Perfection.

Some French writer once said that it is achieved not when there is nothing more that can be added, but when there is nothing left to take away.

More often than not I tend to subscribe to the notion that less is often more. Beauty is often easier to encounter in the simple than it is the complex.

Stam, AP, and I reduced our worlds (if only temporarily) to small once again, and spent eight days swinging flies to steelhead on British Columbia’s Dean river.

Does perfection exist? If it does in the steelhead form, certainly that fish swims in the Dean. I had a hard time trying to figure how to come at this “report” if you will. I couldn’t decide where or on what to focus, what element or aspect left the biggest impression. The company was of course excellent, good as a guy could hope for on this type of mission. The setting was spectacular, among the most scenic in which I have wet a line. The adventure component was there, albeit not on the scale that perhaps we have become accustomed to. After time spent in reflection, and not to sell my partners and friends short, but what moved me most on this trip, was the fish.

Not having spent much time rubbing elbows with the fly fishing elite, I didn’t know if the many descriptions used to tell the Dean’s steelheads tale were mere lore or indeed fact. “It is like the fish take your fly while swimming full speed down stream.” “They rev up 20 yards away and accelerate through your fly.” “They will take all of your fly line faster than you can watch it go.” “The Dean is the best steelhead fishing river on the planet.”

Were these sayings based at least partly in truth, or were they just time twisted tales made better by telling after retelling round the campfire. We all hoped time would tell us more about the former than the latter.

With all of the hype surrounding this river and these fish, it was admittedly hard to keep expectations in check. “The numbers can be mind blowing” doesn’t lead one easily to a high level of self-satisfaction after two long days without an honest tug. I think it is fairly safe to say that although our hopes certainly soared high, the newness of the place and our collective lack of experience with the technique at hand (swinging flies for steelhead) kept our expectations fairly well in check. By the trips end, these expectations, even hopes were most certainly exceeded.

The trip planning was fairly easy, too easy in fact. Work the plan, check things off the lists, pack the bags, and off we go. Shortly after getting to the river, my lack of research and casual approach to the strategy aspect of the trip would throw us a few curve balls, but hey, what is an adventure without a few surprises right? AP and Stam picked me up in Vancouver and we rambled along for a day or so to the jumping off point.

(I'll break this into a few pieces over a day or three. AP and Stam will no doubt have much to contribute both in words and photos. Jump in any time fellers.)




Nothing like a couple of 60lb bags and a rod tube or three to keep a guy honest at the airport. Timmy Ho Ho's is a welcome sight for a weary traveler.







On the road






The wheels haven't fallen off yet, there is still time.








Traffic was hell







How do you get 1180lbs of crap into a helicopter that holds 1100? You don't, leave some behind.







If you look close, you can see poop eating grins. These guys acted like they don't ride in helicopters for a living








Phase one complete. We are on the river.







Adios Richard and access to the real world, most of it anyway.







stay tuned, you might get to see a fish photo, or two.

Made it...like survived the trip?

Can't wait for the stories to come! Coley, one day when I grow up I want to be like you

Never grow up, it is over rated

Ingress was smooth and our first look at the river had us chomping at the bit and full of anticipation for the coming days. Surprise #1, although flowing relatively clear, we would come to learn that the river was at a 40-year high for flows/volume for this time of year. We fished our camp pool (rumored the best on the upper river) hard for the better part of two days and if not for AP scratching two out while Stam and I bushwacked our asses of in relative vain, we wouldn’t have had a fish to show for it.


I guess if you are going on a float trip, you should probably have a float that boats.







Raise your hands if you are psyched to be here.









Camp water, tasty from the get go. Two tugs for the team, two fish for Aaron. Stam and I went hiking. Bad call.







There were a few chinarks around. Pound for pound, the Dean kings just might be the strongest fish on the planet. Lower in the river I would find a hole stacked with fairly fresh ones. Couldn’t keep them off the fly, despite my best efforts. Darn near lost rod, reel, and line to a few of them.

(Sorry for the snapshots. There will be a few photos mixed in, I promise.)

To be continued...

Did you guys fly in from Nimpo lake?

great stuff brothah.......I got a nice synopsis of the trip from Stam on Sunday......can't wait to see more photos...his fish stories made me drool but he left out the chopper intel

Sweetness... keep it comin'

Beautiful pictures Coley! Did AP get fish?

That's it... Next year I'm entering the raffle.

Looks like a great trip, so far...

The quality of the pictures and adventure are humbling. You guys set the bar pretty high for us common folk.

I'm going to sit back and enjoy this show, from the fly show in Reno!

So far I'm enjoying this thread!!! Keep it coming Coley!!!

Winterun

HAPPY HOUR(S)!!!

In looking through my photos, I'm fairly disappointed with how most of them came out. Living life in a fairly steep canyon with lots of trees around makes for tough shooting. I'll try to toss a few in though as Coley continues the posting.

Despite the costs, this might be the coolest form of transportation in the world? If only they didn't count beer as weight.



Stam figures it is time to start lightening the load. Good call.

Yet another fine example of pixels and prose that keep me returning to this forum for vicarious adventures....

damn.... how am i supposed to work today?

Cant wait for more.

What he said.

I have been looking forward to this thread for a while. So far so GREAT. I can't wait to see the rest.

With regard to the fishing, things started slow for us, very slow. If I was to be honest, and I rarely am, I would say that I was worried if not a bit disappointed thus far. After leaving our first camp, the steelhead water seemed to be hard to find if not non-existent. Lodge boats were getting shut out and so were we. We pounded everything that looking halfway decent without anything to show for it. The river, bankfull and swift, carried us away faster than we would have liked. The named runs, camps, and spots I had tried to hone in on in the pre-trip process weren’t matching up with the river in front of us one bit.


Classy


Stam is good with fire...and the ladies.





Camp water that looked great. We fished it hard and hard again, with nothing but casting practice to show for it.





I got crushed in this run only to have the fish come unbutton (they don't spit) after 5 seconds of fury.









Surprise #2, two falls (the season not the vertical water thingy) ago the entire valley had been hit with a massive, 100+year flood that moved the rivers hundreds of yards in some cases. The river, despite its extraordinarily high flows, seemed to still be breaking in it’s new home. Late in the day on our 2nd full day of fishing I picked up a nice buck that left me a little shaky after a top shelf smash and grab followed by a cartwheeling, backing baring run across to the other bank and back. Maybe these fish were something else after all. The sample pool was small thus far.

Moving the story right along, things stayed slow for a bit and day three or so had Stamly getting into the swing of things (polishing up a nice spey cast and jumping on the catching wagon in relative unison) by beaching two nice fish out of an ideal looking camp water run. We continued lower into the river faster than we had hoped to and eventually our paths collided (literally, not figuratively) with that of the fish. We spent the last four days of the trip wandering the lower river shaking hands with some of the finest steelhead we had even seen, felt, and experienced.



















Still a bit more to come.

NICE! Waiting for more.

Any chance that your trio of closet-Ascoteers ran into the board's grand Pooh-Bah of the Ascot during your stay? Salmo G was up there (down there for Coley) this past week as well.

SalmoG flew in 4 days (I think) after us. Based on the dramatic water drop we saw, he basically stuck the timing 100%. If he didn't slay it, I'd be shocked.