Actually, in 'fly water' on the upper Rogue it's pretty unusual for someone to keep a native fish. Reason (sorry guys) we're up to our ears in them.

Fall run of steelhead, Kings and Coho was in excess of 60,000 fish. Spring King run was well over 30,000 fish. Last winter steelhead run was about 24,000. All these counts were from Gold Rae dam which is about 5 miles north of Medford. Therefore they wouldn't count the fish that went up the Applegate, Illinios, etc., etc.

Part of the answer for the fish runs is lack of population (fishing pressure) and a major segment of the Rogue is unaccessable except by helecopter or parachute (wild section below Grants Pass down to Agness). Zero roads so fish have about 1/2 of the entire river where they can't be touched.

Back to the fish counts for a moment. From Gold Rae to Warm springs dam (hatchery) it's about 30 river miles (RM 152). So all those fish were in a pretty short section of water.

And someones comment about the Oregon State Police enforcing the game regs (fishing anyway) is correct. And I can assure you they don't fool around.

What you can keep, and where, does change over the course of the year. However, the river is open to fishing 365/yr.