ICONS: Dana Sturn

Icons, a web series from Swing the Fly, looks at the most influential figures in spey casting and swinging flies – from North America and beyond in the 21st century. In this installment we visit with Dana Sturn, founder of Speypages.com, defender of the Thompson, and we relive his son’s first steelhead.

Tell us something about the formation of Speypages.  Was there any one person (or persons) instrumental in getting this idea off the ground? 

On the current website, “About Us” says that Speypages was started by a group of spey enthusiasts, which actually isn’t accurate. Way back at the beginning when I was finishing up my post-graduate work at San Diego State, in between mind-numbing assignments I would search the web for spey stuff. I quickly discovered that there wasn’t much of anything out there, so I created it myself. Originally it was a chat forum called “International Spey Clave” and then I created speypages.com as a sister site where I could post reviews and other spey-related things. Eventually I merged the Spey Clave with speypages.com. But yeah, that was all me, working late nights for free, managing things and keeping it updated. Over time as things got rolling I was fortunate to have a few great people help me out – Juro Mukai, Brian Lencho, Sean Ransom (who became my business partner once we took Speypages out on our own), and once things really got going, Tyler and Sandi Kushnir and Duggan Harmon were key players as well…there are many others, but these were the main players over the years.

If you could envision a new or different direction for the future of Speypages, what might that look like?

When I decided to leave Speypages I knew that the next big step would be what we have seen happening across the web over the past 10 years or so — a full multimedia platform seamlessly incorporating social media and in-house video production, etc. My problem at that time was I had children who were getting older, and I knew that taking this next step would be a big investment of time…and money. I had already invested so much of myself into the project at the expense of both family time and cash, so 2013 was a good time for me to step away.  I took a few years off to watch my kids grow up, do a little writing and a little fishing.

I think Speypages was “The Hub” on the web for all things spey until I left, and I think there’s still a place for a one-stop “all things spey” kind of site, but it would need to be much more elaborate than where I left things in 2013.

You have been an ardent and elegant defender of the Thompson River, as evidenced by your tribute Valley of the Giants published in the 2018, Volume 1 edition of Swing the Fly.  More than six years later, what’s the best news you gave give us on the restoration of this revered water?

An interesting question and difficult to answer. Ocean survival, pinniped predation in Fraser River approach areas, Fraser River gillnet fisheries, climate-related issues, politics – there are so many things stacked against the Thompson that I often wonder if there’s any hope at all for the river and its magnificent fish. The best news is that recently we’ve seen a little bump in the early returns of steelhead entering the Fraser in September. These fish wouldn’t make it to the Thompson itself until after it closes in October, but it’s heartening to imagine that things might to be moving in the right direction. The problem remains that the test fishery results through October remain poor. Where are those October fish? It’s not likely that the river will ever open again for an October/November season if those October fish don’t make a solid comeback. So, it remains a waiting game for those who love that river.

What is it going to take to save wild salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest?

I’ve always believed that great rivers need friends, and I think that within the salmon and steelhead community there has been so much in-fighting that sometimes it’s difficult to find a positive way forward that we can all agree on. “Divide and conquer” is one of the oldest strategies in the book, and over the years those who would rather take advantage of rivers where great fish swim haven’t had to do very much to further their interests, because anglers have done a great job doing the whole “divide and conquer” thing themselves. I love the two-handed fly rod, but does it really matter in the end what kind of tackle I prefer if I can’t fish the river that I love? So, I think it’s really important for all anglers to take a hard look at themselves and ask some pretty tough questions and develop a willingness to make sacrifices if we are going to see healthy runs of fish.

When it comes to steelhead advocacy I’ve had to learn many hard lessons.  I’ve come to realize that some of the things that I once believed to be true were either inaccurate or completely wrong. This is especially true when it comes to people. There’s an old saying that when you point a finger at someone and you look at your hand, there are three fingers pointing back at you. Over the years I’ve wrestled with a few anglers over our conflicting viewpoints, and today I regret the part that I played in that.  It was unpleasant and wholly unproductive, and in the end, it only weakened our collective ability to effectively advocate for wild steelhead. If I could do things over again differently I would.

When you are fishing on your own today, which river do you consider to be your “Home River” (or rivers)?

Sadly, I don’t get a lot of river fishing in these days. I still like to fish trout on the Thompson in the summer, but most of my angling time is now devoted to BC’s interior lakes. But the rivers where I feel most comfortable are the Thompson, the Dean, and Alberta’s Bow.

Which river that you have never fished before would you most like to try?

I used to fish the Dean for chinook.  I really enjoy those fish and would love to get on a river with a healthy chinook run and swing flies for them. So that means Alaska. Another river I’d love to fish is the Gaula in Norway. My good friend Mike Walsh fishes there and it sounds like a challenge I would enjoy. And I’ve recently been talking with Tim Arsenault about the Clearwater – big water, long casts and small flies sounds a lot like the Thompson to me, so I hope to get there, too.

What is your favorite fly?

Only one? Well, if I had to narrow it down it would be Tyler Kushnir’s variation of the General Practitioner that he calls the Raging Prawn. It’s a reddish orangey version of Sean Gallagher’s Black Marabou GP.

When I’m on steelhead water I really limit my fly selection to four: The Raging Prawn (and a smaller version of it called the Micro Prawn), The Voodoo Child – another Kushnir pattern – and the smaller version called the Slight Return; my Spur Fly, which is basically black marabou wrapped fore and aft; and my Thompson Stone. That’s it.

I love the greased line swing with or without an intermediate polyleader, depending on the weight of the tube fly I’m using. Flies tied on the plastic tubes I prefer tend to plane upwards and wake on the back end of the swing, so I’ll use an intermediate polyleader to keep those flies just under the surface. Some folks really like the dry fly surface takes but for some reason I prefer that subsurface grab. Those takes are like a good death – quick and unexpected!

What is your favorite two-hand rod, and what line do you most like to use with it?

That’s easy. The CND Solstice 16’1”. I think all around it is the best two-hander ever made. I have a couple of them and they are what I fish the most. My second choice (and it’s a really close second) is the CND Thompson Specialist. Tyler Kushnir and I were involved in the design and testing of that rod, and the prototype I have holds a special place in my heart. It’s a beast, but I love winding it up on the Thompson. Both these rods have magic in them, and consistently make me look like a better caster than I am!

On the Solstice rod I love the Nextcast Fall Favorite 8/9. On the Thompson rod it’s got to be the old “Spey-driver” lines that my old mentor the late Derek Brown taught me to build over 20 years ago.  Recently I’ve started messing around with Tim Arsenault’s Bridge Mainstem lines, and they’re great! I’ll probably be switching my Solstice and Thompson rods over to Mainstem lines this year. Tim is an amazing caster, a genius with line designs, and one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. I would encourage anyone to check out his lines!

You’ve had a long list of contributions to steelheading and two-hand casting.  Is there one you’re particularly proud of?

At Speypages we tried really hard to keep things light and balanced, and to make it a safe place for folks to connect about the two-handed rod. For the most part I think we succeeded, so I’m proud of that.  I really enjoyed working on the RIO video that I did with Simon Gawesworth and Jim Vincent, along with the chapter I did for Lani Waller’s Steelhead Legacy video.

But probably what stands out to me the most is the story I wrote for Gray’s Sporting Journal a while back, called “River of Life.” Published in 2017, it’s the story of my son’s first steelhead. I worked on that one for about a year, and it was a pretty special moment when I saw it in print. I think the future of our sport depends on the willingness of people to set aside their own opportunities to create some for others, and an important part of that is sharing the love for the sport with children.

What are your plans for the next five years?

I’m hoping that I’ll still get another chance or two to fish the Thompson. I’ll be 61 in 2025, so I’m starting to feel my age a bit. The Thompson is a tough wade and a long cast, so I know I’ve probably only got a few years left where I can do it safely. Hopefully I’ll get the chance before it becomes too dangerous for me.

A few folks have been after me to write a book. I have written about 80,000 words about the Thompson, but I’ve kind of abandoned it because we can’t fish the river anymore, so I don’t know if that will ever see the light of day. I’ve done a lot of writing for the magazines over the years, but most of them now are either disappearing or getting smaller, so I don’t know how much more magazine writing I’ll do.

So in a way, the next half decade is kind of a blank sheet for me, but I can see most of it will be filled up with family. My son is now in his mid 20s and is a robotics engineer in Silicon Valley. He’s really outdoorsy like his mom, and lately he’s been saying that he wants to start river fishing with me. The idea of planning an annual trip with him to some of my favorite rivers is really appealing, so I can see myself dusting off the trout rods soon and getting after that, with maybe a fall steelhead trip to the Skeena in there as well. My daughter doesn’t fish, but she likes to camp and hike, so hopefully during the summers in between her terms in medical school we will get some time to spend in the outdoors together, too.

All photos courtesy of Greg Thomas (you can find Greg on Instagram. @anglerstonic)