Frank Headrick: Steelhead Fly Fisher
Frank was born in Bellingham in 1908 and as a young boy spent much of his time fishing Squalicum Lake and for Cutthroat trout in the Sumas Creek. At the age of 25 Frank was introduced to fly fishing and taught himself to tie flies with his own home made vise. During this period Frank built a number of cane and fiberglass rods.
In 1940 Frank joined the Washington Fly Fishing Club along with his friend Walt Johnson. In 1942 Frank took position as club president for the WFFC and became the first to hold this position for two consecutive years.
Frank worked with Washington State Sportsman’s Council for 10 years promoting fly fishing and stream rehabilitation in addition to teaching fly tying and fly casting at Green Lake (Seattle). After the Second World War, Frank along with other club members visited hospitals and taught fly tying to Italian and German prisoners of war.
Frank was very involved in conservation efforts on many lakes and rivers and on January 9th, 1940, along with WFFC members, was successful in petitioning the game commission to make the North Fork and Pass Lake fly only water.
In 1946 Frank, along with WFFC, developed a program to collect steelhead and salmon, and also in rearing 23,000 surviving young for the nearby Arlington hatchery and eventually planting them in Deer creek. The success of this project spearheaded the Department of Fish and Game to their first steelhead rearing program in the NF Stillaguamish basin.
Some of Frank’s favorite rivers to fish for the legendary steelhead were the Wind and Kalama. In 1946 it was his love for North Fork of the Stillaguamish River and its steelhead that prompted Frank buy property alongside his friends and fly fishing companions Enos Bradner, Walt Johnson, and Sandy Bacon on the famous Elbow Hole below Deer Creek. As good friends Enos and Frank spent many hours fishing the NF Stillaguamish and developed fly patterns and techniques in pursuit of its famous steelhead. Some of the flies they developed and fished were Franks Dandy Green Nymph for which Enos had named as well as the Hellcat and the lesser known Haile Selassie; other favorites were the Purple Pearl and patterns developed by Ralph Wall.
Dale Dennis 9/3/07
Ken McLeod; Pioneering Steelhead Fly Fisher, Outdoor Writer
AL KNUDSON, STEELHEADER AND ONE ALL AROUND GREAT ANGLER.
Al’s Steelhead Fly Reel
Walt Johnson, Steelheader and Fly Tyer
Born in 1915 in Kirkland, Washington, I was drawn to fishing at an early age, spending much time exploring the many creeks and ponds on the east side of Lake Washington. (I) made many memorable pack trips into the high Cascades for trout, namely in the lakes of Snoqualmie and Stevens Passes. A school chum and I made our first trip to the North Fork of the Stillaguamish area in the 1930s., traveling in a 1923 Model-T Ford touring car back when the highway was just a narrow blacktop road. We had to pull ourselves to the north side of the river at Hazel by means of a basket suspended over the river on ropes and pulleys. We camped on the old Mt. Higgins trail in an abandoned Boy Scout cabin and fished Dick’s and Rollins creeks, catching numerous fine rainbow trout. Little did I realize that someday I would be fishing summer steelhead in the river itself.
Ralph Wahl, Photographer and Steelhead Fly Fisher
Ralph Wahl of Bellingham, Washington, may have been the first man to cast a fly for Skagit River winter-run steelhead. "There may have been others, but they weren't where I was fishing," Ralph says. Ralph was fishing for summer-run steelhead on the North Fork Stillaguamish whenever he could find time to break away from working at the family store (Wahl's Department Store) in Bellingham. Ralph had been an obsessed fisherman all of his life. When the run of Deer Creek natives would begin to stack up in clear N.F. Stillaguamish pools below the town of Oso, so would Ralph and a host of other dedicated steelhead anglers. Many of them would become life-long friends and, unbeknownst to them at the time, steelhead fishing legends.