Marty's Drift March 2005

Coming Soon—ClackaCraft “How to Row” DVD

The Shows

The winter/spring show season is nearly finished. I think the entire ClackaCraft staff is breathing a sigh of relief. It’s not that the shows are so unpleasant, we all enjoy seeing our friends in the industry and our past and future customers, it’s just that there were so many in rapid succession this year. I know that for Jeff Mishler and me our one-day turnaround between Sacramento and Puyallup was a bit hard to overcome. The staff at Idaho Falls faced similar turnarounds.

At this point we have only two more shows to go. They both take place on the same weekend, April 2, 3, & 4 in Casper, Wyoming and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Come and see us, if you live in those areas.

How to row DVD

The company is currently working on an instructional DVD on the basics of how to row a drift boat. The primary focus will be to provide information for someone who has no previous experience with a drift boat. It will cover everything from how to prepare your boat for launch, rowing strokes, anchoring and beaching, gear that you should always carry, and will include some demonstrations of fishing techniques.

At noon on Tuesday, March 15, my friend Don Roberts and I headed south on I-5 for Roseburg, Oregon. Don would be along to be the 2 nd angler in the film session and more importantly add another rod to increase our chances of hooking a fish. We did our filming on the mainstem Umpqua and North Umpqua rivers in Oregon. Gene Hering, of Cascade Media Works, is the producer, director and one of the cameramen on the shoot. Our guide/instructor for the shoot is Dean Finnerty of Five Rivers Guide Service. Dean has over 20 years experience rowing drift boats throughout the state of Oregon, including the North Umpqua, Rogue, McKenzie and Deschutes. Dean offers fishing trips for trout, steelhead, salmon and smallmouth bass. He can be reached at 541-942-2535.

We started our filming on the main Umpqua River just below Sawyers Rapids. Although it was early in the season we rigged our rods with herring wrapped plugs to fish for spring Chinook salmon. We were hoping that we might encounter a fish as the different rowing techniques were being demonstrated. We spent a full day working on capturing the different aspects of launching and rowing a drift boat. We didn’t hook a fish, but that was really secondary to our purpose.

On day two we moved up into the North Umpqua. Here we shot the rowing strokes portion, ferrying and some fishing techniques portions.

In this area of the river we were hoping to find some of the late winter-run steelhead for which the river is famous. We tried fishing with plugs, bobbers and jigs and fly fishing. We didn’t have a single pull. And though the river was low and clear, we saw no fish spook away from the boat as we went through the tailouts.

North Umpqua Fly Water

 At the end of the day Gene declared that we had filmed all that he had scheduled for this session. That left us free to fish the next day. Dean had a fly fishing trip booked and invited Don and me to tag along. His client wanted to fish in the famous “fly fishing only” portion of the North Umpqua so we drove upstream to the “ Camp Water” below the mouth of Steamboat Creek.

This particular area of the North Umpqua is famous in the history of steelhead fly fishing. More notable fly anglers than I can recall have fished this water and been enthralled, excited, dismayed, delighted and devastated by the varying degrees of reception or rejection provided by the fish.

At the camp water, the Boat Pool and upper Boat Pool were open. There were even a few steelhead rolling in the Boat Pool. Don and I followed Dean’s client through, but none of us could entice those fish. Fly patterns were changed, the water was rested and tried again, but these fish had only rejection on their minds.

Dean suggested trying another run further down river so off we went. This is a long run with plenty of room for several anglers. Dean took his client to the head; Don walked down below about 150 yards and waded in. Since it was around noon, I decided a siesta was in order, but it didn’t last long. In short order Dean was whooping that Don had a fish. And sure enough, I looked in Don’s direction and saw a severely bent 15-foot rod and a silver bolt clear the water.

There are no hatchery steelhead in the North Umpqua’s winter run. They are all wild. Some of these fish are exceptionally large. In early February this year a 28-pound fish was caught and released. My hat is off the angler who released that fish. It was certainly a fish of a lifetime. New regulations allow the retention of one wild fish per day; the fish could have been kept. When the angler was interviewed by a local newspaper, he said it was more important to allow those fish to spawn and continue to produce that large strain of steelhead.

Don’s fish was probably a little less than half the size of the 28 pounder, more in the 12 or 13 pound range; a beautiful winter run fish. The fish was never taken out of the water. For our photos it was quickly lifted and placed back in the water, a rapid process to reduce any stress on the fish.

Seeing a fish landed boosted our enthusiasm and we fished hard the rest of the day. On every cast I anticipated the big pull, but it didn’t happen. Still at day’s end, I broke down my rod completely satisfied. I had seen and photographed a beautiful wild steelhead, smelled the aroma of fir trees, seen trilliums and wood violets in blossom and waded one of the most renowned steelhead rivers with the excellent chance of hooking a fish. That’s more than a fisherman can ask for or deserves.

Give Marty a call at: (503) 655-9532

You can also call Idaho Falls at (800) 394-1345.