The Dean River in 2010
You may have heard some noises during our summer season at BC West about the fact that the fishing was pretty darned good. We’re all shut down for the year, so we thought we’d sum things up. The Dean is back.
Anadromous fisheries tend to be cyclical for a whole bunch of reasons. Although in any year Dean River steelhead and salmon are truly remarkable fish and just a few can make for a memorable trip, the past few years have seen returns on the Dean well below their historical averages. That all changed this year – to say it looks like we’re back on an upswing would be a very, very big understatement.
Some Stuff That Happened This Year
We’re not that into ‘the numbers’, but some of our numbers from 2010 are worth sharing. We had anglers with 15-hookup days. We had anglers with 25-landed-steelhead weeks. We had anglers (OK, this one was your fearless editor) with 6 pulls in one pass through one run, less than a mile from the salt. Yes, some weeks were better than others but it all added up to an incredibly productive season.
We had tons of fun too. The Dean is a magical place, and to see it acting like it did in the ‘good old days’ was both a privilege and a hoot.
What’s Going to Happen Next Year?
Here’s the good news about the cyclical nature of anadromous fisheries – if you look at returns on the Dean over the years, you really don’t see single-year spikes. You see handfuls of years on the down, then handfuls of years on the up, and that makes us awfully excited about what’s to come over the next few years.
If you’ve been thinking about looking into a trip to the most amazing steelhead (and Chinook!) river on the planet, now might be a good time to get in touch. Drop us a line – we’d be more than happy to tell you about all the fun we had in 2010.
[…] our 2010 season at BC West, we had some pretty fantastic fishing – the best in years. The Dean River is a special place regardless of the strength of the […]