Fly Fishing People: Frank Moore

November 8, 2007 By: Marshall Cutchin

Eighty-five-year-old Frank Moore tows a young reporter across the waters of the North Umpqua by his finger, giving a lesson in perseverance. Frank and Jeanne Moore were the original owners and operators of Steamboat Inn, from the early 1950s into the 1970s, and Frank was among the first to recognize dangers of filling western rivers with hatchery-raised steelhead and a pioneer in habitat conservation. “Moore has spent almost six decades fly-fishing the famed North Umpqua, forging an intimate relationship with the wild summer steelhead he coaxes to the surface each fall with his favorite fly, the muddler minnow. All the while, he’s served as the conscience of North Umpqua’s fly-casters and the face of Northwest steelhead fishing to aficionados across the globe.” Mark Freeman in Oregon’s Mail Tribune.