Jody Jordan and I made the seven hour drive from Elk Grove on July 5. We planned to fish two days with the Big K's head guide, Scott Wolfe. Preliminary reports from Wolfe indicated red hot action on fish up to 20 inches. "This has been an excellent summer for smallmouth so far," he explained. "The fish are extremely healthy with the average fish running 10 to 13 inches and we're seeing a lot of larger fish in the 15 to 20 inch class. You shouldn't have any problem catching at least 100 fish a day." To say we were fired up about the days ahead would be a gross understatement.

It was a little after 7:00 pm when we arrived at the lodge located approximately 20 miles west of the town of Sutherlin, Oregon just north of Roseburg. We were greeted by one of the owners, Shirley Kesterson, and the lodge's cook, Deb Anderson. Shirley explained we would be the only guests at the lodge that evening, so we had free run of the place. After we loaded our gear into the cabin, Deb treated us to a wonderful tri tip dinner topped off by a berry cobbler and home made ice cream dessert that is still making my mouth water.

At 8:30, Deb announced that she was heading home for the evening and breakfast would be served at 7:00 am the following morning. "You still have a good hour of light left, so feel free to enjoy the lodge or you can make a quick run down to the river for some of those smallmouth," she said as she headed out the door. Talk about leaving two kids in charge of the candy store.

We grabbed a couple of spinnerbait rods and made a dash for the water. It was one of those picture perfect evenings, dead calm with temperatures in the low 70's. As I expected, Jody hit a smallmouth on his very first cast. While I had spoken of past trips to the Umpqua many times, I knew Jody would never understand just how incredible this river is until he experienced it for himself. I must admit I took great satisfaction in introducing another angler to this amazing fishery.

Time flies when you're having fun and it was dark before we knew it. We caught and released better than 20 fish on spinnerbaits and Jody even managed to catch a few fish on a buzzbait. Heck, that would have been a great trip in itself and we were only killing time after dinner.

Following a wonderful home-cooked breakfast the following morning, we were met by our guide Scott Wolfe. Scott informed us we would be launching several miles up river at "The Slide" and working our way down to the lodge. "You probably want to rig up with a topwater bait or a crankbait," he explained. "The topwater bite has been hit and miss depending on the day, but a crawdad crankbait has been hot every day."

Breaking my first rule of "always listen to the guide," we both began tossing spinnerbaits among the rock ledges close to the bank. While we managed to fool several smallies, most of them running 10 to 12 inches on the spinnerbaits, Scott kept staring at his spinning rod rigged with a crawdad crankbait and mentioned more than once that one of us should give it a try.

Finally, he picked up the rod himself and made a cast just past a large boulder sitting in four feet of water. Before he had a chance to turn the reel handle, a huge fish smashed the bright orange bait and began to burn line off the small spinning reel. "He's been trying to get you to throw that bait for nearly an hour, but you just wouldn't listen," I said to Jody as Scott skillfully worked the big bronzeback. "Didn't I tell you the guide knows best!"

After an entertaining series of leaps and runs, the fish finally tired and Jody slid the net under the big broomtail. The fish measured out at 18 inches and was the first of many quality fish caught and released during an amazing day of fishing. As time wore on, temperatures continued to rise and the bite seemed to improve by the minute.

We caught fish on just about every lure imaginable including Zara Spooks, Rico's, buzzbaits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, plastic worms, grubs and flukes. However, the one bait that outproduced all others when it came to big fish was a Yamamoto Senko. Didn't matter what size or color, that weightless Senko rigged wacky style seemed to put those big fish in a trance and they just couldn't help but eat it. I landed our largest fish of the day, a 19-1/2 incher on a Senko and that bait accounted for a couple 18 inchers and numerous fish in the 15 to 17 inch class.

When it came to sheer numbers, a 3/8 ounce Rocket Shad was pure magic. At one point, I hit fish on 15 consecutive casts with the Rocket Shad. It was impossible to keep track of our numbers that first day, but we easily landed better than 100 fish apiece and that's a conservative estimate. Scott also managed to land a fair number of fish when he wasn't busy rowing the drift boat.

That evening, we had a chance to sit down with Kathie Kesterson, who shares in the responsibilities of running the lodge with her sister, Shirley. Dinner once again was outstanding and our big plans to head down to the river before dark were somehow lost between dessert and that second cup of coffee.

Day two was spent fishing a section of river below the lodge. The water was much slower in this stretch of river and Scott took more of a "spot and stalk" approach to targeting fish in the crystal clear water. It was not uncommon to see 10 to 20 fish under the boat at any given time and the main challenge was getting a bait to the larger fish while half a dozen smaller fish were trying to inhale it. Once again, the Senko was the hot bait for big fish. Jody nailed five good ones from 17 to 18-1/2 inches and we both had several shots at larger fish over the course of the day.

Numbers weren't as staggering as the first day, but then again, we were hunting big fish and avoided setting the hook on most of the smaller fish. Despite our efforts, we still put well over 100 fish in the boat. "I bet I landed at least 40 fish that I didn't even set the hook on today," was the final comment made by Jody as we pulled the boat off the water.

While this job affords me the opportunity to fish some incredible destinations, both fresh and saltwater, the Umpqua River is right at the top of my all time favorite list. This was my first stay at the Big K Guest Ranch and it will definitely not be my last. The accommodations were first class and the fishing speaks for itself. Scott Wolfe is one of the most pleasant guides I have shared a boat with and believe me, he knows this river like the back of his hand. In fact, I think I heard him call a big fish by name on more than one occasion.

For more information on booking a trip through the Big K, call 1-800-390-2445. They also have a website at www.big-k.com.

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