Fall Chinook fishing can be enjoyed from July through December and starts with trolling the estuaries of the Rogue, Coquille, and Coos rivers. As fish move into the rivers, we will follow the migration with the jet boat. This often overlaps with summer steelhead and is a great time to be on the river. In November and December, Fall Chinook fishing is done on the Elk and Sixes rivers when the rains have flushed out the estuaries. We use a 17 foot Willie drift boat for this experience.
Gold Beach Oregon is the home to Rogue River Fall Chinook Salmon fishing. Rogue River Fall Chinook run large and very fresh from the sea. 23 pound to 30 pound Fall Chinook are most common here on the Lower Rogue River, although in recent years there have been Rogue River Fall Chinook of 66 pounds and one that broke the World Record for Fly Fishing at 71.5 pounds in 2002!
Nearly all of the Rogue River Salmon fishing is for wild salmon stocks – very few hatchery Fall King Salmon are found in the Rogue River. Salmon fishing is good here until mid to late October.
In November and December you’ll still find Fall Chinook Salmon in the end of the season. These big bruisers enter the smaller streams after the first fall rains. December boasts the coast’s last opportunity of the year for Chinook. The Sixes and Elk Rivers offer phenomenal opportunities to catch these often large Fall Chinook. They can average in the 30 pound class with some weighing even more. To catch fish of this size from a 17 foot Willie drift boat powered only by oars – fish which are swimming in a small, fast river – can be a real challenge, even for the most skilled fisherman. This will be a memorable trip!