He's got the touch

My Brother has a busy life. Between Work, Kids, rides for kids activities, maintaining a house, reno projects and a various number of other adult, fatherly things. He doesn't have much time left to fish.

As young kids, we would fish together a lot. Jamie is a couple years older than me, he could cast farther, tie better knots and generally he just always knew a little better what to do. As a teen, he didn't fish as much, but I always hoped he would get back to it and he did.

After my first season as a steelhead guide. I invited him out to fish with me after the clients left. He had been working pretty hard all that fall trying to get his first Atlantic Salmon but never managed to land one. His first Steelhead trip, after a crash course in Skagit casting, he managed a little better than a fish a day for a 4-day trip. A great success by any standard.

The next year he wasn't able to make it because he had cratered his achilles. The year after that he came again, I asked him if he needed a casting refresher and he said "no I am good" I thought this funny, and I insisted that he do it anyway as he hadn't touched a spey rod since his 4 days of experience two years before. I handed him the rod, and he said "you just lift up, make a reverse "C" shape, finish where you start, sweep across your body always accending and fire" he threw a quite acceptable C spey cast and away we went. I was surprised that he remembered and he was surprised that I was surprised. He was spoiled once again on this trip and overachieved by Steelheading standards. So this was kind of how it went for him on our annual trip until we decided that he should try winter steelheading.

Brother and I on the Babine in late fall.

Spring 2018 was a late one. I worried as his mid march dates approached because the fishable water on Skeena was extremely limited by ice jams, lack of boat launch access and lots and lots of snow. I told him to get his head right for tough fishing and bring his snowshoes. We would try our best, and regardless we would fish.

We had a fun week, we fished via snowshoes, ate fantastic food, toured around, went to the rifle range and fished our way to Prince Rupert one day for lunch and fished our way back. Approaching the end of his trip, we were still yet to connect to a steelhead. I was in no way surprised tho as the talk amongst others was that they saw the same thing, a fish here and there, but no one blowing the doors off it.

His last day, we went out and did a big hike. I think that he had accepted that he had flown coast to coast and was gonna go home blanked. He was ok with it and thoroughly enjoyed the visit regardless. An authentic taste of winter steelheading. . . . Humbling, especially after what he had seen on other trips.

Last day, final spot, he set into the rhythm of swinging the Skeena, as shallow as the ice shelf will allow and swinging it right to the bank. Before long he was on one. The perfect end to a perfect trip. He had gone through all the emotions of Steelheading, kept working hard, got cold, accepted the fishing for what it was, enjoyed it regardless of the outcome, and he was rewarded. I hadn't brought the net that day, and it was a difficult place to tail a fish, so I wasn't terribly disappointed when it came off at our feet. A 12-14lb chrome buck in the Skeena is a feather in the cap of even the most experienced steelheader, and here he was again, less than 20 days of steelheading under his belt and still overachieving. He's got a bit of a touch I think.

Broski pulling on one after putting in the work.