Whoregun Rocks!
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I’m roaming the West this winter…an ex-officio UpperWisco musky warrior at large in a strange land. Kind of like that kung-fu dude back in the 1970’s except I have shoes and a Landcruiser.
1st installment – enjoy
Whoregun Rocks!
Good eats…
Friendly hosts…
Gotta Cookie?
Just rolled in shit…
Their keeper and ours – yadda, yadda, woof, woof, the milk is in the fridge, so on and so forth…A crack team of x-purts was assembled – dog bless interweb fly fishing dating :cheer
We slept well…
Dressed for success…
Bummed smoke at every turn…
Behaved badly…
Cuz thats how we roll!
fully rigged
Crushing land
The locals opened up their hearts, minds and boxes to us Roguish RogustersA word of caution from Kenny Roguers…
Too much steelheadin’ and you could end up like Me!Piss on it Kenny!!
We went fot it…
Reset!
Yup…at the end of the day…
Oregon does indeed Rock!
:coolNice shots – thanks for sticking them up.
The 60 is great !
What was the spanking for ?
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
good storyline man
I guess kenny rodgers is better than kenny powers
lets see some fish pics if youve got them
Great Pics!
Beautiful Land Cruiser what year is she?My Dad had both a ’62 and a ’72 wagon both of which left his custody somwhere after 350,000 miles.
Nice job Brad….thanks for sharing. Like everyone else, I’m diggin’ the FJ. What’s up with the chopper in the background?
Thanks again…..Steve
Great pics Brad!! What rivers were you fishing? Gives me incentive to bust through the snow and go fishing too.
It was a really good time fellows. Southern Oregon is just flat out beautiful. We fished the Rogue. Stayed in Ashland.
Four guys who had never met – Wisco, Penn and two Texans (they knew each other) got together in SacTown, CA and roadtripped up to OR. Interweb fly fishing dating at its finest.
We only had one fish to hand in four days together. No matter as it was mainly a recon and touchy/feely trip. All of us fished at different levels…one of the Texans was relentless and the rest of us would fish until satisfied and chill out in our own unique ways.
It worked.
The Penn chap made an interweb contact with our host Fred. He opened up his home (both brick/mortar and motor) to us without ever having laid eyes on any one of us until we came a knockin…pointed us around the river, tied us flies, made us 3 squares a day and rolled plenty of smokes too.
I don’t know about you fellows but I enjoy this kind of anglinghood and take tremendous solace in the fact that we can still roll things out this way. It proves to me that the Universe, as effed up as it seems, still is spinning in some sort of fishy way.
😉Personally I went to OR with no expectations of catching a steelhead. There were fish in the river. Reports showed that about 4000 winter fish had made their way into the Upper Rogue since the New Year turned.
The Upper Rogue is something like 60 miles of water(divided into Upper, Middle and Lower Upper btw) that is about 60 miles from salt…give or take a few the way I understand it. Dudes drifting down in Mackenzies running plugs and spawn deep were picking up fish.
We were all looking for grabs on swung flies. Aside from some last afternoon shadow casting and feats of strength shows at a boat landing we all stuck to working double hand stuff…skagits and t-14 tips and various Intruder and more traditional spey type patterns.
I had never seriously put my 13′ St. Croix into practice…and really wanted to add this style of angling to my arsenal. It was a perfect boot camp really and after three full days of baptism by fire, observing and listening I can say I have the stroke figured out and can lay out a pretty fair lazer.
I got a few grabs and pulled the fly away from one solid taker. To be honest if I would have taken a fish this trip I would have felt guilty. I’m strange that way…knowing that dues must be paid for these special creatures…call me masochistic – hell I’m a musky man!
I liken the experience to a DIY trip to my area…any seasoned angler coming to mess with musky on their own terms expecting anything more than an eye opening better wear a nut cup!
I figured out the geography, got to sample three different beats on the Upper – Grants Pass, Table Rock and Shady Cove…all different and unique water and made some solid contacts. There are several fly shops in the area…Ashland has a great little place titled The Ashland Fly Shop and Shady Cove a rustic hole-in-the-wall cum shuttle/boat rental/hook/bullet/fly emporium known as The Fishin Hole Fly Shop…adjacent to a kick ass deli with a delectable hot pastrami snadwich:)
Overall the locals were very down with out-of-State fly bums. Very friendly and open. Ashland is a town you could easily bring your wife and family to…and leave em to shop and roam for a couple of days.
It sports a Shakespeare Festival for a good portion of the year…they were just starting to ramp things up at this point in the season – casting calls, dress rehearsals, off-venue readings and whatnot. I guess it is a pretty big draw in season.
Ashland is a very liberal town of about 20,000 with a cool State College populated by hippy chicks and dudes. A very impressive brew pub – Standing Stone (I recommend the 2X IPA) as well as some very nice white wines and above decent Merlot grown locally satisfy a thirsty pallet and provide for downhome imbibement.
As I stated there is a big variety of one-off dining and shopping venues all situated in a great walk around district that has street musicians and poetry circles cropping up impromptu here and there.
For folks more into dirt bagging it…the area is your Oyster…lots of camping and RV’ing options. Grants Pass and Merlin are on the other end of the spectrum – more Marlboro and Budweiser – from Ashland. Folks are equally friendly and will wax on and on about the climate and river tripping if prompted.
Way too much to skim over in three to four days for a fly angler in this neck of the woods. All I can say is I’ll go back and get more tuned in…Hopefully soon!
FYI – Sac International Airport is 300 miles due south on I-5 from Ashland. It’s a great drive that takes one through Redding – Home to The Fly Shop…a must see mecca and smaller than you imagine but packed full…and Weed! CA at the base of Mt. Shasta.
There is also 727 type jet service into Medford OR the main hub near Ashland…but I avoided Medford and its WalMart type culture and service center atmosphere…not my style but certainly an easy and familiar town for you Holiday Inn Express types that like Chili’s and Olive Garden situations and are allergic to Mountain Hippies.
But I drive a 1988 FJ-62 so you see how I roll. By the way I favor the 1983-1986 FJ-60’s which you will see featured in upcoming installments…glad to know there are still LandCrusher fans out there!
So for me this was a self actualizing experience…humbly and reverently approaching a river I have dreamed about meeting since I was old enough to read Try Combs and form dreams in my anglers mind. Holy actually.
I was fulfilled, relaxed and inspired ultimately. From this trip I will continue my journey and mission. Questing for a chrome handshake and knowing I have dues yet to pay.
So feel free to chime in, ask questions or PM me if you care too.
Until the next installment…I’m AA, the Wisco. exPat at large and in charge reporting from the Pacific Time Zone 🙂
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