Welcome to our fishing report. Since we spend over 200 days on the water each year we have a pretty good handle on what's happening in the fisheries we target. For those of you who will be going out with us this season, you can visit this page to follow how those fisheries are stacking up. And for those who may be considering a trip, you'll be able to follow the action and see what you're missing.

**HOT** 2011 Early Fishing Lines - PDF Format

Early Fishing, Inc.

January 30 - We are finally able to drift the rivers again after over 20 inches of rain in a short period of time. The Smith had one day during the rain but really came into its own on Friday when the plunking really took off. While the Chetco enjoyed some good plunking as well it wasn't quite as hot! Saturday both the Chetco and Smith saw drift boat traffic and while the water levels were a bit high everyone was anxious to be on the water and there were some fish around. As you can see from the pictures there are plenty of fresh fish hitting the lines! We should continue to have a mix of fresh fish, as well as a few downrunners, for the rest of the season now. Look for river levels to continue to drop as there isn't much in the way of weather (except sunshine) predicted over the next week. Soon we will be adopting the old refrain " we need rain!". In the meantime, we are thankful for the time on the water and beautiful fish to fight each day.

January 23 - What a week we had! When we wish for rain we must remember to be a little careful ... we had over 15" at our house! Not to mention the wind, broken limbs, downed electric lines ... needless to say, our fishing week was short. Prior to the massive change in weather and water conditions Joe and Trevor, top left, had a fabulous day on the Chetco. They released 8 out of 10 fish (lost 2) and enjoyed the snow in the early morning on a great day off of school. A pleasure to take two enthusiastic young guys with an eye on the future (lower right is Joe releasing a fish)! Tuesday when the conditions were starting to change Ivy and Mike had a decent day with a couple big fish and a few other quick releases. Ivy kept her biggest steelhead (15 pounds) ever and didn't have to wring out her socks this year. Wednesday was when the river went on a huge rise where flooding on the lower river occurred in several places. The Smith also went over the 100K CFS mark (cubic feet per second) which is a massive amount of water traversing the canyons. We are still dropping and clearing as you can see in the top right picture taken from the "Steel Bridge" on the Chetco River. If the next storm doesn't hit too hard then we should see some action on the Smith soon (possible tomorrow) and then the Chetco toward the weekend although it will still be high. We'll see what happens with the real weather that comes in. We did have a few cancellations this weekend so if you want a chance at winter steelhead and don't have any dates on the calendar, send an email or give us a call! Looks like sunshine in the not too distant future.

January 16 - Remembering MLK and his "dream". This past week has been challenging with low, clear water conditions but with some luck helping out we managed to have a good week of fishing. The traffic lightened up a couple of the tough days which allowed a bit of action in tough conditions with fish that were incredibly spooky! The conditions are the same right now but the predictions are for some major changes this week going into the weekend. If the rain materializes the way the weather forecasts are saying then we'll have an entirely new game on the rivers! We also helped with the ODFW brook stock collection this week - carrying the aeration cooler in the boat and donating some fish to help. Thanks to Dave Taylor and John who helped with this effort. There are good numbers of hatchery fish in the system which attests to the success of this program as well as the success of the naturally spawning fish.

January 9 - Happy Birthday Fishes to Jeff - top right (on the right). Sunshine and fish - what a way to celebrate! We are off and rolling with 2012 and we are singing the familiar song "we need rain". This past week though we were able to find some fish and it required a lot of perserverance at times! These pictures say it all including releasing some fish and some really nice hatchery fish. Some of the fish escaped the seals but found us! We will continue to work hard and search out the fish, sometimes it's a bit easier when the traffic eases up.

Always a beautiful day on the water though and everyone has appreciated the sunshine this week. The mornings are frigid but the afternoons have warmed considerably! Diane & Ivy both boated their first every steelhead - and think fishing should start at 11 so the sun is out already. :)

January 2 - Welcome to 2012! We hope everyone had a safe and happy ringing in the new year. Our last week of 2011 had a bit of everything from clear water to flooding - a good recap of the entire year. The beauties pictured here came from a variety of water conditions and rivers. Some were released and some of the hatchery fish we kept. The rivers came down almost as quickly as they went up and with little rain in the forecast we'll be singing the same refrain, "we need rain", in just a few days. We do still have space available during the winter steelhead season so get some dates on the calendar in this new year.

December 26 - We had a decent week of fishing despite the low, clear water conditions. It is exciting to be able to watch the fish when they are on, fighting, and see what they do, where they go and how they react to being hooked. It is a learning opportunity to understand fish behavior! The beautiful sunshine heated up during the afternoons and hit 74 the day Clarin and Tim fished providing some much needed relief from the frosty 31 they started out with. We are SUPPOSED to get rain starting tomorrow (27th) that should finish out 2011 with some rising water conditions and move the fish around so they aren't kegged in certain areas. It will also provide some safer boating opportunities for many people although we've sure enjoyed the peacefulness these conditions have offered.There are still a few fresh salmon entering the river and the northern streams, Elk & Sixes, will have their last blast when this rain hits. Rowdy Creek Fish Hatchery has also been getting more fish around the mouth and the hatchery staff will be quite busy again sorting fish. We wish everyone a safe end of 2011 and hope 2012 brings with it health, peace and joy. We look forward, as always, to seeing everyone in the new year.

December 19 - While we did have some clouds and a few sprinkles pass through last week it was very little precipitation and we are still low, clear and dropping. However, there are a few fish out there to be had and with wiley stealth, and sneaky approaches, they will even cooperate at times. The early morning (if it's not too cold) and the later afternoons have been okay but mid-day requires some shade to be productive. There aren't a lot of fish out there but they are nice like these 2 hatchery fish caught this week. Margo Dutton and Jan Loren both had an amazing day since there weren't being soaked to the skin and frozen! The mid-day temps are reaching 60-65 on the coast - very hard to believe it's almost Christmas and the end of December. If the frost keeps up we'll have a white Christmas. The Rogue is also seeing some fish in the lower section around Agness. We've had a few days with adults and half-pounders but still working pretty hard for the action. The Rogue is as clear as it gets as well and the flow is slow. We are wishing for rain at this point - maybe Santa will deliver? Happy Holidays to everyone - enjoy your friends, family and eat plenty - New Year's resolutions are just around the corner!

December 12 - We took a bit of time this last week to help Oregon South Coast Fishermen in their carcass surveys in cooperation with ODFW. It is incredible to just float down the river looking for dead fish! Val's boat found 27 samples (carcasses!) and the 5 boats totaled for over 100 for the 5 hour float through different sections of the river. There were still a lot of salmon that were "the swimming dead" so the sampling this week should also be very fruitful. This is quite a program and so important to the Chetco in knowing the numbers of fish utilizing the system. There are more than fishermen that are seeking these fish - as you can see from the photo on the right, plenty of bears are around the area and they are just as anxious to find the carcasses! There continue to be a few fresh salmon entering the sytem as well as on the Smith River where the majority of the action is below Rowdy Creek Fish Hatchery. There are also steelhead in both rivers and even though it is a trickle of water compared to later in the winter months, it's still possible to have a decent day between side-drifting and pulling plugs for the metalheads! Mornings are very frosty and we are fortunate, on the coast, to be out of the fog most of the time. Find time to be grateful for the beauty surrounding you!

Check out the website and our newsletter for 2011. We have been updating all the photos throughout the website and will have the photo album for 2011 uploaded soon as well.

December 5 - It seems like just yesterday that we started our year off by showing some pictures of great steelhead fishing. We have already started seeing some great steelhead including the 16 pounder Gary is showing off here. There are still a few salmon around but the Chetco and the Smith seem to have the majority of their run in the spawning mode. There are still a few very bright fish entering those rivers, moving through the system with their goal in sight! Oregon South Coast Fishermen have started their annual spawner surveys where they search for spawned out fish (dead) that they can count, measure, scale sample and add to the growing data bank that is so important to the run. Similarly the Smith has continued with their DIDSON counting station this year - the pet project for Zack Larson - and it is showing a good run. The Rowdy Creek fish have also made their appearance and come in spurts but are still in the lower river providing some action. The main salmon fishing now, through December, will be on the northern streams - Elk & Sixes - where the run is typically later. There are some bright fish showing there but alas, we are the broken record ... "low, clear, need rain" again. There are some steelhead showing on the Rogue around Agness as well as the Grants Pass area so there are still opportunities to catch something while we wait for the rain. Coastal weather is beautiful - cold in the morning warming to 60's in the afternoon and it's hard to believe this is December. Let us know if you want to get that last of the year fishing trip in - we're ready to go!

November 28 - We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate their fill! We enjoyed plenty of rain this past week and found ourselves with a lot of water come turkey day. The Elk and Sixes, as well as the Smith, dropped back in fairly quickly and, especially, the northern streams produced some great action. The fish weren't the big hogs we've been talking about but they were dime bright, fresh from the ocean and full of fight! By the weekend all the rivers were in shape and everyone was anxious to be out there trying their luck. Plenty of traffic hit the water and while the fishing on the Smith and Chetco was just fair, the Elk and Sixes continued to light things up. Without additional rain we're looking at a continually dropping river and pretty soon we'll be wishing for rain again. We released a few darker fish but found a few very bright fish on the Chetco. Jeff Richardson and his son, Scott, made their annual trip to the Chetco and Scott boated a 44 pound beauty along with a few other fish that tested gear and strenth. Jeff had to help hold them up after the fights! Beautiful weather was welcome and we're looking at a combination of side-drifting and back bounding as well as back trolling plugs for the coming days. As the last month of the year approaches, don't forget fishing gift certificates are always welcome and can be customized.

November 21 - The rain arrived and the river is flowing at a decent rate. The fishing this week has been steady although finding bright shiny fish has been more of a challenge. The beauty of the week goes to Chad for getting this beautiful coho on the Smith. It was released. There have been some brutes that have landed on the bank this past week too ... one of the bank anglers on the Smith landed a 55 pounder and a fish on the Chetco was pushing 60 or over (it never hit a scale - only the formula was used). We had some fish in the 40 plus category that we boated and released. The rain dance we asked for has been rather effective with the prediction for this week topping all high water yet this year. That should set up some nice water for steelhead to enter and the last of the fresh salmon. We have started to see a few steelies, like the one Richard is holding (nice hatchery buck!), and we are on our way for a good steelhead year.

We'd like to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday. If you are traveling, please travel safely. Enjoy great food, great friends and family.

November 14 - This past week provided a lot of hopefulness - hoping the rain would start again, hoping the fresh fish would move into the systems, hoping for clouds! We did have some fishing for the past week but it proved more challenging as the week progressed and was directly related to the dropping, clearing water levels. The Chetco and Smith Rivers are gin clear with little flow and very little current at this time. We are expecting rain but we were expecting it several times last week as well. While there are still fish around they are all rather colored up - we caught some other fish this past week but released many of them because they were not great "eating" material. They provided some great excitement and gave their all in the fights but we released them to spawn and produce some other great fish for future years. Both the Smith and Chetco are in the same situation right now and without rain soon the Smith will close for low flow. Veteran's Day provided an opportunity to say thanks and remember all those who have fought for our freedom and continue to defend our way of life and to take Morgan and her friend, Trevor Gallian, fishing on the Chetco and their enthusiam for fishing was rewarded during a tough day with at least a couple fish. Bobber fishing is the norm at this time with hole hopping to access different areas of the river. Do a rain dance for us and we'll do the same. Looking for a decent storm to come through the area this week .... we'll see!

November 7 - It finally happened ... we got RAIN! A few sprinkles last week teased us and then it looked like it was going to do the same thing again on Saturday when the Chetco officially opened. However, the light rain on Saturday were brrrr, cold, and by Saturday evening the temperatures rose and that night the skies opened up and dumped about 3 inches of rain! By Sunday morning the rivers were all on a quick rise. A forest full of leaves came down the rivers but by afternoon the rivers were dropping into shape. We did have some good fishing before the rain as well as after with tide water and some upper holes producing. Above (top middle) are a couple guys Gary has know for more years than they all want to remember but they had a good (but cold) day on Saturday and Gary's friend, Russ, will head home to Minnesota with many stories of his day with Gary and their other friend David Brous. On the lower left Eugene is showing off a great limit on the tide water of the Smith. Lower left is Jeff Richardson getting ready to net his brother, Ronnie's fish. They also are showing off some of the fish they landed. Don Major, our neighbor, brought his nephew fishing and they had a spectacular morning with an "Early" limit. We wish we could say it will continue but the rivers are already dropping FAST (like a rock) and have cleared tremendously so we are back to wanting rain! The nature of fishing ... always wanting just a little more. Welcome to November!

October 31 - Happy Spooktacular October to everyone! This picture is not a trick - Layne landed this 50 pound Chetco fish last week while fishing with Eugene and Gary. What a fight it was too. The Chetco estuary had a couple good days last week but since that time the tides and water conditions, not to mention bluebird weather, has slowed the fishing. There are still a few fish being caught but the action is slow at best. The tide water fishing on the Smith has also been a similar story although there seem to be a few more fish being caught at first light and there are still fish moving through the lower river, past the counting station, which means when it FINALLY rains there should be fish everywhere. We are waiting to hear if the scheduled opening for the Chetco is still on for Saturday although with no measurable rain in the forecast this week the river will still be too low for floating (unless it's in an inner tube!). We will have a change coming soon though and when we do the gates will open for some great fall fishing action. So stay tuned.

October 24 - With temperatures in the mid 70's here in Brookings it is very hard to believe that winter is just around the corner. The fall days have been beautiful here with very little wind (thus far) and some clear blue skies that make for astounding sunsets! The only hard part is that mid-day is rather tough for catching fish as the fish also become complacent with the weather. The best bite, on the Smith estuary and the Chetco estuary, is first thing in the morning when the fish have rested for the night. There are a few scattered fish caught throughout the day but much of that depends on the timing of the high tide which brings the fish in. Tim Smith had a great day on the Chetco topping it with this beautiful 27 pound chinook - bright and feisty! The trolling in the Rogue has also brought some action although somewhat spotty - some silvers, both hatchery (which we can keep) and wild along with the Indian Creek Chinook. As our weather pattern changes we should see some fish spread throughout the rivers and the rivers will all be "driftable" for some great action. Unfortunately, that change in the weather is probably not going to happen this week - forecasts are for some changing conditions next week but, as always, we'll see! As Halloween approached there are fun pumpkins placed throughout the Rogue canyon - seems even the otters like them! Give a call if you want some up to date reports or if you need to get your winter steelhead dates on the calendar - since January isn't that far away some of the dates are already full so don't miss out!

October 17 - Happy Birthday to Cal (Val's Dad)! We took a little time this past week to hit the hills and go hunting - Gary had a very successful elk hunt in north eastern Oregon. We'll get some pictures of his elk up soon. We did get a few days of fishing in prior to that while the Smith was open from the rain at the beginning of the week. There were some nice fish around but the river dropped very fast and will probably be closed this week due to low flow (under 400 CFS). The Rogue also had a good shot of Coho come in along with some of the Indian Creek Chinook. The action wasn't terribly consistent through the week but, as is always the case with fishing, timing counts! The "Trophy Ocean" season outside the mouth of the Chetco also closed this week (Wednesday) with some nice fish hitting the dock those last few days. The weather cooperated further and this past week provided good action in the mouth of the Chetco with about 20 fish caught during just one tide this weekend - hot action for a short period of time but it got everyone excited. Our weather is wonderful and warm but the fish really do need some cool weather and rain to move them into the river more. We're looking for a change in the weather toward this weekend and as October starts closing we'll see action continue to pick up on the Chetco and Smith Rivers with some 5 year fish (40+ pounds) tearing up the gear!

October 10 - Happy Columbus Day. Not too long ago this area in Southern Oregon had a blustery storm that caused a lot of damage - we didn't have that today but we had plenty of rain (minus the wind). The past week has had a bit of water falling which was great for the rivers in the area as the Smith opened after it was over 400 cfs. The pictures show a few of the fish we found on the Smith although the action was a little slower than we were hoping for - it's hard to remember this is early October! The ocean season continued this week as well with a stellar day on Saturday with some of the "trophy hogs" hitting the docks. The Rogue continues to produce silvers (coho) but the vast majority of them are wild and must be released. We should see a push of hatchery silvers soon and the Indian Creek Chinook are showing in decent numbers as well. Our fall salmon season is definitely off and running with options abounding. The only disappointment for the fall season is the steelhead run on the Rogue where half-pounders are scarce. However there are some BIG adults with some fall steelies in the mid-teen range. There just aren't that many of them and we are working hard to find the ones that are there. We will continue the hunt! Also above is the net pen sponsored by ODFW and the Oregon South Coast Fishermen. The fall run smolts are about to be moved to their new home and this project will continue with the HUGE volunteer effort and monitoring by OSCF. A great group of guys that continues to work to put more fish in the Chetco without impacting the wild runs. Thanks for all the work!

October 3 - Fall has certainly arrived and we enjoyed the tail end of the beautiful fall weather last week before the rains his this weekend. The fish must have known something was due to come too because the bite was really good toward the end of the week through the weekend. The "Trophy Bubble" Fishery off the mouth of the Chetco opened on Saturday to some mediocre conditions. While the ocean cooperated somewhat the fish weren't as cooperative for everyrone. There were still some nice fish caught, including our friend Roger Thompson who caught his limit. The estuaries still were producing including the Rogue where silvers, wild and hatchery, showed up in good numbers. The upper drift sections were still a bit spotty but beautiful The traffic is light in the FS permit section on the Rogue making for a very enjoyable day on the water with some kings and silvers cooperating. Thus far the half pounder fishing has been disappointing as has the fall steelhead season but we are hopeful that this weather will give them a push. We've had over 3 inches of rain so there is a chance the Smith will open this week sometime.

September 26 - A beautiful week on the water with some results although not quite what we were expecting. The Rogue and Klamath had both slowed a bit on the upper stretches by weeks end. However, Saturday rolled around and the impending storm must have spurred some fish to come in because the Rogue bite in the bay went off. Sunday was also good at the bay with some silvers, hatchery and wild, showing as well as some great chinook. The rivers to the north have cooled a bit as well - Coos, Coquille, Smith - but that just means they aren't smoking red hot. There is still plenty of action. The Chetco saw some fish enter the estuary this weekend and there were some nice chromers that rewarded the few people trolling. This is just the beginning of the Chetco season and it will only get better and continue to do so as the rains come. The fly-fishing on the Rogue is a bit spotty but that should also improve this next couple weeks with half-pounders and some fall adults getting in on the action. Let us know if you can fit something into your schedule. We'll start trolling the bay here on the Chetco on a regular basis now to keep track of the run and the "Bubble" season for the ocean opens October 1st.

September 19 - A beautiful week in Oregon with some fabulous weather and good fishing. We fished the Klamath (in California) and the Rogue this past week with some success on both rivers. The big fish goes to Sally Tanner (age 85) who fought a 35 pound king on the Rogue for about an hour before putting it in the boat. She and her friends, Pat and Marilyn, also boated fish in the 2 days that we ventured down the Rogue. Gary enjoyed some time on the Klamath with the Willie Boat guys. The Klamath had quite a few jacks but some adults as well and they all had a great time. Some of the rivers just north of the Rogue (Coos and Coquille) are also kicking our kings. Not too many silvers are showing thus far but they shouldn't be far behind. They should be coming in any day now. We are enjoying these summer days and the lighter traffic that the rivers have been producing. There are great predictions for the king (chinook) runs on the Smith and Chetco which will get rolling after we some rain but we still have openings through the end of October and in November prime time too so let us know if you need some salmon in your freezer!