Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-03-23
Angling Extraordinary
CONTINUED from Fage Six)

salmo salar; but, being little more
active and not quite so heavy as his
greater cousin, he will hang more to
white water and less to the pools.
At the bottom or at the edge of some
long, rough ridge of white water,
where the waves run four or five feet
high, he will lie behind some protect
ing rock, much like the salmon, and
sometimes he will drop into a pool
after the typical salmon fashion. His
hang-out is apt to be f.anked by a
rushing rapid OF flung white water.
When hooked he does not stick to
his pool, as a salmon is very apt to
do, but makes at once for the current.
What that means in the tax on tackle
any angler will know very well.
The Mississippi river bass fishing,
where one may play black bass five
or ten minutes in the heavy current,
is a sort of kindergarten preliminary
in the study OF steehead angling.
The vigor of the fish on the line is
something not quite understandable
by the eastern angler who has never
tried this particular game. Pound
for pound, in his own chosen condi-
tions, the steelhead puts up a far
fiercer, wilder and more difficult
fight than does the most difficult ex-
ample of salmo salar in the highest
priced salmon river in the world.
The Risk of the Sport.
He is moreover, democratic. There
are no salmon preserves on the Rogue
river as yet-it is open water for all
the world Very likely it always will
he. Certainly II you took all the
members of the SWEETEST salmon clubs
of Quebec and put them on the Rogue
river on foot, the fish they would
bring in at night would not always
be very imposing in the total.
Time was wnen the steelnead could
be reached from the shores of the
Rogue river with fair success; but he
has learned a thing or two in the
fight for life and today he is wise,
wise fish. He keeps out so that you
are obliged to wade for him if you
want him. If you slip-goodby!-
the river gets you. Anglers do swim
out of the Rogue river once in a
while, because they have to swim;
and no man who is not a bold swim
mer has any business wading the
Rogue; but sometimes in very wild
water the angler does not get out.
The writer fished with one skillful
angler who admitted that he had lost
part of his nerve. 81 saw my pal
drowned before my eyes two years
ago." he said, "and since then don't
go out so far" Each year, at one
place or another, there is apt to be
the record of life lost.
Local anglers gradually learn con-
tempt for the dangers. Also, gradu-
ally they learn a sort Of instinct by
which they can judge the bottom of
the river Indeed, they know the
bottom like a book in the more fa-
mliar reaches, which they often fish
If you wish to see Rogue river
steelhead angling at its best, there
fore, you had better go out with some
of the more seasoned anglers of Ash
land, Medford or Grants Pass, COM
munities where this cult most flous-
ishes. In such communities one can
get very comfortable Accommodations
and can readily get directions for the
river. The stranger, however, would
be more or less helpless, and there
are few or no professional guides.
He will find the angling sportsman
of this country the soul of hospitality,
ready to help him learn the game
and himself so well convinced of the
difficulty of the game as not to laugh
at the inefficiency of the beginner.
In the Rogue River Valley it is
sometimes hot in the summertime
100, 1902, 105, in the shade, and no
one knows what in the sun. The heat
does not seem oppressive, but it has
tendency when continued through
term of days or weeks to drive the
fish out into the deeper water. Very
early morning or late in the evening
will be the best times then to angle
for steelheads. Throughout the day
one might not get more than two or
three strikes in reward for patient
casting.
The rod for steelhead fishing must
be very powerful, of course. The fish
can be killed on the ordinary five or
six ounce trout rod: but one of eight