Roaring Fork Guide Service

Great Recent Trout Action on both Upper & Lower McKenzie River

Though a great temperature for our comfort, other than midges, there were very few bugs out. Right after launch, I handed young Ayden a spinning rod to keep him occupied while I set up some fly rods. Within minutes, he was fast into a feisty Rainbow, a scenario that would repeat itself continually throughout the day. Though fishing wasn’t “Red Hot,” in every hole or riffle, it was relatively consistent, as we seemed to hook fish in about every second or third spot we tried. I would safely rate the fishing as very good indeed. Ayden and his pop Ron, were out here from Virginia visiting friends and they love to incorporate a McKenzie River drift or two on such occasions. They have great stories from previous trips including the loss of a steelhead to an Osprey. Yesterday we spent a good 45 minutes working a very productive stretch where a Bald Eagle was perched directly across from the boat. We hit numerous fish there and were closely monitored by the vigilant Eagle. We were sure that at any moment he would swoop down and nail our quarry. This was apparently a very polite Eagle as no such event materialized.

Over the course of the trip, Ron & Ayden enjoyed 2 doubles and conservatively hooked about 30 fish, approximately 20 of which made it to the net. The numbers allowed them to be somewhat selective as to which of these hatchery trout would eventually make it to their dinner table. Though we were never able to stir up much in the way fly action, Ayden was quite pleased with the effectiveness of a variety of lures. Indeed his casting progressed nicely through the day reflecting his attention to detail. Most of the fish were high quality hatchery Bows in the 9-12 inch range. Much to young Ayden’s delight however, several of these planter fish were fat chunkers pushing the 17 inch mark. Ayden especially enjoyed the rapids of the upper river. Certainly a day to remember.

Roaring Fork Guide Service Summer Newsletter 2019

Greetings Friends & Fishermen-

With record snowfall in Oregon, and then dozens, if not hundreds of sites in the Midwest ravaged by devastating tornadoes, all one can say is “indeed what a weird year it's been.” Hopefully many western states got sufficient snow-pack to fill reservoirs and meet our ever-expanding water needs.

Heath issues here on the home front in 2018 proved equally challenging with 2 failed surgeries to re-connect a torn quadriceps tendon off the right knee. The second hospital visit involved several days of clean-up to remove a contaminated and necrotic cadaver tendon originally installed to repair the tear. The resulting infection landed me on a month-long regimen of I.V. antibiotics. 2019 has followed suite with a complete left knee replacement. Suffice to say that hospital visits, surgeries and consequent rounds of physical therapy, have gotten pretty old at this point. Surgery shouldn't become routine! The good news is that the knee replacement seems to have gone quite well and, if things continue on current track, I am just back in the drift boat gradually guiding fishing trips here in early June.....fingers crossed. Oh yeah, and to add a little salt to the wound, while my girlfriend Suki was up nursing me back from the 2nd surgery, she was hit by a pick-up truck that totaled her rig and resulted in multiple fractures to her elbow. Our roles were suddenly reversed as I became her primary caregiver. We were quite the pair of gimpy gimps now sporting nylon and titanium implants. While all the medical issues took their toll on my total days on the water last year, I was at least able to sneak in some guided fishing trips in the 2nd half of the year and intend to do so again this year.....knockin' on wood.

On to fish related matters. The Army Corp of Engineers owns the Leaburg Trout Hatchery here in the mid-McKenzie River Valley. They have decided to close the hatchery to the dismay and bitter disappointment of thousands of trout fishing enthusiasts. The latest plan to save the Leaburg Hatchery involves transferring the hatchery ownership away from the Army Corp feds to Oregon State Parks and Recreation who could then use State Lottery funds to run the hatchery. Word is that it could take up to 2 years to transition ownership to the state. To lose our local trout hatchery would otherwise be a travesty as so many local lakes, ponds, and streams are stocked with Leaburg Hatchery trout, as is the McKenzie River. Valley residents understand how vitally important the hatchery is to the local economy. Lets hope the powers that be are successful in finding an enduring resolution to keep our hatchery in operation.

To keep you in the know on our local salmon fishing, currently 15,000+ fish are over Willamette Falls headed to our upriver fisheries. That's about equal to last year at this same time. Really nothing to write home about but fish are being caught daily in the McKenzie and the Willamette. The McKenzie is getting most of the pressure as it has more water than usual since EWEB (our local utility company) is presently not diverting any McKenzie water into the Leaburg power project so that they can investigate a major leak in the power canal. Consequently, a core of power boats, are slowly back-trolling many of the runs as you really can't hold a drift boat by back-rowing in the faster current. You need at least a kicker to do so. The Middle ForkWillamette is a tad more drift boat friendly at this point in time. I had a single fisherman on Monday. His efforts were rewarded with 2 nice Spring Chinook Salmon and I even got to tag my 1st Springer of 2019 as evidenced in the photo below.....so BBQ tonight!

Hope you are blessed with good health and good fishing this year.

Cheers, John Gross

Merry Christmas to All
As the Fall/Winter Chinook Season down on the Elk & Sixes Rivers near Port Orford winds down, Winter Steelhead begin to become part of the catch. Suki proudly displays her mixed bag from a couple weeks back.