A Midway Check-In with Brian Niska, Head Guide, Casting Instructor, and Manager of the Skeena Spey Lodge
By Will Rice
When the steelhead grabbed my fly, I was in a bit of a daze. I’d been methodically casting a twelve-and-a-half-foot spey rod with a Skagit line and sink tip for hours. At that precise moment, I was trying to self-diagnose how my casting and line management had so badly collapsed.
The Skeena River, located in the Western Canadian province of British Columbia, is massive and can make you feel insignificant even when you are casting well. And right then and there, I wasn’t casting well. I kept blowing my anchor, my sweep wasn’t at the right speed, and my casts were not performing like they had been just a few short hours before. My fly was still making it out into the run where I could make a big mend and fish it, but my casting had clearly turned to mush.
