We recently lost a legend of our sport. Lani Waller was a true inspiration and friend. He was a
talented, passionate angler and a wild fish advocate who dedicated his life to his craft and the
pursuit of steelhead, trout, and salmon. And Lani was a deep thinker and conversationalist
always engaging with friends, associates, or those he just met.
Lani’s amazing steelhead videos raised the bar for fly fishing videography in the 1980s and had
a profound impact on many fledgling steelhead anglers enthralled by the dry line tactics that
were so incredibly captured on film. The videos were a catalyst for my brother Jerry and I to fish
those same hallowed British Columbia waters shortly thereafter armed with the surface techniques learned through Lani’s efforts.
Jerry and I were then honored when Lani agreed to write the foreword for our book Fly Fishing
for Great Lakes Steelhead released in 1999. Lani’s thoughtful words helped bring awareness
and credence to the Great Lakes fishery while perfectly rounding out the book. As our friend
Larry Halyk points out, those words still ring true today.
A few years later we were honored further to publish Lani’s collection of stories – River of
Dreams. In the book Lani details the adventures of his life as an impassioned angler including
the solemn account of surviving a horrific plane crash while his friends and acquaintances
perished. It is a sobering story, and the book is worth reading for this chapter alone.
In addition to his videos and writing, Lani ran a fly fishing travel booking business that took
adventurous anglers to the wilds of British Columbia, the hallowed waters of New Zealand as
well as other sought after locations. It was a business slightly ahead of its time and before
adventure angling has becoming quite common place.
I recently received a couple comments from younger anglers reflecting on Lani’s life that were
not as familiar with his contributions to fly fishing. It makes sense since his most prominent work
occurred from the 80s through 2010 or so and before their time. For those not as familiar with
Lani and for those that are, to honor his legacy take a few minutes to watch his videos, find
some of his old articles or pick up a copy of his book – A Steelheader’s Way and let his
inspiration live on!