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OUTDOOR JOURNAL A friend for dinner After a dismal spring chinook run, summer steelhead are a welcome relief Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman Posted Jul. 8, 2016 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 8, 2016 at 1:44 PM By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman Posted Jul. 8, 2016 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 8, 2016 at 1:44 PM Tips for catching Rogue summer steelhead --> Summer steelhead strategies Early summer steelhead in the upper Rogue River are aggressive and can be caught using an assortment of methods. Here are a few tried-and-true techniques.... » Read more X Tips for catching Rogue summer steelhead Summer steelhead strategies Early summer steelhead in the upper Rogue River are aggressive and can be caught using an assortment of methods. Here are a few tried-and-true techniques. From the bank: Fishing is best by wading out thigh-high and casting into the near side of the moving water, typically along a seam. Casts are usually quartered upstream to get the bait, lure or fly to sink into a steelhead's strike range. From a driftboat: Attack the long glides by side-drifting bait or nymphs. Fish the "pocket water" around submerged boulders and rocks by casting into them as the oarsman either holds the boat or maneuvers through. Also, pull small plugs like MagLip 3.0s and Rebel crayfish along the inside turns of gravel bars. Bait: Steelhead aggressively bite worms side-drifted with or without corkies, with the worm threaded over the hook and up the line to keep it from balling up. Pink plastic worms made for bass fishing also are effective. Cured salmon roe works, but most Rogue anglers save it for winter steelhead or fall chinook. Bait fishing in the upper Rogue is open through Aug. 31, then reopens Nov. 1 after the two-month flies-only season. Streamer flies: Swinging streamer flies through steelhead riffles is an excellent technique from now until cold Lost Creek Lake water releases come in mid-October. Stand just inside the current, cast slightly downstream, mend the line and swing the streamer on a straight line until the drift ends. There are many classic Rogue patterns, such as the green-butt skunk, red ant, bucktail coachman, cheveny and purple leeches. Also, black articulated leeches with blue tails have been the bomb in recent summers and falls. Nymph flies: Nymphs fished under strike indicators are excellent for wading and even better when cast from a driftboat into pocket water. Use a 9-foot leader down to a heavily weighted Ugly Bug as the dropper fly, and a prince nymph as the point fly tied to a leader about 2 feet below the dropper. When spring chinook salmon start spawning, switch that prince nymph to a single egg pattern. Bag limit: Two fin-clipped hatchery steelhead longer than 16 inches a day. All wild summer steelhead must be released unharmed. » Social News SHADY COVE — My driftboat hovers in a favorite upper Rogue River riffle in the shadows of a giant oak that houses a large nest rebuilt by two bald eagles after a windstorm ripped the bottom out of it. It's a perfect metaphor to this year's fishing season on the upper Rogue, where an excruciating spring chinook season needs to give way to something new, something smaller, but definitely something better. Just then the right-side rod bows to the water, pulsing with heavy tugs from the other end. The river surface opens to a hurtling summer steelhead, its neon shoulders and silver sides reflecting in the evening sun as it cartwheels nearly four feet above the surface. Ding-dong, the witch is dead. "Steelhead rock, spring chinook suck @%*!," Mail Tribune photographer Jamie Lusch says. "There's your lead." Though the spring chinook season still has almost two months to go, the early showing of summer steelhead marks a welcome transition from a tiring, frustrating two months of stalking an unwilling and largely nonexistent competitor in favor of one that's more than willing to come out and play. In short, spring chinook are your enemy, summer steelhead are your friends. For those of you who don't repeatedly stick your finger in the fan expecting it won't hurt this next time, here's what spring chinook fishing actually entails. The drill's always the same, but this year brings extra pain: You know the upper Rogue spring chinook run is shaping up to be the smallest in 24 years. Still, the lure of the big, thick, best-tasting fish caught anywhere in Oregon's freshwater streams makes your IQ drop 20 points. You set your alarm for 3:30 a.m. and hit the water well before daylight to beat other equally stupid people to the best spots, hoping that one of those two bites you get a day turn into that scarlet chinook flesh in the fish box. On the rare instance that a spring chinook hits, it's like falling in love on the dance floor. You pull it close to you, closer, then see it's got one too many fins and you know this girl ain't coming home with you. You may, if you're lucky, land one fin-clipped hatchery spring chinook for every three or four wild beauties you have to let go. Salmon-steelhead harvest tags have 20 spots for notches, but most guys have hooked up with only a few qualifiers. My dance card is clean. Haven't tagged a hatchery spring chinook in three years. But right now, that doesn't matter. My new best friend is jumping near the boat again. Lusch giggles as he fires off frame after frame to best capture its essence for the jpeg moment needed to help tell this story. Steelhead-friendly means you can work a legit day, be on the water by 5:30 p.m. and fish until dark. Just a few hundred steelhead in the upper Rogue collectively offer more action than several thousand springers. That's because they bite anything from real worms to pink plastic ones to nymphs or streamer flies so sloppy they look like you tied them with your elbows. Steelhead won't snub their chrome noses at your offerings like those other bitchy debs do. And one of them almost always comes out to play under the eagle's nest. My new friend has bitten a pink-and-blue plug, the same one that more than a dozen of her cousins did last year. When she ends up in the net, she reveals a nice, smooth back with a hard bump where her adipose fin had been. This friend's coming home for dinner. @&*! spring chinook. Summer steelhead really do rock. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman . By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Follow @@MTwriterFreeman Posted Jul. 8, 2016 at 2:00 AM Updated Jul 8, 2016 at 1:44 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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