The Smallmouth bass fishery on Oregon's Umpqua River is considered by many to be world class.  The sheer number of fish that are caught over the course of a day is absolutely staggering.  Boating a hundred to two hundred fish per day is not uncommon.  What the fish may lack in size is easilly outweighed by the increble catch rates, their aggressive nature, and the scappy fights these little guys produce.  Watching multiple fish converge on a single lure is a sight played out over and over during a days drift.  My guest Tom Lindly at one point actually pulled in a single crankbait with two bass on it, one on each of the two trebles.

It's mixed bag time now as late November and early December can produce Chinook Salmon, Silver Salmon and even Winter Steelhead.

Instead of having a nice moderate winter with average river levels, we have gone from super high water in December to super low levels accompanied with ice cold temperatures in January. Early February will hopefully bring us the change we are looking for.

For most of our coastal rivers, we are now in waning days of winter steelheading which will close on March 31st. Several systems will stay open however and continue to produce winter steelhead well into April.