Rogue River Steelhead

Jay and I got out on the river Monday morning before doing some video work on our fly-ting business (the Allen Brothers). It was a good chance to check out what is soon to be my new home-waters. No doubt you’ll be seeing a lot more posts from me on the Rogue. On February 1, 2013 Michelle and I move in to a new home we purchased and it’s a short 5 minute drive from downtown Rockford, MI

Jay with a hefty steelhead!

Currently, the Rogue seems to be a “marginal” trout stream due to pretty warm temps in the summer. But my endless optimism, when it comes to trout, thinks it has the potential to be EPIC with proper management and and regulations. No doubt I’ll try and get involved in that arena.

We had a great time on the river. The fishing wasn’t anything to write home about, but the conversation was great. It’s been awesome these last few months “getting to know” my brother again. We’ve always been best friends, but have lived in different parts of the country for the last 15 years.

Getting ready for the release.

I think we were on the water for about 4 hours and landed three fish – one 13″ rainbow, a 17″ jack steelhead and this hefty steelhead that jay picked up. The rainbow came on a scud, but the rest were on a classic egg pattern.

Looking forward to blogging more and getting “back on the wagon”!

-Jeff

Location: Rockford, MI

Date: Monday December 31, 2012

Weather: Cold and clear, just above freezing

Insect/Activity: None

Patterns Used: Pheasant Tail, Gammarus Scud, Egg

Flows: 175

Hello West Michigan! August through December 2012

With the launch of the new website, moving across the country, finding a new job (no, Allen Brothers does not supply Jay and I with an income … yet, it’s still a labor of love  ) and having an 18 month old son – it’s safe to say that fishing, let alone blogging, took a bit of a backseat in the second half of 2012.

Having said all that, I did manage to get out on the water a few times on my own, and with Jay and we had some good times! Most of the images below are from the Muskegon River, but I also got out on the Rouge River (soon to be my homewaters and a short 5 minute drive from my house!), and on a creek that a friend of mine showed me just north of where I live.

I hope you enjoy the photos – I’ll let the captions do the talking.

Tight Lines,
-Jeff

In a small creek, north of Grand Rapids, I picked up this fantastic brown on a Pheasant Tail.

A close up of the same brown – just gorgeous colors!

Noah, with a great little rainbow fishing the fast riffles.

Releasing another good looking rainbow.

A brown taken off the back of a King Salmon redd fishing an egg pattern.

My uncle Al, picked up a similar brown behind the King Salmon redds.

Yep, King Salmon. They don’t call them King for nothing. I don’t even think this one is particularly “large”. It was a good fight, but not really my cup of tea. I’ll probably fish for Kings about one a year – or maybe, I’ll just fish for trout and catch one King a year and that will be enough! It’s tough, for me, to be hooking a fish that I know has no interest in eating 

Jay caught this sweet steelhead just last week on the Rogue River. I’m pretty excited to move to Rockford, MI next month and be so close to some decent fishing!