Hi everyone, I found this site and realized a lot of guys were from the area so I thought I'd join!

My names Patrick, I live in Grants Pass and the last few days I have been really trying hard to land a steelhead, my cousin went out 3 mornings in a row and landed a 24", 28", and 26" right underneath the bridge in Rogue River. He caught them all using silver Blue Fox spinners. Anyway, I went out yesterday and landed an 8 pound coho there which was awesome! then hooked into a Steelhead but unfortuantely it got off. I was using little cleos. It rained last night, But today, I fished for about 10 hours total, starting with spinners and spoons in the morning, and then trying some corky and worm action in Grants Pass, this evening. But with no luck! I know thats how it goes sometimes, but I was seeing guys have a lot of luck on fly rods this morning which was really interesting because we were not having any luck with the hardware. I am a total newbie and would love to try any suggestions or ideas that anyone has! I live real close to the applegate, so I cannot wait for the winter season to get here!

So if anyone knows of any pretty productive spots that they are willing to tell me about, around the area, or tactics to catch some fall fish, it would be very greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much,

Patrick

My guess is that the fly guys were using an egg pattern and fishing behind spawning salmon. I would try float fishing a yarn ball in those areas, or drift fishing one if its to fast and shallow for floats. You might even try some UV yarn in your yarn ball, could give you a little edge? Sorry, had to throw that in there. Chad and I have been doing well with the UV yarn balls in the short amount of time we have been using them.

Might have to try that! But how would a yarn ball sink fast enough for use under a float?

If Im going to use yarn, any colors work better than others? I have heard good about a color called shrimp pink, but they were using it in march for winter fish in the applegate...

You would have to put split shot on your line to get it to sink quickly. Shrimp pink is a good color for sure. I would think that baby pink, and cream sickle would also work very well right now. We have a few tutorials on the main web site that show different fishing set ups. They might be helpful.

Ok! I heard that they're arent a whole lot of steelhead in the water right now though. Is that wrong? The guy that told me, said there are a lot of Cohos coming in and soon it will mostly just be those, and not so much steelhead. Until winter from the sound of it, Im not sure how true this is?

Grants Pass is just starting to get good for steelhead! They follow the salmon up river and feed on the eggs around GP. There are lots of coho too but the summer/fall steelhead fishing should be great this time of year. I would not listen to that guy. Also the winter steelhead fishing starts to get good around December I believe but the locals would know better than me.

Awesome! I just throught that for sure I would have hooked up on something with worms and corkys, but do the yarn balls seem to produce better results? Shoud I fish by bouncing them off of the bottom, or floating them under a bobber?

Thanks guys! I know I have a ton of questions

Everything people use work for steelhead and its hard to say that one thing is better than the next. Certain conditions yarn balls work very well along with jigs and bait. We fish yarn balls off the bottom and under a float. You have to remember that steelhead are eating salmon eggs right now so worms work great earlier in the summer but eggs and yarn balls probably work better this time of year!

Ok! Im going to have to try that!

Now, because I am such a newbie...is it better to fish faster water or slow water? Or the bottom of a riffle, or possibly at the top of a riffle? thanks!

I don't think it matters where you start out at. I think the most important thing is to find where the steelhead are at and fish that water. Right now the easiest way to find them would be by finding spawning salmon, and fishing behind them.

Or... just go out to where you think the fish might be.
Remember, fishing's always good...catching's a bonus!!

Well! I guess Im gonna have to give it a try here soon! Only bummer is that its raining pretty good right now so Im sure it will muddy up the water for a while here, but I hope theyre hungry when the rain stops!

I'm here in gp also and work in meddy and it poured the whole way. To begin with a build a lil confidence like it has don't with me... I've been fishing the upper a couple days a week... Probably fishin up there Thursday with reeltech. Plus upper near rogue is never "really" blown out.

Greg, have you been having any luck?

Yea. A lil. I've gotten one smaller steelhead on a yarnie and egg... Daniel or Chad, just so ya know, 16 inches is a legal steelhead on the rogue and applegate. And the one I got was like 20 1/2. One of two steelies I've seen on the bank.

If ya ever want to follow me up or meet up there, I'll probably be fishing up there once or twice a week til January. So just pm me!

Greg, Greg, Greg, we don't consider brown trout 16 inches adults let alone steelhead! They must of made that rule to potect the outgoing smolts from Greg abuse! Just messing with ya Greg, one of these days we will show you how to catch an adult.

Sounds like fun greg! Went out for a few hours this morning but didnt hook into anything..Was still fun! Went and scoped a couple spots out on the applegate, cant wait till january!

I learned my lesson bout that river and I'll never start a thread again with that river name it in again.

I can't wait til there's some fish in there. Hopefully I'll be able to fish it a lil more this winter.

And back to the upper rogue Monday. If I get a chance this weekend, may hit a couple spots here in town

Let me know if you have any luck!