• Posted on 03/02 at 07:56 AM
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
Posted by Justin on 03/02 at 07:56 AM in
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• Posted on 02/23 at 10:03 AM
Back in December, Nelson Rossig celebrated his 100th birthday with many of his closest friends. In searching through old files, we found these clips of Nelson on the banks of the Eel River during the summer of 2006. In this minute and a half clip Nelson shows us how to tie the turle, his go-to knot. Although the knot’s been outdone by many more modern knots, it’s tough to argue with a guy who’s caught thousands of king salmon and steelhead on the turle, with leaders much more brittle than fluoro-carbon.
Although the instructional value of the footage, isn’t much (footage doesn’t really show you how to tie the knot), it’s enjoyable if for no other reason than it gives us hope that maybe at 98 we’ll be walking the banks of our favorite River like Nelson.
Vimeo the server we’ve been using is undergoing some server problems this morning. We’ll have the video up as soon as possible.
Posted by Justin on 02/23 at 10:03 AM in
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• Posted on 02/18 at 08:37 AM
Not trying to be on a Lani kick this week, but I met with the man in Novato yesterday before he left for a book signing in Oregon. The rain was pelting and the roads seemed more like rivers on the drive through the valley. We ate lunch at a small Chinese restaurant where the broad-shouldered fisherman managed to fit perfectly, despite dwarfing his chair and wearing sunglasses indoor on a cloudy day.
As seems to always be the case with Lani, fishing conversation quickly turned to larger themes, ideas, concepts. We talked about the Lost Coast about Bill Schaadt, about his time on the Skeena Rivers. We were loud and for the few customers who caught animated pieces of our conversation on “mankind”, “the lost connection” and “an inner desire to return”, I’m sure we seemed a bit off the trail.
Lani passed along a copy of his new book, “A Steelheader’s Way” and told me to take a look at chapter 11. In the same style of his previous work, “River of Dreams” Lani managed to find the mystical connection between the beautiful and the deformed. Traveling with the currents of his British Columbia Rivers, Lani reflects on man’s connections to nature and time through experiences that most of us pass along with little more revelation than whatever ego-stoking thoughts fill our heads. In what he has called “his own path” Lani has come full circle with an honest reflection that to the mainstream probably teeters on the obsessed, if not at least the bizarre. Yet to roaming anglers seeking their own paths, Lani provides a reliable road map through the most unfamiliar and rewarding of territories.
Posted by Justin on 02/18 at 08:37 AM in
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• Posted on 02/13 at 12:12 PM
A heavy rain last night and the promise of seven consecutive days of storms has everyone in California hoping for a Fabulous February. Rivers from the Eel to the Russian took their first big jumps in a long time this past weekend. With ground saturation increasing and the hopes of a few gully washers looming, heavy spikes could provide the water needed for coastal steelhead to reach their spawning grounds just in time.
Fabulous February
Posted by Justin on 02/13 at 12:12 PM in
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