Nicholas Dean Outdoors

“There was something magnetic about heading west: a quiet pull to new waters, a fresh rhythm. As Atlantic salmon anglers, it’s inevitable to draw comparisons between a steelhead and a salmon.

Conversations with those who have encountered wild steelhead often veer to questions like, “Does the take feel like a salmon? Do they jump?” We’ve guided friends from the Pacific Northwest who arrived on the East Coast with fly boxes full of steelhead patterns, poring over them riverside, concluding, “There’s no reason a salmon wouldn’t take that.”

There’s a poetic irony in rifling through your salmon flies, wondering – will a steelhead eat this? Our aim was not to chase what we already knew, but to discover our own answers to the questions we had asked others, and those we hadn’t yet thought of.

Perhaps it was the promise of rain after a drought year on the East Coast, or the desire to experience the unique personality of the Pacific Northwestern rivers: wilder, wider, and seemingly older somehow. We packed our rods, gear, and layers for every forecast, and set out for Terrace to fish with Nicholas Dean Outdoors.”

To Read more about our First Steelhead adventure and our unforgettable trip to “Nicholas Dean Outdoors”, check out our blog on Looptackle.com