Southern Oregon fishing guide and Rogue River Salmon fishing.

Dave Castellanos is a talented and experienced fishing guide that runs Cast Guide Service, located on the Smith River in Northern California not far from the Oregon border near the Rogue River.

Castellanos has been running his outfit for the last fourteen years and he is a master of the local rivers that produce a bounty of salmon, steelhead and trout. Castellanos' guide service fishes the Smith and the Klamath Rivers in California and also the Rogue, Chetco, Sixes and the Elk River in Oregon. Dave covers a lot of territory but he also has great results and if you are new to the area or looking for a guide, well, Castellanos is The Man, in that beautiful area of the world.

I'm going into my fourteenth year. I'm 47 and I'm originally from Walnut Creek, California. I have been fishing my whole life and a number of my friends encouraged me to get into the business. People were making their living as guides, which is tough. It is a tough way to make a living, however, I have always had a passion for fishing and I've been successful at it. I just really enjoy the aspect of taking people fishing and watching them catch fish. I especially enjoy first time fishermen and helping them. I get young kids all the time and you get parents that want you to take them out

Rogue River Salmon fishing guide, Southern Oregon fishing guide, Southern Oregon fly fishing guide,

I like the Rogue because it has a good run of fish in it. We fish the Rogue River spring King Salmon run from April through June, the summer Rogue River King Salmon from July through September, and the fall Rogue River King Salmon run in September and October. A lot of times they are bigger. The regulations are a little easier for you. On the Rogue you are allowed to use barbed hooks and on the Klamath you aren't. So sometimes keeping fish on the line is a little easier for the novice.

September and October are two of the finest months of the year for fishing. That is especially true in Northern California and Southern Oregon, where magnificent rivers and salmon runs converge to produce a bit of a fishing paradise.

The peak of the Salmon run on the smaller coastal rivers are from October through December on the Smith River in Northern California and the Chetco, Sixes and Elk Rivers in Southern Oregon. All four rivers are only a few miles apart. We will fish you on the best one of them that day.

They have very large salmon in the Smith and I believe the record is 82-pounds. The Smith River is almost split between Brookings, Oregon and Crescent City, California. Where I'm located I'm only about three or four miles from the border of Oregon. There is a small town, with an Indian Casino, a gas station, a grocery store, a post office and a couple of bars but that's about it. There's only about 2,300 people in the town.

Chetco River Fishing

That river really starts getting some pretty big fish the middle of October. The Chinook Salmon start showing up and there are plenty of 40 plus pounders caught in the Chetco and the Smith River every year. And they also have a few 50 plus pounders each year. I caught a 56-pounder out the Smith a number of years ago.

Sixes River

I love the Sixes, that is a really great river for steelhead. Typically you won't find a lot of pressure on that [river] come steelhead season, you might only find 5 or 6 boats. Which is sometimes better than catching a lot of fish. Sometimes it's nice not to be around a big crowd. On the Smith during a peak run sometimes you might find 70 boats on the water. They scatter fish. Still, I love the Smith because it really is beautiful. The Sixes is a nice quiet river, that's sort out of the way.

The Elk has an excellent run of salmon fish that doesn't shut down until March 31. I remember last year we fished both the Elk and the Sixes and we didn't do anything for the first five hours then around 10 in the morning we said let's go check out the Elk River. We loaded up the boat and the Elk is only 2 � miles away and we ended up hooking five salmon and landing four of them before the end of the day. And that was New Year's Day.

When the temperature is good that are large amounts of fish that you can catch on a daily basis. It is really beautiful. You go up river unlike the Rogue; there are no houses so you really feel like that you are out in the wilderness. The only thing you see are trees, eagles, deer, and some bear. The are other boats but there are no houses up and down the Klamath River. You could go 40 miles and you might see a cabin but it still is pretty wild.

If you like the challenge of fighting and landing a silver - bright acrobatic steelhead of your dreams, fish the coastal rivers of Northern California and Southern Oregon. They come in fast and fight harder then any other fish for their size.

The peak of the run starts December and builds through the season until the closure of the rivers in April. The average size is between 8 to 14 pounds with fish over 20 pounds caught each year. You'll fish the Smith River, which holds the state record steelhead at 27 pounds 4 ounces, and the southern Oregon Elk River, Sixes River and the famous Chetco River, Oregon's southern-most river. We are headquartered in the town of Smith River California. We also fish the Klamath River, Trinity River and the Eel River, as well as other California Rivers on request. The method for catching steelhead from a driftboat is to side drift bait and, under the right conditions, back troll plugs.

I'm running typically drift boats, which I row most of the time, but we use a small kicker motor on them. Rivercraft builds them and they are 18-feet in length and 65 inches wide. They are a comfortable boat. And we also use a 23-foot jet boat by Jetcraft; I use that mostly on the Rogue and the Klamath. The Smith and the Chetco are too small for the jet boat.

Cast Guide Service
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