A Rogue Canyon ADVENTURE.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

GALICE - It's a part fishing trip, part thrill ride and part wildlife watch. It's a scenic, sensory safari. It's a wilderness escape by day and clean sheets, hot showers and hearty family-style meals by night.

A four-day, three-night drift boat trip through the wild and scenic Rogue River Canyon - with overnight accommodations at a trio of rustic riverside lodges - is all that, and more.

And the Rogue experience is unique to Oregon.

"I don't know of any other continuous float in the United States with this kind of lodge facilities," said outfitter Todd Weck, whose Rogue Canyon Outfitters leads groups of up to a dozen people through the canyon.

Every sixth day from mid-August to early November, Weck's outfit pushes off from the gravel bar at Alameda County Park west of Galice.

Three mornings and 54 river miles later, the party takes out at Agness, having spent one night each at Black Bar, Mariel and Illahe lodges. Clients' vehicles, driven over the mountains by shuttle drivers, await them at the take-out.

Along the way, clients are exposed to a fishery that's unique.

Rogue Canyon fishing trips primarily target "half-pounders," a variety of mini-steelhead found only in the Rogue Basin and in a couple of Northern California rivers that lack the Rogue's "wild and scenic" character.

Adult summer steelhead, an occasional chinook salmon and (later in the year) coho salmon are also caught. But the majority of the action comes on aggressive and feisty 12- to 16-inch "half-pounders" that have returned to the Rogue after fattening up in the ocean for four to six months.

Anglers, however, often find themselves distracted from their fishing lines by the sheer beauty of the river and its surroundings, or by the activities of some wild creature at river's edge.

You can get mesmerized studying the shapes carved in canyon walls and riverside boulders by centuries of winter torrents, or trying to keep track of the ever-changing vegetation, which features old growth evergreens on one side of the river, an oak savannah on the other, and a patch of madrone trees around the bend.

Wildlife of one kind or another are constant companions. Black bear, deer, river otters, mink, bald eagles, blue herons, great egrets, ravens, hawks, several types of ducks and a variety of smaller birds were among the critters spotted on one trip last week.

"There's a lot of black bears," said Weck, adding that the bears are drawn to the river this time of year by the opportunity to feed on the carcasses of fall chinook salmon. "We've seen black bear every trip but one this year, and up to seven or eight a trip."

One night, Weck said, a bear got in his boat and kicked an oar overboard. The bear even left a smelly calling card.

On this trip, another bear ate a pumpkin with a painted face that one of the guides had netted off a rock in the middle of the river. (The placing of small pumpkins on unlikely perches has become something of an October tradition among Rogue rafters, Weck said.)

Harvest season trips through Rogue Canyon have been a quintessential Oregon experience for nearly a century.

Weck - a Eugene native who was 3 years old when he caught his first fish in the Willamette at Alton Baker Park and who spends about half of each year running a salmon and halibut charter business in Sitka, Alaska - holds one of the oldest operating permits on the river.

The business was founded almost 60 years ago by another Eugene guide, Fishing Hall of Fame member Kenny King. He ran fishing trips through the Rogue Canyon for many years, Weck said, before selling out to Bob Hooten. Weck was a member of Hooten's guide crew for three years before buying him out about three years ago.

Some outfitters offer Rogue Canyon fishing trips that include camping out. Weck said the trips with lodge accommodations are popular with corporate clients and couples.

"It's real couple-friendly, with lodges and hot showers and hot meals," he said.

Each day of the trip has its own character, and features a different character. Weck rotates guests so they fish with four different guides during the trip.

"That way you get to hear different stories and lies every day," Weck said.

Such as the yarn about the "madrone monkeys" told by guide Andrew Mason. The madrone trees in the Rogue Canyon have no bark, Mason said, because early-day gold miners brought a couple of circus monkeys with them as pets. The monkeys escaped and multiplied, and their offspring dine on the madrone's tender bark, which is why the trunks of madrone trees are bare and smooth.

Day One of the trip produces a few fish per boat - including one adult steelhead netted to the applause of rafters launching at Graves Creek. But it's highlighted by a ride through a dozen rapids full of frothy water and bounders, and one portage - around Rainie Falls.

After a riverside lunch served within sound of the falls, Weck's clients walked downstream and watched with fascination as fall chinook salmon tried to pass over the falls. One after another, the fish would leap - their tails throbbing frantically as though swimming through the air - in an attempt to get up over the falls.

The also got to watch a brave, or foolhardy, pair of rafters paddle down over the falls and disappear in the froth at the bottom of the falls. An instant later, the raft popped back up - along with a huge chinook salmon that apparently decided it didn't want to share its hole with anything that big and yellow.

Meanwhile, Weck and his four guides used ropes to lower their drift boats through a narrow, shallow side channel that goes around the north side of the falls.

The first night is spent at Black Bar Lodge, set back on a bench high above the river - but not high enough to avoid getting a couple feet of water in the main dining room during the big flood of '64. But this time the guests were flooded with food - from fried chicken and homemade biscuits and wild blackberry jam to cheesecake.

The second day features calmer water, ever-changing canyon walls and noticeably more fish. Grilled fillets of fresh-caught half-pounders, sprinkled with lemon pepper and melted butter and served on a bed of ferns, are added to the lunch menu. That night is spent at Mariel Lodge, where the grub is served on tables equipped with double-decker Lazy Susans - the better to allow the taking of seconds and thirds without the embarrassment of asking that platters be passed your way again.

The morning of the third day marks the end of the wild and scenic section of the canyon, where motors are not allowed, and the beginning of the best half-pounder fishing.

Passing from one to the other, however, involves the most treacherous water on the trip. But, after passing through Mule Creek Canyon, "The Coffee Pot" and boulder-strewn Blossom Bar, the oarsmen can relax and focus on fishing.

Weck describes his business as "primarily a fly-fishing outfit on a catch-and-release program."

But his guides do provide lightweight spinning gear and sometimes even small "Hot Shots" or similar plugs for sections of the river that are not really conducive to fly fishing.

"We do throw spinners a little bit in the afternoon," he said. "They sometimes tend to work better in the sun."

State fish biologists say this year's half-pounder run is well below the average of the past five years. Nonetheless, fishing has been good, Weck said.

On last week's trip, for example, Ed and Connie Portz of Eugene landed 44 half-pounders on one day. Most of the other boats didn't do half that well, but the fish were obviously there.

"We've had 60-fish-per-boat days on the third day," Weck said. "The fishing gets progressively better as we go downriver."

It's not necessary to be an accomplished fly caster to catch fish on this trip.

"The Rogue is good for all abilities," Weck said. "You can challenge yourself by casting into pockets or casting and `stripping' the fly back in."

Someone who's never fished before, however, can simply let out 30 or 40 feet of line and let the guide maneuver the boat, and the fly, back and forth through all the most likely holding spots for fish.

"We do casting clinics on the beach during lunch if people are interested in improving their technique," Weck said.

The third night is spent at Illahe Lodge, which is considered to be located in the heart of the very best fishing waters. Here, the guides been actively searching out spots that regularly produce "taggers," or adult steelhead big enough to be recorded on an angler's salmon/steelhead harvest card.

The fourth morning features three more hours of prime fishing, and by the time it's over, nine of the 10 anglers on the trip hooked and battled at least one "tagger." Weck's mother, Diane, will have landed three - all within a few hundred yards of Illahe Lodge.

Connie Portz of Eugene, however, landed the biggest fish of the trip that final morning - a 12- to 15-pound chinook salmon that inexplicably grabbed a wet fly.

"It took me 30 minutes to get that thing in," Portz said.

But Sally Myers of Eugene may have put the Rogue adventure in perspective while describing her last, and biggest, fish of the trip.

"It was a wild one, pink and gorgeous," she said. "We took the hook out and I held it and we took a picture, and then I put it in the water and then I burst into tears - it was a spiritual experience."

- Rogue Canyon Outfitters may be reached at [phone] or by e-mailing: [e-mail]. Weck is waiting for the lodges to set their 2004 rates before firming up his prices for next season, but he said he expects to charge about $1,250 per person.

CAPTION(S):

A typical "half-pounder" taken in the Rogue River Canyon is a fine take for any angler. Mike Stahlberg / The Register-Guard Guide Tim Conway prepares to release a "half-pounder" steelhead landed by Roger Robb during the four-day Rogue River fishing trip. Mike Stahlberg / The Register-Guard Roger Robb of Eugene casts his fly line into a promising fishing hole on the second day of the Rogue River Canyon excursion. At the oars is outfitter Todd Weck, whose Rogue Canyon Outfitters provides the trips from mid-August to early November.