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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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FISHING IN ZANE GREY'S SHADOW - OREGON-MONTANA
Truly one of my favorite places on earth, Oregon's nearly 363 miles of pristine, public coastline is made up of diverse terrain that changes from
rugged cliffs to evergreen forests to Sahara-like dunes and boundless sandy beaches. From Astoria in the north to Brookings in the southern tip, I
have followed this shoreline as my chosen route from Up North to Baja..and many times reversed the direction ... Baja to Up North. I made my first
Oregon Coast trip in 1973 after returning from Baja and it has become a yearly event we look forward to with great anticipation. Never boring, one is
treated to a virtual smorgasbord of one-of-a-kind attractions, including scores of quaint towns with a penchant for serving up legendary seafood,
(including a fellow Nomad's cafe in Newport..Sharks!)..plus historic lighthouses, breathtaking viewpoints, stunning state parks, a cornucopia of
galleries and museums and a world class aquarium. Mild temperatures, dramatic scenery and a wide range of recreational activities.
Fishing & photogrqaphy are main concerns of mine anywhere I travel and this coastline certainly offers that! Here follows some photos of our
September salmon trip on the Umpqua River at Reedsport, just north of Winchester Bay on the Oregon Coast. Interrupted to make a couple of quick trips
to Mulege with some flood relief supplies. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Winchester Bay early morning fog. A delightful seaside village full of fishy things...my kind of place..
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We have fished this great salmon river 5 years running in August and September. We've done very well each time and you can bet I will be
there again next season. I can't imagine a better spot for your RV than Coho RV Resort in Reedsport. Launch your boat, motor into your slip at the
park marina, and walk back and forth to your campsite. Anyone who has had to launch and retrieve your boat every day knows the benefits of having a
boat slip closeby. 
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Even your less steady fishing amigos can navigate these sturdy docks and walkways.
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Of course no fishing trip is complete until we unleash these fishpointers.
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You can easily fish any way you want, but I recommend using the packaged 'BLUE' brand name herring as these are the right size (about 5 inchers).
After finding the perfect size, pack them in rock salt to make em hard..stay on the hook longer and better. When ready to rig your bait snell, you
use this handy herring cutting guage which makes just the right angle cut..just behind the gills. One slice, and feed the heads to the gulls. The
angled cut makes the cut bait spin just right. Using a double hook snell, hook the lower hook once through the upper cavity, down the length of the
bait to exit near the tail, the top hook is just down the body cavity and up thru the backbone out the back. You use about a 2oz. drop sinker above
the snell about 4 feet. We usually fish in about 19 - 30 feet. Drop the bait/sinker to the bottom while slowly trolling downstream..or with the
tide. Feeling the bottom, give it a little bit more and set the drag lightly. Stand by for that king to smack it...or the silver. Of course,
fishing lures are productive, too, and we caught many with a weighted salmon-egg colored spinner. Caught the biggest king on one of those. Kings are
fair game, while you must release all but the farmed silver..no wild silvers may be taken. Look for the small fin on the back....the adipose fin. If
it is there, you have a wild silver (coho), if not, you have a legal salmon, a fin-clipped hatchery fish. Enjoy.
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You must thoroughly inspect each fish caught and release as needed. This is a tense business!..with many wilds released in the course of a
day.
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Soon you will catch some legal ones and bring them to the ablest netter in the boat. Selecting a good netter is key to a successful salmon
trip.
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Just a leettle closer now...OKAY...Scoop him now!
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SUCCESS....great netting job. This was my personal best of the day. Recipe to follow..
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Fishing the Umpqua..or any salmon river..is more than just the fishing or the fish. It's about being on the water with great companions and
enjoying nature together, too.
This blacktail doe and fawn came down to the riverback to critique our fishing prowness. The fawn seemed to get a kick out of our
antics.
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A white egret sits patiently awaiting it's breakfast from below his perch.
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Cormorants roosting in these pines for many decades have completely denuded them...a stark reminder to not stand underneath cormorant
roosts!
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Fall leaves are coming...all too quickly it seems, but welcome nevertheless. My favorite season...Autumn
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Along with one of mine, mi amigo, RANDY, caught this fine king on a trolled red spinner. There were many afternoon tide changes where we
would just cast to the rising silvers. Mostly all catch-and-release.
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Back at the marina we take advantage of the handy filleting station. Here Two Dogs does the honors for that evening's dinner.
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And the place of honor ...fresh grilled salmon steaks....damn good...mmmmmmmmm, I can still taste them. (Do they look good or what, eh
shari?)
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Brown sugar, butter,crushed garlic,soy sauce....melt toShari and other fish lovers, here a great salmon baste recipe from Lisa, Two Dogs
esposa.. Brown sugar, butter,crushed garlic,soy sauce....melt together, cool a bit and brush on salmon Hands down...these fillets
were my best salmon dinner of my life.
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And not to go hungry..we also had a huge serving of fresh Umpqua oysters! The ones made in the cast iron pan were the best in the west...and
the other pan was no slouch either. What a meal we had. Plus I topped it off with a fresh marionberry pie ala mode.....it was not a dieters dinner.
I'll be jogging for a month or two!
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!! ALL IN ALL, THIS WAS ONE HELLUVA GOOD TIME.
[Edited on 10-4-2009 by Pompano]
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Reeljob
Nomad
Posts: 235
Registered: 12-1-2004
Location: Durango, CO
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OUTSTANDING! Born and raised fishing the OR coast with my Dad and G'pa. G'pa liked Winchester bay (over the bar in a 14' alum. boat) Dad liked
Newport & the rocks at Boiler bay.
Makes me get out the calendar and plan a trip next summer.
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Loretana
Senior Nomad
Posts: 825
Registered: 5-19-2006
Location: Oregon/Loreto
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Mood: alegre
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A delightful post, Pompano.
It's home sweet home to me.
But I am also amazed by the number of Oregonians who find their second "home sweet home" in Baja!
Andale, pues!!
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration."
-Nikola Tesla
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LancairDriver
Super Nomad
Posts: 1593
Registered: 2-22-2008
Location: On the Road
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Having a Casa on the banks of the So. Oregon coast's Sixes River between Winchester Bay where Pompano is fishing, and Brookings, I can identify with
all he is reporting about the Oregon coast. I have had a first hand view for the past decade and a half of the Salmon's annual runs and spawning
habits. The Salmon is certainly one of the worlds most resilient species, resisting all man has done to impede it's life cycle. They have even been
observed trying to go through small diameter culverts to reach their original spawning grounds that have been blocked by development. As good as the
fishing can seem to be now, one can only imagine what the fishing was like during Zanes Grey's era. Some of the old timers around here talk of "pitch
forking" salmon that were so thick in their spawning runs you could literally walk across the rivers on them. The logging, commercial by catch, and
other habitat destroying that has gone on, especially in the last ten years has taken a large toll on the fish and it shows in the restrictions that
have been put on fishing here in the last few years. Normally at this time of year I would be sport fishing in the ocean for Chinook, but the ocean
has been closed for wild Chinook the past two years even at a one fish limit. I would love to invite Pompano out to fish the Ocean but he is doing
much better on the Umpqua river, and I would be embarassed. Is this beginning to sound like the situation on the Sea of Cortez? We have great law
enforcement on the sport fishers but the commercial net draggers are virtually immune. We need to find a way to preserve what we have for future
generations.
Maybe Skeet could weigh in with a more optimistic view?
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BMG
Super Nomad
Posts: 1776
Registered: 6-10-2007
Location: La Paz / Bahia Asunci�n / Away from home
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Nice photos.
Speaking of Zane Grey, we stopped by his old cabin while on a rafting trip down the Rogue River.
I think the world is run by C- students.
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Diver
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4729
Registered: 11-15-2004
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Haven't been able to chase salmon this year but we just bought 6 from the local "native americans" that are smoking away in the Big Chief as we speak
!!
Mmm good !! 
Valley of the Rogue State Park campground is a nice stop on the way south/north with free wifi !!
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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Have you seen this one, Roger?
It's always been one of my favorites.
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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I've always seen the man with that grey mane.
Today I stumbled across this: how he looked before he started writing.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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Bravo Igor!
I had indeed seen those photos before, but your post prompted me to research futher. Many thanks for getting me to find these new photos and
interesting facts about one of my greatest childhood heros..Zane Grey. What an inspiration he was for me and my childhood friends.
His hardscrabble books perfectly described the mythical events of the Old Wild West for us young wranglers..and I grew up in the actual old west,
although not quite THAT long ago!
And then there was the fishing! Ah...the stuff of legends.
Hah..when I was a tadpole getting ready for camping trips, I would stuff my pantlegs into my weathered little boots and pull my heavy gray woolen
socks up over the legs..put on my plaid woolen shirt and tuck it in..buckle my belt....just like Zane Grey in the photos.
My Dad would come upstairs to my room, never smile (but today I know he was smiling inside) and say,
"Okay, Zane, let's get going. Don't forget that hat."
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How I wished I could have been a rower and angler on the Rogue River of Zane Grey.
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THE MIGHTY ROGUE
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In 1925, he commissioned three dories for a fishing expedition down the lower Rogue River. Grey loved the Oregon wilderness so much that he purchased
land on the river’s banks, built a cabin, and wrote a book there, Rogue River Feud, published in 1929.
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“… the sight of this long deep boat, sharp fore and aft, with its beautiful lines and its strong frame, brought that old forgotten joy
surging back.”.
Zane Grey rowing one of the three dories that he had made for his 1925 trip down the lower Rogue.
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Following are images from the 1925 expedition and quotes from Zane Grey’s ode to the wild Rogue.
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Famous western author Zane Grey shoots the Rogue River Rapids at Lower Black Bar during a 1925 fishing excursion. He later memorialized the Oregon
wilderness in his novel Rogue River Feud.
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“It was a river at its birth; and it glided away through the Oregon forest, with hurrying momentum, as if eager to begin the long leap
down through the Siskiyous. The giant firs shaded it; the deer drank from it; the little black-backed trout rose greedily to floating floes.” —from
Rogue River Feud
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Although Zane Grey is pictured here (twice) with salmon, and although he was an accomplished fisherman, according to family lore he never actually
caught a fish on the Rogue, says his great-grandson Eric Grey.
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Pictured: Zane Grey poses with a local miner.
“He had a leathery, weather-beaten face, homely and hard, unshaven and dirty, yet despite these features and the unmistakable imprint of
the bottle, somehow far from revolting. Perhaps that was due to the large, wide-open, questioning blue eyes."
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In September 1926, Zane Grey built a rustic cabin on the site with the help of local river guide Claude Bardon. It took the men three months to build
the one-room log cabin, using timber from the property. Zane Grey’s cabin was built the same way that old miners had built their cabins for hundreds
of years.
“And the river glided on in an endless solitude, its eternal song, low and musical, near at hand, droning sweet melody from the rapid at
the bend, and filling the distant drowsy aire with its soft thunder.”
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Pictured: Zane Grey (left) and family at the Winkle Bar cabin
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Zane Grey’s rustic cabin at Winkle Bar is still standing today. The site is about half a day’s hike and nearly a day’s float from the put-in at Grave
Creek, and visitors are welcome. I took a mail boat there twice.. humble and seeking inspirational thought...and it came. Bring cold beer!
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Some things I had forgotten until reading them again: Grey had built a getaway home in Avalon, Catalina Island, which now serves as the Zane Grey
Pueblo Hotel, . Avid fisherman as he was, he served as president of the Catalina's exclusive fishing club, the Tuna Club. As a coincidence, the same
club that an old friend belonged to, who had sold me his Baja house so many years ago. I still have his membership plaque as a keepsake in the casa
after more than 40 years now.
I've kept all my original books and memorabilia...and if anyone has this book, I would love to add it to my bookcase..."Tales of Fresh Water
Fishing"..a non-fiction work.
Zane Grey's saltwater adventures are well known..such as the times he had on this boat out of Miami.
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Looks a little familar..
My Gawd, holding this monster all day would wear me out...well, after a few hours of fun anyway.
Yes, even Australia was his fishing grounds..and downunder poses with these two cuties.
SALUD ZANE...LIVE LONG..LIVE WELL.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Phil S
Super Nomad
Posts: 1205
Registered: 10-28-2003
Member Is Offline
Mood: After 34 years. Still in love w/ my wife
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I have a 61 volume set of Zane Grays works. Had them for years. One of those "got to read these one of these days" projects. Just can't seem to get
away from the Patterson & Ludlum authors works. Anyone know if there were more than 61 books that he's written. One of them is his biography. I
think the printing date was sometime in the mid 60's. Most a in mint condition. So they are among my prize possessions. More so since dad would talk
about those times he'd meet up with him on his favorite Steamboat rock on the North Umpqua River. Fly fishing here only I mightf add.
3
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
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There are few places nicer than Oregon during the spring and summer. Thanks for sharing these great pics of your fishing on the wonderful Oregon
Coast.
Iflyfish
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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Thanks for reminding me about Winkler Bar, Roger. There's a 40 mile trail that follows the river through the wilderness area, which I hiked long ago.
It's been 30 years now. What stands out most however were the black bears. They would feed on the salmon carcasses along the riverbank. I specifically
remember sitting on an overlook one evening and watching a bear swim across the Rogue to my side and later swim back to the opposite bank. The water
parted leaving a wake whose edge was outlined by the fading light. It was a tranquil scene that has stayed with me.
I feel that picture of Grey rowing captures the spirit of the American Outdoorsman as best as anything I've come across. There's a sense of manly
ruggedness in a setting of spiritual beauty. A land to be conquered and worshipped at the same time. Being an outdoorsman has changed over the years.
The gortex clothing and hi tech materials are everywhere now, from kayaks to ATV's. But it's the outdoorsmen of my father's generation that I still
admire most and feel the greatest bond.
[Edited on 9-30-2009 by Skipjack Joe]
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Iflyfish
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3747
Registered: 10-17-2006
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If you ever get a chance to drift the Rogue you might enjoy a stay at the Paradise Lodge. Access to this great historic lodge is either by either
drift down the Rogue or via the Mailboat from Gold Beach. Well worth the trip. http://www.paradise-lodge.com/gallery.htm
Iflyfish
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Yea, Oregon is a fantastic state! All the way from the Pacific to the Snake with the Columbia thrown in for free and lots of wild country in between.
The high desert down in southeast Oregon is sorta rough.
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Phil S
Super Nomad
Posts: 1205
Registered: 10-28-2003
Member Is Offline
Mood: After 34 years. Still in love w/ my wife
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Cypress. Are you referring to the Steens Mts in s.w. Oregon? Spent some time in that area couple years ago. Friend from here has a 15,000 acre
cattle ranch, and they invited us over to see it. Their running over 800 'head of cattle on it, plus several thousand acres of gov't leased land that
abutts it. Currently has it listed with Cabela's Real Estate offices, and has gotten two very interested potential buyers. So looks like we won't be
returning next year to spend couple weeks there, exploring. Dang
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Phil S, Yea, That's some tuff country. Wish you and your friend luck. You'll both be missing it.
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Phil S. That would be southeast Oregon. Frenchglen and Blitzen country.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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I daresay that for a lot of us, Zane Grey was/is..good for us.
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Most of these books I had..and have..and they kept me reading late into many a night with coyotes yipping out in the breaks. There were a few other
authors that could capture a kid's imagination though....My childhood buddy, Randy, and I built a kinda-raft and floated the Little Missouri River
after reading this one:
"We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free
and easy and comfortable on a raft.
We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying
on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn't ever feel like talking loud, and it warn't often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low
chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next."[b/]
(Huck and Jim, Chapter 18.)
I kinda think Huck and Tom would have loved the Umpqua and the Rogue, too.
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I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Phil S
Super Nomad
Posts: 1205
Registered: 10-28-2003
Member Is Offline
Mood: After 34 years. Still in love w/ my wife
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Roger. They might have a more exciting time for sure, if they were on their 'home made' raft. Not the same as the Mississippi as it lazily coasts
along.
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
Member Is Offline
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I am not sure if 'Huck Finn' is now banned reading at the California school system, but it certainly is not recommended.
It was 10th grade required reading when I grew up. It was considered the best truly American novel ever written. But now, because of the "n" word kids
are discouraged from reading it.
I had my kid read it anyway.
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