The Rogue

The Rogue River begins in the Cascade Range’s Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness and at Boundary Springs within Crater Lake National Park. It flows south and west, collecting many tributaries including the South Fork Rogue River and Middle Fork Rogue River, both of which drain the Sky Lakes Wilderness. These wilderness areas are parts of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

Below the confluence of the South Fork, the Rogue River is impounded by WL Jess Dam’s reservoir, called Lost Creek Lake. Below the dam the Rogue River collects more tributaries, including Elk Creek and Bear Creek, the latter of which flows through nearby Medford. The Rogue River then flows west through the mountains to the city of Grants Pass. A few miles below the city, the Rogue River is joined by the Applegate River and then Wolf Creek, after which the Rogue winds north, then west, then southwest through the Klamath Mountains. Along the way it is joined by the Illinois River. The Rogue River reaches the Pacific Ocean at the city of Gold Beach, Oregon. The river runs 200 miles, of which 84 miles is a designated National Wild and Scenic River and 40 miles is in the remote canyon.

Umpqua River 

The Umpqua River is a river on the Pacific coast of Oregon, approximately 111 miles long. One of the prinicipal rivers of the Oregon coast, it drains an expansive network of valleys in the mountains west of the Cascade Range and south of the Willamette Valley from which it is separated by the Calapooya Mountains.  The river flows entirely within Douglas County, which encompasses most of the watershed of the river from the Cascades to the coast.

It is formed by the confluence of the North Umpqua and South Umpqua rivers approximately 6 miles northwest of Roseburg.  The North Umpqua comes from snowmelt and is considered one of the premier summer steelhead streams in the West.  The combined river flows generally northwest through the Oregon Coast Range in a serpentine course past the towns of Umpqua and Elkton.  At Elkton it turns to flow west past Scottsburg.  It enters Winchester Bay on the Pacific at Reedsport.

Klamath River

The Klamath River, approximately 263 miles long, is a major river in southern Oregon and northern California.  It drains an arid farming valley in its upper reaches, passing swiftly through the mountains in its lower reaches.  It is one of only three rivers that pass through the Cascade Range (the others being the Columbia and the Pit River, and it is one of the longest rivers in California.

The river is considered a prime habitat for Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, steelhead trout and rainbow trout.  Once the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, only a fraction of the river’s historic runs remain since the construction of six dams, built between 1908 and 1962. Coho salmon in the Klamath River are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Lost Creek Lake
Lost Creek Lake is located just 30 miles northeast of Medford on Crater Lake Highway 62, past the town of Shady Cove.  The lake is stocked with rainbow trout and has a large population of smallmouth bass.  The lake is open to fishing year around.

Emigrant Lake

Located 6 miles SE of Ashland on Highway 66, Emigrant Lake has an excellent smallmouth bass and crappie population. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout and is also open year around.   

Hyatt Lake

A scenic high mountain lake at an elevation of about 5000 feet, Hyatt Lake is a relatively shallow lake with a very good insect population.  Rainbow trout, the predominate fish of the lake, grow very fast in the insect rich waters.

Howard Prairie Lake

A sister lake to Hyatt is Howard Prairie, which is also primarily a rainbow trout fishery. It does have an increasingly good smallmouth population.