My brother, Dad, and I fished the Ronde Monday and Tuseday. On the first day, instead of taking rattlesnake and fishing around Boggans, we took Shumaker grade and fished the holes down there. After about 10 minutes of fishing, it was bobber down. Great, I thought, first steelhead of the trip. But as I brought it closer, it was actually a nice female chinook salmon. The first salmon I've ever caught on the Ronde, and the first I've ever caught period. After a quick photo op she was sent on her way. Side note: after I got home, I did some research and found out that these chinook weren't supposed to be removed from the water. I wasn't aware of that, but these fish were handled with care and released gently.
After no more fish in that hole, we moved down lower. After no success on the jig, I tied on a spoon. Second cast, fish on. Another nice salmon, and pretty ugly at that. Another photo op, and released. Then my brother hooks up with one on the spoon. Once again, another salmon. I then proceeded to catch two more nice chinook in this hole, both on spoons. All fish were hooked in the mouth, and caught , handled, and released safely.
After a little while with no more hook ups, we moved to the highest hole where the road runs out. I hooked up on what I believed to be a steelhead, but it snapped off pretty quickly, probably due to a frayed leader. After re rigging, I hooked up on a nice, bright hatchery steelhead. This one was put on the stringer for the cooler. We finished out the day at this hole, and then headed back up to the top of the grade and headed down rattlesnake. We had reservations in Troy, Oregon to stay at for the night. We had dinner at Boggans on the way, and it was great.
The next morning we headed out and fished what we call the Sheep hole. Not really sure what it is formally known as, but there were a few other anglers there with us. We fished a big, deep pool about halfway through the hole. My brother quickly hooked up on a steelhead with a spoon, which unfortunately came unbuttoned right at the shoreline. I then briefly hooked, and lost, another fish on the jig and bobber. Before we left the hole, my brother briefly hooked another on the spoon, which came unbuttoned. Not the best luck for us at this hole. We packed up and headed down to the set of holes about a half mile below Boggans, briefly stopping at the pear tree hole, but finding the water to be too low, kept going.
We hiked down to the first hole of the three, and right away my brother got one on the spoon, and we finally landed this one. A nice colored up male steelhead. We fished this hole a little longer, and the lower ones, but drew a blank on the rest of the day. We were freezing, so we decided to pack it up and head home.
For the whole trip, we totaled five chinook, and two steelhead landed. Our dad ended up drawing a blank for the trip. I considered it to be a great trip, mainly because we caught some fish and had a good time. Water was super low, but clear. Remember, single, barbless hooks for this river.

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