The Rogue River has seen weeks and weeks of low water, lots of high sun, and little to no cloud cover.  This has made fishing difficult for indicator and swing fly fishing.  There is some good news on the horizon though.  We have rain.  This will freshen up the river, get the fish moving around, and bring fish up that are currently lower in the system.  

On the indicator rigs, flies are the usual suspects.  Ugly bugs ranging in size from 4 to 8 in a variety of colors, from midnight fire, gold and black, copper and black, and coffee.  For the dropper fly we are running egg patterns near redds, copper swans/johns, brassies, and others.  

On the swung fly, sink tips as soon as the sun is up.  T-11 with a traditional or smaller intruder fly are my go to options right now.  Skating flies is always fun and I am doing that on the first run of the day and running through it again with a sink tip.  We had a couple of grabs with pink and blue last week but, black and blue are still the top colors for swung flies.  

Even though fishing has been hard, we are still finding fish.  Rowing runs multiple times, holding the boat, and fishing places where you don't think fish will be have resulted in fish hooked and landed.  The opportunities are there.  Its just a matter of putting in the effort and staying consistent throughout the day.  More rain is coming later this week and that will help with the fishing.   

Mornings are chilly, with temps in the low to mid-forties.  Afternoon temps last week were still in the 80's, but the forecast is showing 50's-60's the next 10 days.  Layer up, bring rain gear, and work hard.  The steelhead are here.