A Religious Experience

There was a moment during our drift on the Rogue on Wednesday when I thought I may have found out what it feels like to be close to God. Then I took a long drink of Scotch after releasing a beautiful wild Steelhead and I was certain.

I don't know if "Epic" is the best word to describe my last trip, but it certainly is the first one that comes to mind so I decided to look up the exact definition:

ep·ic

   [ep-ik]  Show IPA

adjective Also, ep·i·cal.

1.

noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style:Homer's Iliad is an epic poem.

2.

resembling or suggesting such poetry: an epic novel on thefounding of the country.

3.

heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war.

4.

of unusually great size or extent: a crime wave of epicproportions.

So bullet number one definitely doesn't fit since our journey wasn't a long poetic composition. However, there were hero's as well as a series of great achievements so an "Epic" could be composed from the events that took place.

Bullet number two obviously fits (see previous paragraph).

Bullet number three? Yeah.

Bullet number four? "of unusually great size or extent" yep that fits. Those words can be used to describe the personality of the people we met, the fish we caught, and the time spent on the water.

We had decided to take this trip about 2 months ago, and the only real plan was that we were going Steelhead fishing in OR. We knew that you can't really plan exactly which rivers to fish since conditions and fishing reports dictate that.

We didn't hear much regarding good Steelhead fishing in OR the week prior to the trip and that this was due to low water levels but I didn't really care. I figured we could go to the Klamath or Rogue and catch some nice hatchery fish. I was just excited to get out of work for a week and go fishing with friends.

Then, an amazing thing happened. A guy name John Rickard came into the shop. John is a guide and owns Wild Waters Fly Fishing guide service. His guide service had just become Orvis endorsed so he wanted to take us out....FOR FREE. When my friend and store manager Steve told me this, I thought to myself, "yeah right, there's no way". Well, John came through and he even got his business partner Chuck Volckhausen and another guide Keith Lyon to come along. (Now I'm going to feel pressure to send them a LOT of business, I'll do my best fellas!)

The three of these guys know Northern CA and Southern OR like the back of their hand and I had a good feeling that we would get into fish regardless of the fact that people said the Steelhead fishing was slow.

Location: Heaven, Earth

Mt. Shasta

John Rickard

Coastal Cutthroat

 (sorry Steve, this was the best pic of that fish)
Also, notice the size of the net?? Whoops. 

Chuck Volckhausen

Keith Lyon

We fished the Upper Sacramento for trout on Monday and then fished the Klamath on Tuesday (with Wild Waters) and the Upper Rogue Wednesday (with Wild Waters), we waded the Rogue on Thursday and Friday by ourselves and fished a sick run thanks to the knowledge of Keith Lyon. 

We caught a lot of fish.

I can honestly say this was the best trip I've ever had. Not just because we caught a lot of nice fish, but for the way everything came together so perfectly and for the people that I was fortunate enough to spend those short 5 days with. 

Heroic, Majestic, Impressively Great...