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The Rogue River's Gold Ray Reservoir Dam Gone Only Months; Salmon, Steelhead Already Appearing

By Tom Chandler 10/29/2010

When the Gold Ray dam was removed from the Rogue River, a whole section of formerly flat water suddenly became salmon habitat again - the first time since the first days of the 1900s.

This piece from Underground Fav Outdoor Writer Mark Freeman (Mail Tribune) says it well:

Gould caught a big summer steelhead on a fly Oct. 21 at the new riffle, which was exposed when Gold Ray Dam's removal this summer drained the reservoir that had been backed up behind it for 106 years. Then Gould lost a $1,000 rod and reel in the swift water.

Before heading home the next morning, Gould and two friends launched their one-man pontoon rafts at TouVelle State Park for a float back down to see whether they could retrieve the wayward rod.

"I caught a great steelhead there, lost my rod and then found it," says Gould, of Sacramento. "So we decided to call it 'Lost and Found.' "

Whether the moniker takes or not, Lost and Found is one of a string of new fishing riffles and pools waiting for new names along a nearly 1.5-mile stretch of the upper Rogue returned to its natural meander.

Spawning chinook salmon, summer steelhead and the anglers stalking them have all descended this month upon this new-look stretch of water, which reaches roughly from the mouth of Bear Creek down past where the old hydropower dam spanned the Rogue near Gold Hill since 1904.

The dam raised the Rogue's surface level by 23 feet, transforming a free-flowing river into an artificial lake with adjoining sloughs.

With the impediment gone, the river flows naturally again through the old reservoir and dam area, with salmon and steelhead spawning and feeding in areas unsuitable for them since Teddy Roosevelt's presidency.

Later, Freeman reports on an ODFW crew which found at least 34 salmon spawning nexts, and guides are already reporting excellent catches of steelhead.

In other words, it's been a bumpy road at times, but - at a time where we typically lose salmon/steelhead habitat by the truckload - we got a little back.

You can read all of Freeman's article here.

See you on the Rogue, Tom Chandler

AuthorPicture

Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

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