PERFECTION

THE DEAN RIVER 2013

Written By Deschutes Angler Guide Alex Gonsiewski

It is hard to believe that it has been a month since I looked out the window of the de Havilland Otter at the mountains of British Columbia. The flight into the Dean was the perfect bush flight. We traveled south from Smithers for 15 minutes and then hung a right and made our way west through rugged mountain passes and down river valleys until, WHAM-O, we emerged into the Fjord that is the Dean Channel. Ten minutes later we had come to rest on the Dean airstrip, little more than a dirt path cut out of the surrounding forest.

The scenery of the lower Dean is worth the price of admission.You have never steelhead fished--or perhaps been--in a more beautiful, awe inspiring place. Granite peaks, snow covered mountains, eagles, bears and dense green forests complement the sexiest of steelhead water.

When Steve Morrow dropped me off in the Cut Bank the first morning, it took me five minutes to control the shaking and clear my eyes enough to make a decent cast. Here I was standing in the Dean. No care in the world except how to swim my next cast. Pure and utter bliss.

I had heard for years that Dean steelhead are like no other steelhead in the world. The hardest fighting, rip snorting ass kicking steelhead you will ever face.  It is true. I had my drag cranked down tarpon tight and each fish removed backing from my reel as if it was free spooling. These are wild wild fish.

One quick fish story. It takes place on river right. I made my cast, stepped down and the fly dug in and started swing slow. The kind of swing were you know you are about to get lit up. Next thing I know my Kingpin reel was screaming and whack-whack-whack the backing knot was out the tip top along with an additional 75 yards of backing. As I tried to put the brakes on a fish that I believed to be a couple hundred feet downstream, my fish comes ripping out of the water fifteen feet away from me. I knew then that I had lost. One more jump and I was left mouth agape and line limp. It feels good to get your ass kicked from time to time.

The place is PERFECT. No ifs, ands or buts about it. This is a trip that I will remember and be grateful for, for the rest of my life. I was truly humbled by the immensity of the place. I only hope that someday I can return to the Dean for another shot. And that we do not destroy the fishery in the mean time.

Conservation

Anadromous fish returns are cyclical. They are dependent on so many natural variables--river conditions upon hatch, estuarine health, ocean conditions and river levels upon return. Add upon that the effects that man have on these runs and it is a surprise that any fish make it back to the river at all.  Even to places as remote as the Dean. 

There was disappointment expressed by the anglers and guides that I spoke to about the number of fish hooked this season on the Dean and the percentage that displayed net marks. Guide and fisheries major Steve Morrow informed me that the salmon gill net fishery in The Dean Channel was more intense than normal this year with boats coming from as far away as the Skeena to fish. He and many others believed that the low return was based largely on the salmon gill net fishery.  

Spending a week on the Dean with fishing that is considered below average for that watershed does not bother me. I was grateful to hook just one of these amazing fish. Nor do I believe it bothered anyone in the group. We are steelhead anglers, we understand the fishing is not always on fire. However, I am appalled when the return of steelhead is low, and the fishing tough, for man made reasons. Steelhead are by-catch in the salmon gill net fishery and the problems that we face here in the Columbia drainage are the same as they face on the Dean. Gill nets kill steelhead. Plain and simple. Those that are not killed show less vigor and are riddled with net marks that leave them susceptible to infection and . Short of removing these nets all together from the Dean channel there are other measures that can be taken. 

For more information about the measure that can be taken to reduce the effects of the gill net fishery on steelhead. Or to voice your outrage to the Canadian Government. Check out http://area8watch.wordpress.com for more information.

DEAN RIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA 2012

British Columbia's Best Steelhead Fishing

It has been just over a week since I returned from hosting a trip to the Dean River in British Columbia. The thrill of the trip has not yet worn off, and I doubt it will for months to come. My batteries have been completely recharged and I am ready for the long steelhead season on the Deschutes – which is already in full swing.

Dean River - A Steelheader's Paradise

An Overview Of The Dean River, British Columbia

The Dean River is a magical place - it is a place where you might have the honor of hooking the most spectacular steelhead ever to grace the end of your fly line. It is a place where, not too many years ago, the steelhead fishing went from epic to very difficult. Anglers who had been faithfully making a pilgrimage to the Dean for dozens of years suddenly found it a challenge to hook one or two steelhead for the week. Many anglers dropped off the “Dean’s list” forfeiting their reservations for one of the few spots in a lodge, declaring “The Dean is dead!” But those who made such declarations forgot one important thing about steelhead – they are damn hard to kill off. In our backyard, the Columbia River basin, we have thrown many a wrench into the machinery that makes up the life-cycle of the steelhead.  Dams, clear cut logging on steelhead spawning tributaries, commercial netting,  industrial pollution, more dams, hatchery fish with inferior genetics commingling with wild stock, regulations which allow bait fishing and treble barbed hooks, tribal netting, overgrazing and riparian destruction, more dams yet our wild steelhead have survived. In some years, mostly due to good ocean conditions, they have even thrived. The Dean fish have obstacles to overcome too, some introduced by nature, and many introduced by man, but they have cycled through the bad times and are far from dead (as previously declared) – they are very, very much alive.

Dean River Lodge - Moose Lake Lodge - British Columbia

I have been fortunate to book six guided spots on the Dean for the first week of August at Blackwell’s Lodge.  We fish the lower 3 miles of the Dean, from the canyon to the confluence with saltwater, and share this stretch with only a few other anglers. The Blackwell guides, Steve Morrow and April Vokey, make their hard work seem effortless, and give us, the anglers, a fantastic experience on the water.   They are there with a camera if we want a grip and grin, but they also sense when we need some space and some time to be one with the river and the surroundings. The lodge staff, Diana and Dana (April’s sister), make all the meals memorable and the atmosphere light and happy.  Justin Blackwell entertains us in the evenings with stories of bush flying in the Canadian outback, and amazes us with his ability to fix everything from generators, to toilets, to wi-fi systems and satellite phones. The lodge and cabins sit on a perch overlooking the saltwater fiord known as the Dean River Channel, and we enjoy cool breezes and the call of the loon in the evening and early morning when we are not on the river fishing. Lodge dogs scare away stray bears that get too close to the grounds and are excellent tail-wagging escorts to and fro from the lodge to the cabins.

Blackwell's Dean River Lodge 

Fly Fishing Conditions On The Dean River

Our week was spectacular, conditions were perfect, and the steelhead were happy.  To me, a perfect steelhead trip is one which offers each and every angler on the trip some good opportunities to hook steelhead, some steelhead on the end of the line, adrenaline surges and a feeling of helplessness on at least a couple of fish, and I always hope for everyone to have a chance to look a steelhead directly in the eye for just a moment before allowing it to continue its journey. Hooking huge numbers of fish is not part of my recipe for a perfect trip, nor is landing every fish we hook. This may sound odd to some of you, but I feel that steelhead are a special fish because they are not easy to hook. They are special because they are a fish of 1000 casts. They are special because finding one is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Enjoying a day on the banks of the Dean River

Dean River Guide April Vokey - Deschutes Angler Fly Shop owner Amy Hazel

Peter Heitman's Amazing Dean River Steelhead

The Dean River Steelhead

The needles that we coaxed from the haystack were absolutely spectacular!! Peter Heitman from Colorado landed a steelhead that measured over 40” and was the largest steelhead the guide had seen landed during his season. This fish may have weighed in excess of 25 lbs. – but it was photographed and released without a scale or a tape measure. The health of the fish should always come first. I landed one on the first day that went 36” by the tape, which I was able to use while the fish rested in the current in a net. Many fish in the 12-16 lb range were brought to hand and many others gave us the fin in mid air as they cartwheeled down the river after spitting the fly, straightening the hook, or taking our tippet and fly. Everyone got their butts kicked – everyone. When hearing the disappointment in one angler’s voice about the one that got away, I said, “You didn’t come to the Dean River to LAND fish did you? I thought you came here for an ass whuppin! If you want to LAND every fish you hook then you should be fishing for Bluegill” (I mean no offense to Bluegill by bringing their names into this – you are beautiful fish, the fish  of my childhood in Minnesota, the fish that made me fall in love with sight fishing – I love you, Bluegill! 

Bob Thacker Showing Off  A Beauty

Amy Hazel of Deschutes Angler Fly Shop hooking into Dean River Steel

Gorgeous chrome Dean River Steelhead

There were days on the Dean where each angler in my group hooked multiple steelhead and there were days which yielded zero steelhead to some anglers, including me on day three.  I actually respect the fishery more for giving me a blank day now and then because that is, to me, a real steelhead experience – having to work for the fish you hook.

Amy Hazel with 18lbs. of Dean River Chrome

Amy Hazel with a Trophy Dean River Steelhead

One morning a particular spot yielded four steelhead to my flies in a matter of an hour. These were flies that I had designed for the trip, that I had tied in the dark winter with Dean dreams in my head, that had never before been swung past a steelhead, that had no names and that (by my own rule) could not be given a name until fooling a steelhead. When our guide came up river with another angler from our group, I waved him over to put that angler in my run and I sat back to watch him hook a few more out of the pool. I took photos, I walked along the river, I sat on a log, and I breathed it all in. I named a couple of my flies from that morning’s success. When I climbed into the float plane at the end of the week, I had completely recharged my batteries.

All five of my guys who fished the Dean with me last year have expressed a desire to return to the river next year. My waiting list for an open spot is eight anglers long and growing.  Making the Dean’s List could require a wait of several years, but the first steelhead you hook will make it worth the wait.