Child's Play
Jul. 15—Troy Whitaker sidles his way over a downed log spanning a portion of Union Creek, disregarding his 56-year-old joints while channeling his inner Huck Finn.
He casts a small single salmon egg upstream into a soft current, knowing the pocket holds rainbow trout barely a week in the wild.
His tiny bobber drops, and the short fight is on to land the most recent, and not the last, 8-inch rainbow trout of the day.
"Let the fun begin," Whitaker says. "That's three in a row."
Three casts, three fish. That's the way its supposed to be in Union Creek, a far upper Rogue River tributary that is the backdrop for some of the easiest trout fishing in streams available in Southern Oregon.
A large pod of weekly stocked rainbow trout not smart enough to outwit weekend anglers provide plenty of simple action even for those as seasoned as Whitaker, a Grants Pass man who spends most of his free time stalking the region's salmon and steelhead.
Trout just large enough to be legal keeper size shouldn't be this fun. But they are.
"This time of year, it's just gorgeous up here," says Whitaker, who owns a Grants Pass tackle shop and guides on the Rogue as well as trout-fishes throughout the country. "The temperature is right. It's a no-brainer on how to fish for them. You can't go wrong.
"It's not about catching big, huge fish," Whitaker says. "It's about catching fish. And its a great place to get kids off their cellphones and doing something in nature."
This natural experiment comes courtesy of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Rogue Forest dominates the landscape of the far upper Rogue drainage upstream of Lost Creek Lake in the Prospect-Union Creek area.
The agency runs two main campgrounds off Highway 62, 55 miles north of Medford, Union Creek and Farewell Bend. These are the go-to weekend camping destinations for much of the Rogue Valley each summer.
And ODFW stocks 3,000 rainbow trout in and around Union Creek each Thursday throughout the summer, meaning there are fresh fish available darn near every day.
And it's not like they're the most wily of trout.
These are fish that, until the previous week, knew nothing of the world except for the concrete raceways of Cole Rivers Hatchery along the upper Rogue near Trail. When a human's shadow swept by, it meant they were getting food pellets tossed to their way.
So these trout aren't skittish, by any means.
"These are planters, so we don't have to worry about them biting," Whitaker says.
"You just need a small hook, a few split-shot, a small bobber, a Pautzke egg and away you go," he says.
One of the keys is to use two or three very small split-shot weights. That way, a single weight doesn't get stuck on the bottom, and the others will create enough drag to pull free from any obstruction.
"A couple of split-shot are so small they look like a couple of pebbles floating by," Whitaker says.
The daily limit is five trout at least 8 inches long, with only one allowed to be more than 20 inches.
That doesn't happen much on Union Creek, where the creek cuts through the campground at a pace as leisurely as those lounging in camp chairs nearby.
Access is easy, waders not necessary. Finding where to fish is simple.
Any place with an exposed bank over moving water or deeper holes is a fishing spot. Polarized glasses will reveal a slew of rainbows finning around in the gravel or sand.
If that doesn't work, try fishing off a bridge in the campground. That's where ODFW technicians release hungry trout by the net-full each Thursday.
Fishing Union Creek for trout isn't rocket science. It's barely brain surgery. But tapping into that inner 7-year-old is something all seasoned anglers need to do at least once a year.
And that place is Union Creek, even if you can't leave the fibbing behind.
"Did you see the one I just lost?" Whitaker laughs. "I think its shadow alone weighed 8 pounds."
Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Reach him at 541-776-4470 or by email at mfreeman@rosebudmedia.com.
