More Rogue River Spring Run Kings

Yosh on the Rogue

From: Yosh Ashikaga
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 10:01 PM
To: Robert N. Hara
Subject: More Rogue River Spring Run Kings

Bob -

Janet and I were out on the Rogue the last day of March to see if we could get a keeper (hatchery) springer because they really eat well.

Again, our pro guide neighbor, Rick Howard, picked us up early for the one hour drive south to the Rogue. On the way down, we picked up Rick's long time friend and our contractor, Jack Napier, who we had to hardly try to talk into taking a day off and go fishing with us. Launched in the dark and headed for the spot for the day. Arrived at Rick's chosen spot, anchored up and got the rigs in the water. The river was higher than the last time, around 17000 cfs, but the color was pretty good.

Rick decided to go with three rigs with spinner blades and one straight bait. Bait of choice on the Rogue is anchovies which Rick rigs with a Gamakatsu treble in the rear and a Sealy type through the lips with a clip to keep the mouth closed. The treble is attached to a 20# leader with a loop that is needled through one side of the chovy with the front hook on a slider snell to enable pulling on the leader to put a slight curve in the bait to make it spin. When properly rigged, the chovy will spin in the current by itself.

It took a little while before there was any action. The first fish we saw hooked was by a bankie that was barely fifty feet down from us. After they landed the fish we waited a bit before one of the spinner rigs got short bit, then the straight bait went off. Janet grabbed the rod. Rick, Jack and I cleared the other three and we slipped the anchors and went after the fish. Janet got it close where it was ID'ed as a wild, non-keeper and subsequently released. Too bad, as it appeared to be at least 25 lbs.

A little later, the straight bait went off again and away we went with Jack on the fish. This time it was a hatchery about 28# and ended up in the cooler. After a short wait the straight bait got bit for the third time in a row and I got to pull on it for a while with it going under the boat and heading for the beach. A noble but futile effort as this one was also a hatchery of around 30# and got konked and iced.

By this time it was apparent that the spinner blades on the other baits weren't earning their keep, so Rick switched to straight bait all around. A tip here, Rick showed us that the spinner blades slow down the spin of the bait as they deflect the current from around the body of the chovy.

After the switch, a different rod went off and Janet worked on it for a while as it seemed to be pretty big. When it got close we saw that it was a wild one and it was put back. This one was larger than all of the others for the day, maybe close to 35, nuts!

Overall, it was a good day on the river, no rain with sunny afternoon and a couple of the best tasting salmon anywhere in the box.

Keep your rod bent,

Yosh

Nice Yosh!!!! Well Done. Thank you for the Kine Report!