Rivers of a Lost Coast

A reel with the stamp of Sam Wells

A few months ago Doug Stephens of Toronto, Ontario emailed us inquiring about the early California fly fisherman Sam Wells, who , as you will note in our pioneers and legends section, during the early 20th century operated a fly shop in Eureka, CA. Doug had recently come across an old fly reel engraved with a Sam Wells insignia and wanted to learn more about the pioneering steelheader. He went on to do some of his own research on Wells and relayed what he found out back to us.

Sam Wells was born in Boston and moved west as a young man. Earning the title of the Western States Fly Casting Champion, Wells was a traveling sporting goods salesman in San Francisco before moving to Eureka in the 1920s. Shortly after arriving on the North Coast he opened a shop and helped bring English and Irish fly equipment, patterns and techniques to the Eel and other local rivers. He was a nationally known sportsman whose customers included presidents, state and local politicians and celebrity fishermen like Zane Grey.

As the still living Nelson Rossig remembers, Sam Wells was a phenomenal angler and gentleman. Doug Stephens noted, Sam Wells starred in an early film about eel river fishing.

In 1930, he was elected State Fish and Game Commissioner, due in large part to his work and reputation as a conservationist.

After he and his daughter narrowly escaped a car accident that took his wife, Wells returned to his life as a fly shop owner in the late 30’s. He remarried and outlived his much younger second wife who was lost to a heart-attack. Wells died at the age of 81 in the back room of his fly shop. By that time he had seen the friendly arrival of Jim Pray and Lloyd silvius, two fellow Eel River fly tiers and shop owners who helped carry on the tradition, John Benn and Sam Wells started.

Sam Wells Photo