Rivers of a Lost Coast

North Coast Legends

Virgil Sullivan

The enigmatic Virgil Sullivan was a fabled figure of the early Russian. The mentor to Grant King and Bill Schaadt, Sullivan was famously fleeting. He was a remarkably successful angler at a time when catching winter steelhead on flies was believed to be impossible.

The legend goes, on a late fall afternoon during the Great Depression, Sullivan’s mother asked her son to help the family by gathering fish for the smoker. The next morning, Virgil awoke before dawn, quietly collected his things and headed down to the Russian River. He waded alone at the mouth of Willow Creek. The fishing was good and after a few hours Virgil returned home. He had 27 steelhead. After the fish were smoked and his family was accounted for, Virgil divided the fish amongst his needy neighbors. Many of today’s most respected veteran anglers consider Virgil Sullivan the quintessential early California steelheader.

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