Fishing With A Legend...

When was the last time you fished with a legend? By that, I mean someone who has truly mastered fishing and changed the sport? This past week, we waded the challenging western waters of the North Umpqua River with Steelhead legend Frank Moore. Frank, more than just about any other fisherman I’ve met, long ago earned the title, Legend. Spend a week with him and you’ll better understand why.

Photojournalist Cy Dodson and I flew out to Eugene, Oregon to document Frank’s history for a documentary-style show we produce on the Outdoor Channel called “Legends of Rod and Reel”. Cy and I jammed our television and fishing gear into a tiny, white rental car and drove the roughly two hours south and east to Idleyld Park, Oregon. We pulled into the gravel drive of Frank and Jeanne Moore’s grand log cabin tucked away on 80 steep acres in the Umpqua National Forest (which Frank built with almost no construction experience). Just below the cabin, the Umpqua River winds sixty wild miles down from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Every year, like clockwork, wild runs of Salmon and Steelhead return from their 2000 mile trek to swim their way up the river. Frank’s been there waiting for them, fly rod in hand, since the days when no one even imagined aWorld War II.

The river’s fish counters had watched more than 4,000 wild steelhead work their way into the river system, yet the fishing proved pretty tough. Our alarm clock chimed at 5 a.m. each morning, and we’d grab a piece of toast smothered in crunchy peanut butter, swig down a quick mug of instant coffee and hop into Frank’s 1985 Volkswagon Golf to stake out a fishing hole. Frank’s faded-yellow car is truly a fishing rig. The dash reads 346,000 miles. Frank, by the way, says the odometer stopped working back in 2001. We wandered roughly 20 miles of river with Frank and his fishing buddy, Ron Hamill, watching for wild fish in the riffles, climbing down steep drops of jagged rip rap, then wading into fast, 51 degree water. I sat much of the trip just watching Frank throw a 100 foot Steelhead fly line. Oh, did I mention he does it on a roll cast? If you’re not familiar with a roll cast, think of it as using your rod to flick a line100 feet. Most folks have a hard time rolling out much more than 30 feet of line. To see Frank’s line unroll from his 10 foot rod is quite a sight. Think of it as watching Tiger Woods swing and launch a golf ball 320 yards without any effort. This kind of skill isn’t learned. It’s a rare fisherman who can cast like Frank. Oh, and did I mention Frank Moore is just about to turn 86 years old? Yep. I said a legend.

After fishing ‘til sunset, we’d wander home completely bushed in sweaty waders, only to find Jeanne waiting for us at the front door. She’d ask how the fishing was, already knowing our answer, and then lead us to a table full of home-cooked food. After filling our bellies (the sign on the cabin wall reads, “Eat until your belly ouches”), we’d slowly drag off to bed, completely whipped and completely content.

To spend such intimate time with a guy like Frank will change you. We listened to Frank’s stories; the day he and thousands of other young American men crashed Utah beach on D-Day. You get a sense of why Frank and Jeanne felt a need to take a big risk and take out a loan to build and open the Umpqua Steamboat Inn back in the 1957 (By the way, the Inn served dinner after dark, so fishermen could take advantage of the great evening fishing. I believe this was Frank’s idea). You appreciate Frank’s tireless conservation work. Frank blew the whistle on devastating logging practices that were quickly reducing the number of wild Steelhead in the river. You understand why Frank played cop and watchdog protecting the now famous Steamboat pool, where wild pods of spawning Steelhead and Salmon find cold refuge in an upper Steamboat Hole stretch of the river system. Poachers used to dynamite the pool illegally to harvest thousands of fish.  By the way, the North Umpqua Foundation now pays Lee Spencer (who grew up in Moorehead, Minnesota) to sit, from May through December, watching that pool that Frank once babysat. Yep, I said Frank was a legend.

He's been a key name and face in the G Loomis world.  He's been a part of just about every outdoor television show and magazine worth a hoot.  Dozens of conservation awards hang on the walls of his cabin.  Ask anyone in the Pacific Northwest and they will tell you Frank Moore is a legend, and maybe most importantly, a good man. That's may be Frank's proudest title of all.

We had a great week fishing with Frank and his friends.  Seems each time I'd turn around, Cy would be taking a two minute break from shooting to take in a little of the Umpqua's sweetest side.    Can't help it when the berries line every path two and from the river!   The river runs gin-clearn and it runs wild.  Wading was truly tough. Wading boots with spikes and a wading staff are absolutely necessary to walk this river.  At 86, Frank ventured into spots I'd never consider hitting.  That's what happens when you're tough as nails and have more than a half century of of experience. 

Now, nearing 86, Frank gets a little frustrated wandering the river. He thinks he’s slowing down in old age. I figure he’s just doing what all true legends do. They simply take a little more time to savor every step, every smell, every sound, every last sensation in a place they rightly, call their own. In Frank's case, I believe the Umpqua is his river. He deserves nothing less.....

Comments

[Laddie Watson]

This is a beautiful tribute to Frank Moore and the river he has shared with many of us since our childhood days. He has been a beloved member of my extended family since taking me up and down the river when I was 13, searching for that elusive steelhead! I learned then that there is much to be appreciated about standing knee-deep in a river, practicing casting, while breathing in all of the natural scents that a day on the North Umpqua offers. Fly-fishing has its own meditative lessons that brought great peace of mind to this young girl who so desperately wanted to catch "just one" steelhead. (I finally was able to do that a few years later and it was one of the most glorious experiences of my life!) Now in my own midlife I so often think dreamily of those days on the river. Most importantly, I treasure the influence and memories gained from Jeannie and Frank Moore through times that were full of joy and those others that were deeply sad, from which we learned ways to find healing in our lives. One of those ways to find healing has always been to put a fly rod in my hand, and step (now more carefully) into the emerald green water of the North Umpqua, breathe in that hypnotizing air and cast as far down or across as I possibly can. I owe so much to both Jeanne and Frank.I will carry both of them in my heart as long as I live. As you say, they are good people.In times when many people set this as a goal and fail, this means quite a lot!

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