Though I had to cut and run from work on Monday to fish the Rogue with Dave Roberts, I rationalized the escape thusly: I wanted to.

Dave Roberts bravely testing wading boots for the Undergrounders.

It’s not the kind of thing that makes clients happy, but as everyone knows (at least after reading this), an under-recreated writer is a boring writer, and at some point, you’ve gotta fly fish.

For those looking for big fish stories, I’ll be blunt: stop reading here.

Though Dave Roberts knows the Upper Rogue like the rest of us know our living rooms, this was not a hard-charging, balls-to-the-wall, extreme fishing adventure.

Instead, we more or less doodled along the river, fishing for steelhead (one of which bit a streamer, but came unbuttoned after a couple seconds). We also landed a pair of 11″ trout who apparently didn’t know w you’re not allowed to fish for trout on the Rogue right now, which suggests the trout have yet to invent their own version of Twitter.

Looks pretty and scenic from the shore - until you realize your ride to the ramp is leaving.

The Testing Continues

We did manage to further the world’s scientifically derived knowledge about a pair of the next-generation rubber-soled wading boots, testing the newly arrived Simms wading boots against the previously reviewed Patagonias.

The Rogue is positively filled with green snot-covered rocks the size of your average loaf of bread, making it an ideal testing ground for rubber soled-boots.

Slimy enough? Our testing grounds...

On two separate runs, Roberts and I got out and tromped around, then swapped boots and did it again. (The rocks were slimy enough that a fair amount of detached green stuff floated downstream when we waded.)

While more testing is needed (preferably on some remote BC steelhead river, though budgetary concerns suggest the Upper Sac will have to do), we both came to the rather surprising conclusion that these things worked pretty damned well in a situation where we didn’t expect they would.

The work is hard, but no sacrifice is too great for my readers.

It’s possible the Simms’ more aggressive tread pattern gave it a slight edge in the “greasy bowling ball” portion of the test, though we’ve yet to test the Simms boots in varied Upper Sacramento or small stream conditions (coming soon).

At this point, I’d have no qualms about using either boot on the Rogue. And Roberts – who admitted to reading my reports on Patagonia’s boots with some skepticism – was ready to buy either pair, though the Simms fit him best (the Patagonias felt more comfy to me, telling us what we already know – different shoes fit different feet… differently).

More Testing

Plenty more to come from the Underground; I also concluded testing on the Redington 6wt rod & reel combo, and I’ve added it to the “write this” pile (which has grown pretty sizable).

Several DVDs are waiting for reviews, and yes, there’s always the chance for another fishing report.

Hookset, in progress.

See you slaving away, Tom Chandler.