Salmon Fishing on the Rogue River
Gold Beach, Oregon
September 2004
Page 3

Monday

The day began with fog hanging over the tree tops across the river from our campsites. We have a beautiful view looking across the river. As sun climbed up into the morning sky, the tongue of fog over the trees retreated back toward the ocean. I enjoyed just watching as the scene before me slowly changed.


Morning begins with a layer of fog blanketing the tree-tops on the other side of the river

Suddenly, in the distance I heard the sound of powerful boat engines. I watched to see what was producing the sound as it approaching our location on the river. Then I saw a fast moving boat sliding around from behind an island with a load of 30 or 40 passengers. The boat was open with the people on board bundled up to ward off the morning chill as they sped up river. It was the first time I saw one of the legendary mail boats. More boats from two different companies came zooming by spaced about 15 minutes apart. The parade of jet boats continued with red boats from "Jerry's Rogue Jets" while the blue boats were from the "Mail Boats Hydrojets" company.


The first mail boat I've seen is approaching


It's a boat from "Jerry's Rogue Jets" with a nearly-full load of passengers

I walked down to the river to get a closer look at the boats as they sped by. I looked up to see the women in our group looking down from an observation platform. It is located at the top of the riverbank with part of it hanging over the edge giving an unobstructed view of a section of the river.


I see that the women of our group are also watching jet boats pass the campground

The observation deck provides a 180 degree view of the river

After all of the mail boats had come by, a man in a boat was seen crisscrossing the river by rowing, even though there was a small outboard engine on the boat. When the man stopped rowing he would hold up a directional antenna like those used to find the location of an animal that is wearing a radio collar. However, I saw nothing that looked as if it had a radio collar.


Man rowing boat across river aims directional antenna in several directions

The fog had burned off completely before time for breakfast. We would have our first meal of the day in a way that is very familiar to us. It was very much like what we do for breakfast at our RV club rallies. The aroma of bacon wafted through the crisp morning air. A traditional bacon, egg and toast breakfast was a great way to begin our first full day in this campground.


JB and JC preparing a scrumptious breakfast that would be the norm during the week

The women visit while the men prepare breakfast

We all talked about our plans for the day during our meal. JB and JC planned to sign up to go out with a guide while Vince and I were going to town to buy fishing licenses. The ride to town was fun as Vince drove his son's little Suzuki Samurai along the winding country road that would take us to highway 101 in Gold Beach. Once at the highway, it was a short distance across the road to get to a bait-and-tackle shop where we would buy our fishing licenses.

While in the store, I saw a chalk-board that showed a short list of the largest fish caught. The five largest fish caught all weighed more than 50 pounds with the largest being a 55-pounder caught a couple of weeks before we arrived. Vince then showed me the rigs we would be using to entice a salmon to get on a hook at the end of a length of fishing line. After purchasing a couple of Rogue River salmon rigs I stepped outside to look out over the mouth of the Rogue River.

Click on image to view pseudo-panaramic version from bridge to ocean

Just a few of the boats trolling for salmon

I was very impressed with the large number of boats on the water trolling both inland and toward the sea. I couldn't see any action however, just boats moving along in the water with fishing lines stretched out behind the boats. I took a few pictures with the idea I would stitch the resulting images together to form a pseudo-panoramic picture of the river from the bridge to the ocean. With that we returned to camp on the winding road that would become very familiar before our visit to Gold beach came to an end.

Back in camp I saw the guy rowing across the river again. This time he was closer to our side of the river. So I walked down to the edge of the water to ask about the man's activities. He said that he is a marine biologist monitoring the activities of tagged sturgeons in the area. The man said that there are buoys, spaced around the wide area in the river, that keep track of the whereabouts of the sturgeon that were located in the deep hole in this part of the river.


Marine biologist studying the activities of sturgeon

He would aim his directional antenna toward a buoy and collect the data from it. The information from each buoy was fed into a laptop computer in the boat. The data would be analyzed latter to produce a 3D rendition of the travel and feeding patterns of the fish below the man's boat. The reason he rowed the boat was so as to not disturb the sturgeon while he was collecting data.

Since fishing would not begin until the next day, we had the afternoon off for "whatever" activities. Some of the women decided to go shopping while the guys would go play golf. Kay and I went for a ride of discovery to look around the Gold Beach area.


Many people focus on the river and miss this very nice beach

A peaceful place to take a snooze

We found our way to the beach and the Gold Beach Visitor Center. After leaving the visitors center, we took a short walk in the sand. We also drove out next to the ocean side of the bridge and overlooked the river where there was the usual fleet of boats trolling for salmon. We drove back to the campground to find that the women had returned from their shopping trip.


Helle is playing with her new toy — a nice digital camera

All the women in our group gathered at the picnic table out on the observation platform that overlooks the river. The guys returned from playing golf and settled in for awhile before our evening meal. The late afternoon was spent socializing and talking of the activities for the next day. The grill was fired up while we visited with everybody bringing out meat to be grilled for dinner. During this time Helle was playing with a new digital camera she bought during the day's shopping spree.


JB is grilling ribs while Vince supervises

We had dinner on the picnic tables that were pulled together next to JB's motorhome. It provided a nice way to visit while eating our evening meal, however, it usually gets quiet for awhile when everyone is eating. After dinner, everyone gathered around a warm campfire to chase away the evening chill that came on after the sun went down. Again, it was a nice way to end another day sitting around a campfire.


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