Smokey conditions have cooled the Rogue River water temperatures and made for some good fishing conditions for half pounders and adult steelhead.

The numbers of Chinook moving up the river has dropped this last week, so most salmon anglers are targeting the estuary. Anglers may start to see a few coho move into the bay in the next week. The Chinook have been pretty good size this year with numerous fish over 30 pounds. Chinook will continue to enter the estuary through October. As usual, the best bait is an anchovy.

Half-pounder steelhead are scattered throughout the lower Rogue, with some of the best fishing upstream of Agness. The majority of half pounder steelhead have passed through the lower river, but small numbers will continue to enter through October. Two of the more popular techniques to catch half pounders is with a fly or spinner.

This fishery is unique to the Rogue and Klamath Rivers where immature summer steelhead return from the ocean to the rivers they were hatched before returning back to the ocean. Anglers can find good half-pounder fishing through October.  

The Huntley seining project started the season a couple weeks ago. The project monitors fall chinook, steelhead, and coho escapement to the Rogue River.  The two-week fish count updates from this project can be found on the ODFW website and can be helpful for anglers to see when it is a good time to fish 

Current river flows are reported by the gage in Agness on the USGS website. Note that this gage is above the Illinois River mouth and does not account for that additional water flow. 

For a current view of the Rogue from the Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge in Gold Beach, check out the ODOT’s camera.