WILD BLOG: Taking our shots at the Rogue's never-ending spring Chinook run
POSTED June 13, 2010 / 8:30 p.m

GOLD BEACH, Or. - By the way locals on the South Coast tell me, they have not seen a spring this wet in over 20 years. I, for one, am thinking about going over to the Central Valley to shad fish just to get some sun on these bones.

The beginning of June marked the return of our close friend Lloyd Beadle who vacated his winter home in Henderson Nevada because the wind was blowing so hard in the heat it was sandpapering the sides off of the rattlesnakes crossing the roads. Lloyd brought his cousin Luke, a freshman in high school, to spend some time this summer trying to catch his first salmon ever.

Wednesday, June 9
Tony Hobbs and the newest member of the board of Oregon South Coast fisherman, Tom Olsen, were on board for a day of fishing in the pounding rain and wind.

Surprisingly we launched upstream a bit and found boats stuffed in every corner of the area we were looking to fish. With the tidal section whitecapping, we decided to try upstream at a spot I had looked at several times before.

Reports were that the best guides were working upriver in the swollen water and limiting each of the two previous days, so it was consistent that we move in that direction and also attempt to find some shelter from the wind.

We changed tactics with the turbid condition and scaled our blade size to 4.5 while changing color to a rainbow pattern to improve flash in the water column. We outfitted this slightly modified Rogue spinner bait rig with 6-inch anchovies, and tried baits cured in Pautzke’s Nectar to improve scent and visibility. 

Looking at the size of the Rogue this day, it was tough to read the water in the new spot and determine exactly where to anchor.
 
We followed the seam in the current and placed the rod spread across the 5.0 feet line near an inside corner. One way top determine if your rod spread is place ideally in the current is to assure that the inside rod is fishing with about 2 ounces of weight while the outside rod is fishing with about 3 ounces of weight.

In high, turbid water I have been taught to err toward the bank even shallower that I normally fish.

Amazingly we were anchored about a half hour when Tony’s rod buckled in the holder. This fish came unbuttoned, but very shortly thereafter Tom’s rod went down and the race was on.

This was a large springer that weighed in at 37 poundsafter being bled and sitting in the ice chest for 8 hours.
 
What is learned here is that there are no set rigs for springer fishing. It is a challenge to modify terminal gear and location based on constantly changing conditions.
 
Thursday, June 10
Local guide Monty Moncrief, Lloyd Beadle and Luke were on board to for the challenge of getting Luke’s first salmon ever. With a bit of a late start, we repeated the previous day’s effort. This would allow me to see if we had actually found a new spot or we just got lucky the previous day.

Notably, more of the top guides were fishing the lower tidal section this day. We used the strategy of trying our new spot in the early hours for traveling fish, while setting a time based on the tides to move to the lower river.

With the weather co-operating we used the GPS and various landmarks to get near the same spot. Since the river had dropped overnight we needed to be further away form the bank to find the correct traveling lane.

Terminal gear was adjusted for the improvement in turbidity overnight. Lloyd and Monty worked the new Bechhold anchovy bait rig with standard green on green #4 blades while Luke and I worked our spinner baits in the heavier current with the rainbow blades that were successful from the previous day. Before all rods were out on the first set, the challenge of Luke’s first springer began as the first rod out buckled in the holder. Luke fought, and landed, the 20# king with excellent coaching from Lloyd.
 
We would have seven chances on this day with six more hookups coming in the lower river around the peak of the tide and during the outgoing. We lost a couple during training exercises. J We came home with 4 in the box and Luke smiling ear to ear as he fought a few more springers.

Because Monty and Lloyd are experts at boat handling, the captain had the opportunity to land a 38-pound springer.
 
What happens next?
We all talked about the fact that these fish are very large compared to earlier spingers. In addition, they are long and somewhat narrower - the length to girth ratio appears different - they appeared to be different from the “football” shape we had become accustom to for springers.

Question: are these early fall fish? Shortly after landing my large spinger, Mark Van Hook came by us fighting a HAWG. When Mark held the fish up for us to see is was considerably larger than mine: That meant 45 pounds or so. Wow, do springers get that big on the Rogue?
 
As the water temperature rises, we will look to different tactics next week. The sun is shining in Brookings, so we will take the weekend off to enjoy family and friends in the much needed break for the weather.

-Paul LeFebvre, Rogue Outdooor Store

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