LET US GO AFIELD 



take steelhead angling all the way through, the 

 angler rarely breaks fifty-fifty with his quarry. 



There are two schools of Rogue River steelhead 

 anglers, those who stick to the fly and those who 

 take to the spoon. The spoon used on the Rogue 

 River is a singular affair, always of copper and very 

 large, about the size proper for muskellunge angling 

 in the Middle West. Once in a while a genuine 

 salmon will strike one of these spoons; cases have 

 been known where forty-pound fish have been killed 

 by a trout angler. This spoon is usually handled as 

 the native fisherman for bass works his frog bait 

 by means of a long cane pole and a line about as 

 long as the pole. 



You will see many of the local anglers, some of 

 them mere boys, wading down the middle of this 

 river, at times making a crossing from side to side. 

 Every moment you expect to see them rushed down- 

 stream and so an end of it. But they pick their 

 way along gingerly, slowly, more than waist-deep 

 very often, sometimes supporting themselves with 

 the butt of the cane pole (the reel is commonly put 

 tip five feet or so above the bottom of the pole in 

 order to keep it dry). As such an angler wades 

 down the stream he flogs the water on both sides 

 as far as he can reach, and thus is indeed able to 

 fish very handily the fast waters and the heads of 



56 



