take down but this time it stuck on good and i was able to hand off the rod to Kim. He brought in a awesome 6.5 pound hatchery steelhead. We then proceeded to pick up another steelhead right after that one but this time on Kim’s rod. It was a wild hen so instead of keeping it and calling it a day less then 2 hours into fishing, Kim let it go in hopes of more fish! We got down to Casey Park and we got our final fish, luckily it was on my rod because it was a hatchery steelhead. And lately iv been really wanting to get a fin clipped one so i can smoke some up. We floated down to Rogue Elk Park with out much action when we got pass casey park. But was still a good morning very action packed for awhile there in the morning. I think Kim had a good time, he booked a trip for the next day when his relative came up to visit and i heard he did pretty good again.
We also got video of the fish from this day and Charlies wife edited up a really cool video. The first part is Kim’s nice buck, then it goes to a clip of me fighting a 10lb hatchery steelhead, then the very last clip is the fish i caught that is pictured above. Very sweet video, and you can see some of the river we float when we fish the upper rogue river. Thanks to Charlie at Fishingtherogue.com for letting me come along and fill the open seat and catch some great fish! Give Charlie a call or email if your interested in fishing the world famous Rogue River. Tell him you heard about him from my blog and you’ll get a discount!
thanks for reading, and tight lines!
April 5th
The day before on the 4th, I fished with Charlie and his wife Rochelle, it was a really slow day for steelhead except for one take down that had to been at least a 15 pound steelhead. It was on for about a minute before it broke her off under a bridge. But before it had broke the leader it ran alot and jumped alot. It actually jumped completely out of the water sideways so we had a real good visual of it. Then when it did finally break the line it gave us one last look at it, when it did a victory jump. Charlie was really upset at losing such a big fish, but the big ones are hard to catch, so it happens some times. The next day he felt alot better about the whole situation and wasnt disappointed like he was the day before. We had to get back out there the next morning to get some redemption.
We had only been in the first hole 5 or so minutes and my line had only been in the water for 30 seconds when my rod started doubling over while still in my hand. I had a huge fish on! The fight only last about 15 seconds. The fish got to the surface and started thrashing around and that was the end of that as my leader snapped. I didnt check the drag on my reel as it was way too tight, lesson learned and also one of Charlies favorite plugs lost! Major bummer. About 40 minutes later my rod gets slammed again in the same hole, it felt like a real nice one. Charlie grabbed the other rod and proceeded to reel it in to get it out of the way. But when we got it in the line was tangled around mine, so he had to do some quick thinking and cut the line off of mine really quick. While this was happening my line went limp like the fish got off, but it must of been just laying in the hole chilling. Because when the line was off and i started reeling in he came back alive and started jumping in the middle of the rapid and the fight was on again! But we had to pull anchor and go after him. While we were floating down the rapid the line went limp once again and thought again that i had lost it. Moments later the fight was on again! We got anchored up at the bottom of the rapid and i fought the steelhead for a few more minutes until we were able to land him. It was a real nice wild steelhead buck, probably about 29inches and real healthy looking. We let him go after we got a quick picture or two, hopefully he found a mate and made some baby steelheads. That ended up being our only fish of the day. We floated to Casey Park twice and the second pass through big butte creek had cleared good enough to where we could of floated to Rogue Elk park. But we had to call it a short day at around 11am. Was another great day fishing with Charlie from Fishingtherogue.com If you want a good fishing trip contact Charlie and mention my name/blog for a really nice discount. Thanks for reading and tight lines!
April 7th
Usually I write my reports in order as they happen. But lately iv been fishing so much iv been back logged on writing reports and stuff. So today im skipping a couple that i will get to later and get right to Thursdays fishing adventure on the 7th of April on the magnificent Rogue River. My day started out 20 minutes after my alarm should of went off, maybe it did and didnt wake me up. I met Charlie at the boat ramp at 530am for the first light bite, which is supposed to be the best time of the day to fish. Well on this day it wasnt the case. We stayed at the first hole for over a hour then we decided to go lower, the very top hole usually produces that’s why we stayed for so long. We got down to the Crater Lake Highway hole and the snow started coming down like a blizzard for about a half hour. Our only take down occurred in this hole but it didnt stick, it happens that way some times. Charlie had to call it a short day around 930am im pretty sure his wife needed to use their car. But that was fine with me. My friend Phil was gonna come up with his boat after he got out of college and he met me up there a little after 1130.
It was slow for Phil and I at first through all the top holes. But when we got down to the Pump hole we finally had a take down. I fought it and got it in the net. Then while the fish was still in the net we came off anchor and started floating down. During all this commotion Phils rod got knocked out of the rod holder some how, we didnt notice until after we released the fish and we began to wonder where his rod went. This was very devastating the reel was a Shimano Curado a 180 dollar reel, the rod was a nice Fenewick too. We looked for it for a little bit then decided there wasn’t much we could do to get it back, so we got in the boat and fished the rest of the day with one rod. About a half hour later the rod got slammed, a real nice take down. I got the rod out of the holder then immediately handed it over to Phil, he deserved to catch this one. We then got one of his cameras rolling so we could get the action put on youtube. And we got some great footage during this second fish. So enjoy the video!
So ill end this post by letting you guys know how the rod debacle ended. A few days later on Saturday, my friend Charlie of Fishingtherogue.com had just finished fishing for the day and was at the boat ramp talking to a guy and the guy said a boat earlier had caught a couple steelhead and also one of the guys on the boat had caught a Fenewick rod! Charlie knew who that rod belonged to so he gave me call. He told me the person who owned the boat was a guide and his name was Jimmy Dunlevy. So the next day i gave him a call and left a message with his wife. Later that day i got a call from Rick the angler who caught the rod and he said he would let us have it back! What a nice guy and what a lucky break we had.
thanks for reading and tight lines!
My friend needs help!
My friend from the Oregon Fishing Forum needs our help! I’m posting this on here because i know some of you out there can probably help!
This is Jeanna and this is her story if you can help out in any way thanks!!
“I just registered for the Susan G Komen 3 Day For the Cure Event.
What is it? It’s a walk. A big, long, walk. 3 days, 60 miles, in Seattle September 16-19th. What’s it for? It’s to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Association, most of you may be familiar, but for those that aren’t, it’s the largest contributor in the nation for breast cancer research. They also assist people currently going through treatment.
Why am I doing this? My grandmother died of breast cancer when I was a young child, and my mother is a survivor, after a double mastectomy. I had genetic testing done, and have the genetic chromosome that often triggers it, and there is a high probability that I will get it myself.
I don’t know anyone that hasn’t been affected by breast cancer in some way.
This is a very important event to me.
That said, to participate, the minimum amount I have to raise is $2,300. I am asking you guys for help with this. We just registered so I haven’t got much going on yet, but we will be doing fundraisers along the way. If you can donate fifty cents, you’re helping me. I have until the day of the event to raise it, which is September 16th
If you want to contribute, you can click on this link and donate online. If you wanted to send a check or money order, it can be made out to the Susan G Komen Foundation, and you can send me a E-Mail and I will give you instructions on how to do that. jhunt.rattenborg@gmail.com
Welcome to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure:
I sincerely appreciate that you have even read this, and understand the economy is in the bucket, and if you can’t donate, that’s okay!
I’m thinking I will be selling jigs to raise funds…but there will be more on that later
This is the style of steelhead jig Jeanna will be tying, except it will have a pink head instead of red like in this picture. She’ll also tie some “carcass” jigs that are pale pink/white flesh color with a white head. They kill summer and winter steelhead, she says.
10lb hawg fin clip steely buck!!
I met up with Charlie below slide hole Thursday morning, got into the boat shortly after i slipped and fell into some mud. I got in the boat and he said he had 2 on in the morning but they both got off and both felt like real good fish, what a bummer. He said alot of boats had gone through and most with motors and they pounded the holes hard. We fished the the first hole i met him at for a bit then we made our way down river. We got to pump hole and were anchored up when a fellow guide came down and started hitting the hole below us hard with bait. Then he came to the top one last time and asked Charlie if it was cool to run plugs through one pass. This isnt very cool, but charlie is a nice guy and let him go right on top of us. Charlie then said it would be sweet if we could hook up right after he passed through the same hole as us, using the same technique, he said it would be a “burn”. And wouldnt you know we hook up as plugging down the hole, not long after we had just got done saying how cool it would be to show them up. I fought the fish for awhile, it had to been at least 7lbs and it was really bright. Most of the plugs we use have two treble hooks on them. And during the fight the hook that was in the mouth some how popped out and the other hook got caught near its cheek. This really pissed it off and it made it fight five times harder, and alot harder to bring it to the boat. I tightened the drag a couple times and did it one last final time before the fish broke me off, we could see it swim off with the plug still on it. I felt soooo bad. And i think Charlie felt worse, since it was the 3rd nice one lost in the boat that day.
A boat was behind us the whole time watching so it felt even worse, kinda embarrassing. We were just glad the boat that had jumped right in front of us didnt see me lose it haha. We were really really bummed the rest of the day. Until. Right about noon id say, we were anchored up out by Rogue Elk Park, we were eating lunch and talking when we noticed one of the rods get slammed. Charlie reeled in the other rod as i grabbed the rod out of the holder and proceeded to fight a monster! Charlie pulled anchor and took the boat to shore so we could try to land the fish easier. I fought it there for over 5 mintues id say and i couldnt really get it to come up river. So finally i told Charlie to pull anchor and lets go after him! I fought him for a few more minutes before we were able to net him, the hardest and longest fighting fish i ever caught!
It ended up being a hatchery fish! We thought it was gonna be a wild one since it was so big, but nope it was a keeper. It measured 32 inches and weighed 10lbs, it would of weighed more had it been a female fish full of eggs. It had some really awesome meat too, great color and tasty. This was our only fish for the day, but we were happy, since the morning had gone so wrong. And my personal best fish made it really special, not many fish grow to that size, and i caught one! I want to thank Charlie from Fishingtherogue.com Every time I fish with him I do really well, he knows how to put you onto the fish. He’s a great net man too 😀
thanks for reading and tight lines!
Double Chromers!!!
Tuesday night Charlie “Steelhead” Brown, told me he was going fishing all day Wednesday and camping out and fishing Thursday too, since the weather was nice and his wife was busy with work. We met up at the boat ramp Wednesday morning around 730am and there was already a bunch of boats in the water. Not many bankies though, so we were able to run our plugs through chief hole pretty good. We were sitting plugging away in the middle of the hole, when a boat fishing bait at the top hooked one and the fish ran down past our boat. So we had to bring the rods in, after i got the first one in we looked at the other rod and we had a fish on our self’s! They were fighting the fish like it was a monster floating all the way down the hole, we achored up the boat and landed the fish real quick i think they even saw us do it really quick. The fish ended up being a real nice chrome hatchery hen, 7lbs.
We took our time fishing the holes after we got that fish in the boat. We did this because we couldnt shuttle back up to the top and also since so many boats were on the river the holes were beat to death. We made it down to Casey Park only a hole or two above where Charlie planned on camping for the night. Quite a few bankies were fishing here its a pretty popular spot. But we still managed to pull one out on plugs!!! This one was a real beautiful fish, and it was another hatchery hen, so charlie got himself some more bait! And i got my limit by 2pm.
Was an awesome day on the water as you can see. Fishing in a boat with a great guide, wearing a tee shirt and limiting out by 2pm. It dont get much better! I was walking back to my car and the ex police chief of Shady Cove actually gave me a ride to my car. Lots of nice people out here in the great state of Oregon. Ill leave you guy’s wit one last picture from this day. I was leaving and stopped off at the top of the slide hole and see Charlie at the bottom. I shouted to him and took his picture. He shouted back that he had just released a nice buck that he caught on roe! Make sure you check out Charlies site. FishingTheRogue.com. If you book a trip with him make sure you mention my name and or my blog. And you will get a really great discount!
Well thanks for reading! and Tight Lines to all!
30 Inch Chrome Rogue River Hatcehry Hen
Monday I met up with Charlie Steelhead Brown again. Charlie is a fishing guide and a white water guide. If you contact him about getting a fishing trip make sure you mention my blog and you will get a pretty good discount. Fishing The Rogue Guide Service. We met up before first light and were the first boat out but a couple bankies were out on the fishing deadline. A hour or two into the morning we had a take down but missed it. Then not long after we got another take down on the plugs that stuck this time. The fish ended up being an awesome bright chrome hatchery Winter Steelhead 8lbs and 30inches. A hawg! After that alot of boats with motors came down and the bite died off for us. Around 9am we were anchored up above the Crater Lake Highway bridge eating snacks and watching a fly angler on the bank. I had actually said “wouldnt it be nice to see him land one on the fly” only minutes later he hooked up with a steelhead. We watched him fight it for a minute before he yelled over at us to see if we would help him net it. Charlie is a nice guy and obliged, guess it was his first steely this year. I took his picture and told him to google me and my blog.
Charlie invited his friend Andy to come along too, but couldnt get there til a little before 10am. We didnt do alot of catching after andy got in the boat. I ended up catching my first fish while side drifting roe with yarn in the afternoon. I got 2 half pounders and my first Cutthroat trout ever, all while side drifting. Andy didnt have much luck this day, he only caught one fish a small salmon smolt, on a fly and bubble. When we got to Shady Cove near the end of the float we were pulling plugs and got one more take down on my rod. It was a little native steely we quickly released after a photo.
So i caught 2 steelhead and 3 awesome trout, the halfpounders were barely under 16 inches. Had an awesome day fishing with Fishing the Rogue Guide Service, if want a great day on the water contact Charlie. Thanks reading and Tight Lines!
Blazer Shane's Blog 