Rogue River steelhead guide Jim Lyon

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Story and photos by Bruce Matthews

You don't see maggots and steelhead in the same sentence, usually, unless it's about fish carcasses, which who wants to talk about anyway? So when my friend Gwizdz tells me about this Rogue River guide who uses maggots to catch hundreds of steelies a year, I'm intrigued. The Grand Rapids, Michigan guide has fished the Rogue for 30 years and catches more fish than anyone, Gwizdz says. The real deal. So I call Jim up and set up a trip.

Now I admit I suffer that peculiar affliction of fly fishers that won't let us imagine a pristine steelhead eating maggots. Especially maggots draped on a hook. Warped as I am in this manner, I had to see this for myself.

We meet a few weeks later at the McDonalds in Rockford at 7:00 a.m.. I get right to the point in asking him about his maggots.

"Waxworms," says Jim, who in my head by now is really Maggotman. "Waxworms. They're not maggots."

Waxworms are caterpillar larvae, while maggots turn into flies. I used to think waxworms were baby bees, but I-¿ve since learned that they're the larval form of the wax moth. Bee guys don't like them because they're parasitic to their bee colonies. Waxworms get used a lot in the pet industry, but they're even more popular as bait. They come in colors, and glow in the dark. I am not making this up. You can also raise your own. Go here (www.waxwormkit.com) for the proof.

Still, waxworms or not, they look like maggots, act like maggots, feel like maggots, move like maggots, taste like... just hold that thought. What was it my dad said---if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.... Waxworms hell. These babies are maggots.

Lyon sighs.

We head to the mouth where the Rogue dumps into the Grand, and find water. Lots of water. Snowmelt overspilling the Grand and backing into the Rogue. This is not good. Lyon says he caught 8 yesterday with a rookie sport, mostly here. But the water's up a lot higher today. Icebergs are drifting where we want to fish. Big ones. This is not good.