Anne Vitale
10-16-2007, 07:18 PM
For the last three years my friend Donna O’Sullivan and I have had the privilege of meeting up with guide Steve Godshel and rod maker Gary Anderson for a couple of days of fishing the Rogue. We went back up there again last weekend. Donna is am excellent spey caster and it is always a treat to fish with her.
Friday morning we met up with Steve and drifted the run from Gold Hill to Rogue River. Steve plans the drift so that we nymph and indicator fish between good spey casting runs. The weather was warm and sunny, the colors beautiful and we had the whole stretch to ourselves. Donna managed two nice steelhead to hand and another nice fish on. I, on the other hand just managed to get about a dozen “babies” and some excellent casting practice. Steve put on one of his wonderful riverside lunches; anti-pasta, fresh baked bread, a hardy soup and a nice bottle of chianti.
Saturday morning Donna and I met up with Steve and Gary at Tou Velle to float the run from Tou Velle to Gold Ray Dam. Steve was there to help Joe Roche and his daughter Carrie learn how to row their new drift boat. Joe is the owner of Roche Carneros Estate Winery. We had drifted the same run with them two years ago so it was like meeting up with old friends.
Donna and I drifted with Gary. Gary always brings along six or seven new spey rods for us to play with. He has them all strung up and ready to go. I started off casting his new 6wt switch rod. It is a beauty. It has a short butt section and you can either use it as a 4 piece single handed rod or put in a 18 inch extension to make it a spey rod. Unfortunately the rod has to be restrung when making the transition. The good news is that it is as light as feather and easy to hold while mending and swinging the fly.
Not having any real need for the switch rod, I moved on to trying his new 1296-4 spey rod which he claims to be an upgraded version of the 1265-3. By the end of the day I was almost ready to buy it. Because it is a 4 piece and almost as heavy as my 1337, it would make an excellent back up rod for my trips to British Columbia. In the end I decided to think it over a little. One nice thing Gary is doing is including the right line with the purchase of all his new rods. That eliminates all the expense and trial and error trying to find the right string.
Even though there were no adult steelhead caught on Saturday, the day could not have been finer. We finished the day by taking Steve, Gary, Carrie and her dad out to dinner as a way to thank them.
Donna and I stopped to fish the Klamat off of I-5 on our way home but apparently the steelhead are not that far up the river yet. So nothing but “babies” there as well. All in all it was an excellent trip with great friends. Can’t wait to do it again next year.
Friday morning we met up with Steve and drifted the run from Gold Hill to Rogue River. Steve plans the drift so that we nymph and indicator fish between good spey casting runs. The weather was warm and sunny, the colors beautiful and we had the whole stretch to ourselves. Donna managed two nice steelhead to hand and another nice fish on. I, on the other hand just managed to get about a dozen “babies” and some excellent casting practice. Steve put on one of his wonderful riverside lunches; anti-pasta, fresh baked bread, a hardy soup and a nice bottle of chianti.
Saturday morning Donna and I met up with Steve and Gary at Tou Velle to float the run from Tou Velle to Gold Ray Dam. Steve was there to help Joe Roche and his daughter Carrie learn how to row their new drift boat. Joe is the owner of Roche Carneros Estate Winery. We had drifted the same run with them two years ago so it was like meeting up with old friends.
Donna and I drifted with Gary. Gary always brings along six or seven new spey rods for us to play with. He has them all strung up and ready to go. I started off casting his new 6wt switch rod. It is a beauty. It has a short butt section and you can either use it as a 4 piece single handed rod or put in a 18 inch extension to make it a spey rod. Unfortunately the rod has to be restrung when making the transition. The good news is that it is as light as feather and easy to hold while mending and swinging the fly.
Not having any real need for the switch rod, I moved on to trying his new 1296-4 spey rod which he claims to be an upgraded version of the 1265-3. By the end of the day I was almost ready to buy it. Because it is a 4 piece and almost as heavy as my 1337, it would make an excellent back up rod for my trips to British Columbia. In the end I decided to think it over a little. One nice thing Gary is doing is including the right line with the purchase of all his new rods. That eliminates all the expense and trial and error trying to find the right string.
Even though there were no adult steelhead caught on Saturday, the day could not have been finer. We finished the day by taking Steve, Gary, Carrie and her dad out to dinner as a way to thank them.
Donna and I stopped to fish the Klamat off of I-5 on our way home but apparently the steelhead are not that far up the river yet. So nothing but “babies” there as well. All in all it was an excellent trip with great friends. Can’t wait to do it again next year.