Fishing the Rogue River at Gold Beach in Oregon has been a twenty year old tradition for us. It seems our loyalty to several things has come up to surprise me lately- 32 years with the same doctor. 17 years with my hair stylist, and 20 yrs fishing with Greg our guide every September . We were first introduced to him by a colleague of Ray’s whose brother in law had a boat and fished the Rogue regularly. Greg was 40 at the time, loved the river and put his heart and soul into making sure we caught fish. He prided himself on being an exceptional guide. For 20 yrs , we never bought store salmon, catching enough to freeze for the year. The last few years however, have been tough with us returning home empty handed or with only 1-2 small fish. We thought we’d give it one more try this year.
The drive up is always enjoyable, passing the Humboldt Redwoods. This time we stayed in Trinidad, just outside of the Redwoods NP and in the morning hiked and photographed the rising mist in the redwoods on the Damnation Trail.
Greg was gruff and grumpy today, complaining that young guides are filling their boats with 5-6 people and making 2-3x what he makes a day. With salmon fishing closed in the ocean and rivers of CA, guides and private boats have been fishing the Rogue all summer and fall. We have never seen so many boats in the bay, a boat traffic jam, making his job not so pleasant. Secondly, everyone has started to use huge metal flashers, not to his liking. This makes the rods heavier, reeling in the fish faster and not as much fun. I have trouble holding and reeling in the huge one on my line while keeping my balance with the huge swells at the mouth of the river. With all the lines in the water and fish going crazy seeing the flashers, tangles between boats is a common occurrence. No wonder he is grumpy! We got caught up twice. He said he resisted switching but catching a fish is near impossible without flashers and his clients were asking if he had any. So we realized that may have been the issue for us the past few years. So at 60, sadly Greg appears to be biding time until retirement. He wants us to bring additional people so his day is more worthwhile. Such a shame how things have changed in 20 years. Nevertheless we ended up with quite a haul, not so good the second day, which also turned out to be quite smoky. Funny with us catching fewer, Greg was more relaxed and in a better mood.
We totaled close to 50 lbs of filets, and had to buy another cooler to pack them for the drive home. We’ll probably be back to continue the tradition at least until he calls it quits.
We took a leisurely drive through Avenue of the Giants before getting home to cut, pack and vacuum seal fish
