Remarkable Rogue For Fishing And Floating, Oregon River In Class Alone

Don’t be fooled by the name. The Rogue River is definitely no scoundrel.

Instead, the southern Oregon river that flows out of the Cascade Range and through the Siskiyou Mountains to the Pacific Ocean continues to be user-friendly, luring more visitors and friends each year.

The river’s whitewater and deep water make it a favorite for both rafters and anglers worldwide.

“The Rogue is a national treasure,” Bob Rafalovich, president of Rogue Wilderness Inc. of Merlin, said during a recent fishing trip with a couple of anglers. “Being a national treasure, people should come and visit it, fish it, raft it, use it.”

While trying to tabulate user hours on the river for all recreation is nearly impossible, those who help manage it and those who make a living from it agree usage of the river continues to edge up. In addition to whitewater rafting and fishing, visitors also may enjoy the scenery and wildlife of the area; skip rocks off the river’s emerald surface; or just sit on the bank and listen to the liquid green snake slide by.

The Rogue River has been popular with people since the 1920s and 1930s when such folks as Zane Grey, Ernest Hemingway, Clark Gable, Ginger Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt discovered the natural resource and described it in glowing words.

When the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was established by Congress to preserve the nation’s “outstandingly remarkable, free flowing rivers,” the Rogue was one of the eight charter rivers included in the system in 1968. The upper Rogue, 42 miles of river from Crater Lake National Park to River Mile 172.8 at the boundary of the Rogue River National Forest, and the lower Rogue, 88 miles from Applegate River to Lobster Creek, have national wild and scenic waterways status.

“The Rogue River has all the qualities a wilderness river should have and it’s one of the last rivers with a good-sized wilderness,” Rafalovich said. “It has fabulous fishing, it has fabulous whitewater in the wilderness section, it has breathtaking scenery and it’s a warmwater river with temperatures in the 60s in the summer. Most whitewater rivers are cold water.”

The Rogue cuts through a fairly deep, rugged also sand beaches for camping.

Another feature that makes the Rogue unique is the wilderness lodges situated near it. There are seven that are accessible only by boat or long trail hikes and provide an option of staying indoors rather than camping outdoors.

The Rogue River was originally highly touted because of its salmon and steelhead runs. There have been fluctuations, but the runs have been fairly consistent through the years and beginning in the mid-1970s, the spring chinook and summer steelhead runs were supplemented by hatchery fish. The fall chinook run remains primarily wild.

In recent years, while salmon and steelhead runs on many Oregon rivers dwindled, the Rogue has continued to produce fish and memories for anglers. In 1994 and 1995, the river’s fish run numbers have been close to the highest of the last 50 years.

Beginning with the fall chinook fishery in the Rogue bay at Gold Beach last year, officials and anglers have been describing the runs as “near record-setting” and “phenomenal.”

This year, the half-pounder steelhead run topped the 100,000 mark and the spring chinook run was nearly 80,000, twice the normal number. Experts expect a run of 80,000 fall chinook.

Rafalovich has been guiding fishermen on the river since the summer he graduated from college 25 years ago. He’s seen and experienced the changes and usage increase on the Rogue.

“It’s been a good year for fishing so far,” he said of 1995. “There’s been a lot of water and a lot of fish.”

Although the dates are approximate because weather is such a factor, the half-pounder fishery will soon begin with the best months being September or October. The fall chinook run peaked between Sept. 15 and Oct. 1. The silver coho fishery begins around Oct. 15.

While fishing the Rogue remains his first love, Rafalovich expanded his Rogue Wilderness business to include whitewater rafting as that recreational sport blossomed.

As use increased, the agencies involved with managing the river developed a permit system for the lower Rogue wild and scenic section. The system, which allowed only 120 people a day to drift off into the wild and scenic section, was in effect from June 1 to Sept. 15.

The canyon float became so popular that there was an overflowing use of the river before and after those dates. So this year the permit season was from May 15 to Oct. 15.

“One hundred and twenty a day is not too many,” said Ken Vines, the Rogue River program manager for the U.S. Forest Service. “In terms of sheer numbers of users, whitewater rafting has become No. 1 on the Rogue.”

And Vines and Rafalovich believe people have responded in a positive way while enjoying the wild and scenic section of the Rogue.

“It’s nice to have good news,” Vines said, “but it seems people who in general don’t show much caring for anything beyond their own interests seem to have a high regard for ethics once on the river.”

“All over the West, I think following river ethics has been on the increase. The bottom line is I think the wild section of the Rogue is probably in better physical shape today that it was in 1980. We’re all getting smarter. Everybody is learning together. There’s unity because people in the river all want the same thing, a memorable experience.”