The Mini Rogue Road Trip: Windshields and Wind Chill

The road to the Rogue; clouds, mountains and trucks on I-5

One of the benefits of fishing a river more than a few minutes from home is the windshield time — that jolt of solitary confinement when you’re not subject to all the dings, rings and interruptions of the modern “connected” life.

Even in 105 minute increments, it’s a worthwhile break from the craziness, and when you add the anticipation — the outsized hope for something epic — of a fly fishing trip, it’s peaceful, but electric.

Toss in some nice views and dramatic clouds, and the trip alone is worth the time — never mind the dry fly fishing for trout from a really, really comfortable drift boat.

Of course, the fishing sorta is the point, and you do it even if it’s damned cold and too damned windy.

The Freezer

The wind was blowing hard on the Upper Rogue, making for a truly spectacular wind chill.

I’d have said it felt a lot colder than it was, but then Dave Roberts and I piled the anchor rope in a coil at the launch.

When we dropped anchor a short time later, the rope had already become a stiff, frozen mess.

Ok, that explains the frozen feet — and the fact that you didn’t want to leave the fingerless fleece gloves stuffed in your jacket pocket for more than a minute or two.

My hands would turn blue and clumsy, and it got so I dreaded changing flies because I knew tying a new knot was going to involve a frustrating chunk of minutes.

The Fishing? Yeah, the Fishing.

When you fish with Dave Roberts for fun, you better bring a cane rod. If you don’t, you risk listening to him muttering about “tupperware” the whole trip.

Then again, when you own a couple nice cane rods, it’s not exactly a sacrifice. I simply threw one of my favorite drift boat rods into the truck; an 8′ Chris Raine Upper Sac Special.

This is an early, early Raine rod — a dark-caramel, solid-built model that pre-dates his move into hollow built rods.

It’s a wonderful, smooth all-around rod that’s very reminiscent of an 8′ Phillipson, only with a little more gas.

It’s one of the rods that cemented my love for the Granger/Phillipson style tapers — light enough in the hand that long casts feel almost like cheating, but strong to actually make those long casts in some wind.

A Rogue River Cutthroat; this one got a little careless with a March Brown.

We hit a light BWO hatch and hooked a few fish on dries. Later, we even stumbled onto a sparse hatch of March Browns.

The #12 bugs are early, yet the trout didn’t seem to mind. While there were more lots more BWOs on the water, the trout keyed on the few bigger bugs floating by, and we did well.

Dave even stuck a decent cutthroat, which added a nice multi-species exclamation to the trip.

Trips, and Trips Home

The trip home was edifying; for the first time in many hours, I wasn’t cold.

The Bronco is my winter ride, and not just for the four-wheel drive. It’s got a heater like a nuclear reactor — a welcome touch when your hands and feet have forgotten what it’s like to be warm.

Dave and I also got a few blueline trips penciled in for the summer — to water I am not going to talk about here, though I will say there’s little point in going if you’re a headhunter.

I think planning warm, summer style trips in the middle of a cold winter is a basic psychological defense mechanism.

You do it not just to plan the trip, but to remind yourself that it won’t always be cold, that the wind won’t always be measured in chill factor, and that the anchor rope won’t always freeze to the bottom of the boat.

See you behind a windshield, Tom Chandler.

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