As the story goes, it was in the early 1960s that the ODFW planted a few dozen smallmouth bass into the main Umpqua River near Elkton. Salmon and steelhead primarily used the main river as a highway to reach their spawning waters in the rivers’ north and south forks and an invasive shade spawning run that usually wraps up by May.
Fly fishing for smallmouth can be more productive than…
