Gone Fishing: The Underground Taunts You From The Road

Technically, I’m not on the road yet. But I will be shortly — headed north to fish the Rogue with Dave Roberts.

I try to fish with Dave as often as possible, which — given the pace of my life — means we don’t fish together nearly as much as we should.

When we haven’t been fishing much — together or separately — we generally call each other on the phone to whine about it, and make plans for future trips.

Of course, those don’t all come off either, though last year a few of them did, and we even made a drive up into the hills for a long-planned day of slogging around small streams.

This time we’re simply floating the Upper Rogue, and while I’ve got the steelhead rod packed, it’s possible I won’t even break the thing out.

While Dave’s a killer steelhead guide, we’re both inveterate hatch chasers, and it’s possible we’ll just slide the drift boat into the river, catch up on our respective lives, and break out the 5wts when we reach the good dry fly water.

In short, it’s the kind of fishing trip you build when you’re fishing with someone who’s more than a fishing friend.

Cold Feet

The temperatures should fall well above Jack London territory (forecast high of 28 degrees), but it’ll still be cold enough to force a fair amount of clothing.

That means I’ll look like drift boating’s equivalent of the Michelin Man, which — as you well know — really gets the babes going.

Naturally, I’ll be back tonight, armed with minor frostbite, a few digital pictures, and possibly a big fish story.

Shocking news indeed.

See you on the Rogue, Tom Chandler.