This is a link to a 30 minute look at what used to be. I remember reading his columns in Field and Stream in the 60s, just fueling my fire to get outdoors.
https://www.boisestate.edu/archives/...ted-trueblood/
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This is a link to a 30 minute look at what used to be. I remember reading his columns in Field and Stream in the 60s, just fueling my fire to get outdoors.
https://www.boisestate.edu/archives/...ted-trueblood/
Thanks for posting that, Al! This had to have been shot within a few weeks of my birth. Can’t imagine having the Deschutes to yourself like that. Used to read Trueblood’s stories as a kid as well, right after reading Ed Zern’s last-page column. Still wish I could have joined the Madison Avenue Rod, Gun, Bloody Mary and Labrador Retriever Benevolent Assosciation…
Wayne
Yes, I believe that many famous people came to the lower American river for the Shad run in the 1950s and 1960s.
I believe that our own Walt Bennett fished with some of these greats like Ted Trueblood and Jimmy Green.
Walt said the hot spot in those days was 'PCA'.
My brother Dick and I first fished Shad in the American in late 1960s and it was at upper Goethe Park (River Bend Park.)
From the bend at the top, down stream, on the weekends there was maybe 100 fly caster, many from the Bay area.
I watched this film 50+ years ago. I believe that I got it, on loan, from one of the outboard companies. My memory of this is that the river that they were fishing was the Grand Ronde. They would launch in the Snake and then run up the lower Grande Ronde to fish. Ted also used to go to the Russian River and fish Steelhead with Bill Schaadt. I have an old photograph of Ted, Bill and a couple of others fishing at the mouth of Austin Creek. Ted also introduced Bill to Tarpon Fishing out of Key West I remember Bill holding forth about Tarpon Fishing his dissertation took about two hours.
Thanks Noyo
Sadly much of this knowledge that you and other have is slipping away.
I am very happy that the movie, "Rivers of a Lost Coast" was made to save some of it.
I listened to stories of fishing the coast for 50 years from the old timers who fished there and lived in the Sacramento area.
They are almost all gone now but I heard lots of good stories while hanging around with them.
Some were Walt Bennett (Baker), Joe Patterson (Cortland), Wally Westlake (Baseball), Chuck Campana (Boats & Waterways), Al Perryman (Guide), and others.
I was a friend of Jim Green. He took me to the spot on the Grande Ronde where he and Ted Trueblood fished. We had lunch where the two of them had lunch and fished the runs where they had fished back in the day - quite an awesome and memorable experience. It's on a private ranch where Jim had access because he built his house in the area, near where the Grande Ronde enters the Snake. Ted called it Steelhead Shangri-La when he wrote about it in Field & Stream and True magazines. He kept the place a secret for many years. That area now has a road and the Grande Ronde and Snake where they come together is known for its excellent fly water, but the Grande Ronde runs we fished are on a private ranch behind a locked gate.
Thanks FF for sharing that with us.
The late Walt Bennett was good friends with Jimmy Green too.
Jimmy would come to Sacramento to test rods and lines with Walt on the lower American river for Shad in the 1960s.
I think that Ted Trueblood also came to fish Shad with the both of them.
This may not be the ranch you referenced but Larry Cassidy, a long time force in WA state fish & wildlife plus WA state power planning is selling his Sunrise Ranch in Anatone, WA on the Grand Ronde. It is just a few miles upriver from the confluence with the Snake. Larry has owned it for almost 50 years but says now in his 80's, he cannot hunt & fish much and getting there from his home in Vancouver is hard since he cannot fly his own plane anymore.
For $6.2milllion you get 3, 600 acres with almost 1-1/2miles of private Grand Ronde frontage.
Jim
Quote:
Originally Posted by frequent flyer
Amazing information......
With friends I floated the Grande Ronde river one Fall with Speywater Guide Service for 4 days of camping / fishing.
That 4 day float trip should be on everyone's bucket list.......beautiful place.
Mike McCune was one of our guides / instructors and he basically was teaching everyone how to Spey cast the entire trip.
People come from all over to take this float trip with Speywater just to learn more about two handed casting and fishing.
October and November are the timing but for more 'dry fly, top water' I would choose October.
https://www.speywater.com/
Ed Ward on the Grande Ronde river.....short video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUmxPCxAHt0
**The Rio MOW tips where developed by Mike McCune, Scott O'Donnell and Ed Ward = MOW