Roaring Fork Guide Service

Dear Friends, guests and readers:
It has been many moons since I last posted a fishing report or any Facebook entry. Apologies for the silence, but fishing and guiding has been minimal over the past couple years. In 2024 I had two major back surgeries, the second of which I am still in recovery. Unfortunately, neither surgery produced the anticipated results, and in fact the last procedure resulted in a condition called "drop foot" which has made standing and walking extremely difficult, not to mention the chronic daily lower back pain.
Since fishing is my passion, I am doing my best to live with the associated disabilities, and get on with a semi-normal life. To date, I have only dabbled in about 10 recent fishing trips, all in the drift boat. The rowing has gone great and we have generally done well on late season Spring Chinook, Rainbow Trout, and have even connected with a few Summer Steelhead. It is my hope to continue guiding, at least on a part time basis. Launching and accessing the boat proves far more challenging than rowing and fishing. I guess time will tell and we'll see how things progress in the coming months.
I thank you for your patience and now look forward to the salmon season on the coast including fishing for King Salmon on the Elk & Sixes Rivers in November and December.

Dear Facebook Friends-

A Thousand apologies for my lack of presence on social media this year, but truth be told, it has been a weird year both personally and professionally. Personally, I had 2 unplanned visits to the hospital, both resulting in surgeries. I underwent a torn rotator cuff repair in January and then another knee surgery in June. Good news is, both appear to be successful though I am still recovering from the knee operation. As you might expect, the surgeries and recovery periods have impacted my guiding operation, but so has Covid-19. The State shut us down to guiding in mid March. Guiding rules were then modified in early June but with lots of caveats, conditions and limitations. In the last three weeks I have been on the water very selectively fishing trout and salmon. Fly fishing for trout has been pretty good and our McKenzie salmon returned a tad late this season in numbers better than last year so there has been some reasonable fishing opportunities here in the past few weeks. Just like last year, the 2020 McKenzie steelhead run has been horrible, so really not even on the docket as it were. Attached are some photos from my last trip or two on the water. Wishing you all good health and safety through the Pandemic.

Close Encounter with a Marauding Bald Eagle

Lots of good Trout action on our Upper McKenzie River Trout Trips this past week. While we've come to enjoy the spectacular scenery and fun trout action on our up-river trips, we got a special bonus on one drift this past week. As my guest was stripping in a trout which had taken his fly, a hungry eagle appeared out of nowhere and smashed the water in front of us in an effort to capture the hooked trout. I think we were more shocked and startled than the trout as the fish was only a boat-length away from us The eagle missed his target however, but remained persistent, making not one, but 2 more water splashing attempts to capture what must have seemed an easy dinner. The frantic trout clearly had multiple issues to deal with. In the end, we invoked the three strikes rule and so the trout was landed and released as it had truly earned its freedom. Too bad we didn’t get a video of this National Geographic moment!

On Thursday, my friend Garry & I volunteered to run the planter raft to place hatchery-reared Rainbow Trout in the McKenzie River. We released over 5000 fish from the big, gray monster, a pontoon raft with a large stainless steel basin for fish sandwiched between the large floats. We picked up our loads of trout at 3 different locations and scatter planted fish as we worked our way down river. I ran the oars while Garry released fish with a dip net. With the heavy current and high water level now in the McKenzie, running the raft was more than a chore. The fish came by truck from Desert Springs Hatchery located in Eastern Oregon. The trout seemed very feisty and in really nice condition. The feedback I got from local trout fishermen was that fishing was excellent yesterday, so you may want to grab a rod and try your luck.

In the past, ODFW has raised the hatchery trout at the Leaburg Hatchery located below Leaburg Dam. For decades now, the hatchery program has provided wonderful fishing opportunities on the McKenzie for folks looking for some tasty pan-fries. The trout fishery is indeed an important and integral part of our local economy here in the McKenzie Valley. Unfortunately, the future of the Leaburg Hatchery is in jeopardy. The Army Corp of Engineers owns the hatchery and the future of the hatchery suddenly remains in question. The ACE is now out-sourcing fish production to private bidders for the short term and reviewing its long-term obligation of providing "mitigation fish" for decades dating back to the construction of their dams. And so, economics, politics, biology and resource management have come together into a somewhat messy and unpredictable potpourri. One thing is for certain, it would be a travesty to see the Leaburg Hatchery closed forever. What a sad waste......

As we bid farewell to 2018, we'd like to wish everyone a Healthy and Peaceful New Year. May your fishing exploits involve some great new adventures this year. Below are a few photos from our late season salmon trips on the Elk and Sixes Rivers down on Oregon's south coast. Both rivers continued to produce some very bright specimens that tested both skill & tackle. Some of our salmon catch even started behaving like their steelhead brethren sporting acrobatic jumps and somersaults. A super fun way to finish off the salmon season. Winter Steelhead will now get top billing on our coastal streams and rivers through the end of March. In addition to the Elk & Sixes, other favorite winter steelhead haunts include the SF Coquille, the Umpqua and the Siletz.