Rouge River Rainbows

[Toasty]

Tell you the truth, those are probably not rainbows. They are most likely fresh salmon. I fish the rouge heavy, and from my experience, in the fall, most of the rainbows that make it up are small (12-16") and you usually will never be able to see them. They can be caught using great quality roe.

Some people may be surprised that there are 'fresh' salmon in the rouge, I found out the hard way by walking up and down from the mouth to hwy 7 more than a few times. I have caught most of my 'chrome' salmon on the rouge surprisingly, and into October no doubt.

Those big tank steelhead (16"+) usually head in the rouge towards Ice-in and zoom up through the river during Ice-out. Even then, they are sparse compared to some other tribs like duffins creek. Not to say I havent hauled in 16"+ from rouge though (LOL). During Ice-in it's great to use roe, and ice-out you can start to use pink worms as well as roe.

Tight Lines.


PS. Use 6lb flouro leader and 6lb mono mainline usually for targeting rainbows. Using braided line isn't so great because they can definitely see it under water, and are a line-sensitive fish. For Salmon, it doesn't matter much.