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MT file photo Jerry James' Ye Olde Fly Fly Fishing Museum is a private collection of several thousand fly-tying feathers and about 20,000 other fishing items, in a converted garage in Grants Pass. GP museum features fly-fishing memorabilia By MARK FREEMAN For seven hours one day in October 1994, Jerry James stood along the Main Street sidewalk in Medford, clutching a wad of fading paper and clinking links of chain he figured would give film star Ginger Rogers a kick. One by one, the procession of fans seeking Rogers' signature on her new autobiography, "Ginger: My Story," filed into a Medford art gallery for a short audience with the star. Finally, James stood before the dance legend. He showed Rogers the fading paper -- a copy of the March 2, 1942, edition of Life magazine. Its cover photo is of Rogers posed along the upper Rogue River and dressed in fly-fishing gear. The gear includes a pair of chains strapped to her soles, used to grip the Rogue's slick rocks so currents would not do a perverse version of Fred Astaire and sweep her off her feet. Then James produced the very chains she wore for that picture. James told Rogers how he plans to display both items within his own little museum dedicated to fly-angling history. And there, for a moment, the film star and an everyday guy from Grants Pass shared a moment as lords of the fly. "It was real neat to see her," James recalls from their Oct. 15, 1994, encounter at Judith Paul Gallery in Medford. "And having a signed copy of the magazine, and the chains she wore in the picture, is kind of a special thing. "I told her all about my museum and she said, `I sure would like to come over to see your museum.' But she never made it." But Rogers has made it to James' museum, which contains perhaps one of the best personal collections of fly-fishing materials and memorabilia on the West Coast. The magazine and boot chains now stand displayed among thousands of fishing knickknacks, doodads and other items within his "Ye Olde Fly Fishing Museum" in the garage behind James' Grants Pass home. Among the endangered Jungle Cock feathers, rare Hardy reels and personal tying tools of fly-fishing legend Polly Rosborough, the Life magazine signed by Rogers that day in 1994 and the accompanying boot chains rate as two of James' most treasured trinkets. Several dozen fly-fishers over the next two weekends will tread where Rogers never did. James is opening his private Grants Pass museum to members of Southern Oregon's fly-fishing clubs to share the Rogers memorabilia and the 20,000 other pieces of fly-fishing history the 59-year-old James has collected over five decades of fly-tying. James established his museum six years ago in his converted garage. For insurance purposes, it remains accessible to visitors on an invitation-only basis. But James is opening his doors for the Medford-based Rogue Flyfishers Association from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. A similar open house will be March 5 for members of the Grants Pass-based Southern Oregon Fly Fishers. The Siskiyou Flyfishers from Yreka, Calif., toured James' museum Sunday. Those who take the tour will see how James has paid homage to the art and sport of fly-fishing that has been the cornerstone of his life the past 47 years. "I've been a collector all my life, and I could see down the road that some of this stuff was going to be valuable," James says. "I realized that so much of this stuff was going to be lost, tossed to the wayside, that I needed to collect it and preserve it so people can appreciate this history." James is a world-renowned flytier in his own right, having come to the sport in a roundabout way. Hit in the head with a hammer as a child, James could not compete in traditional sports and childhood games. He turned to tying flies and found he was better than just good at it. For several decades, he tied flies for Rosborough, a gruff taskmaster who dubbed James as the one person who tied the best dry flies he had ever seen. In the early '60s, James began to realize that the everyday equipment of his fellow Rogue fly-fishers would soon fade away. So he started to stash his old gear away and began accruing more as his fly-tying abilities and fame began to spread. For several decades, he has suffered bouts of dizziness and migraines that have, over time, left him disabled and unable to work. But he has amassed his angling archives anyway, trading excess feathers, fur and flies for everything from old reels and boat motors to top-of-the-line bamboo fly rods. In one case, he took an extremely rare condor feather he bought in the 1950s for 39 cents and traded it for a $1,500 bamboo rod. But both the fancy rod and rare feather are equipment regular anglers used years ago on the Rogue -- and that usefulness is what lures James to the gear. "What I've got in my museum is what the average guy would have used to fly fish, the kind of stuff that could be lost," James says. "I can't get on the Internet and buy reels still in their original boxes. Everything I've got I've tied flies for and traded for." They include Rosborough's personal fly vise and all his tying tools, as well as James' first vice and tools. James opened his museum in '94 and has since run several tours to fly-fishing and service clubs. But the museum has undergone so many changes and upgrades that he believes it is worth a repeat round of invitation-only open houses. "I thought, well, why not show it to the fly-fishing clubs I belong to," he says. Invariably, the club members on the tour will ask about the 1942 Life magazine cover and the boot chains displayed next to them. And James will recount that day he and Ginger Rogers shared the fly-casters' bond in downtown Medford. "She was a real special lady," James says, "and I think she really would have liked to see my museum." Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Mail Tribune � 2000 -- Medford, Oregon USA