A Steelheader's Way: Lani Waller's Life as a Steelhead Bum

In the fall of 2014, Lani Waller and I walked along my British Columbia property line, discussing how the next few hours would unfold. Carefully, we stepped atop fallen yellow leaves that layered the ground like poplar pastry. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was about to interview a very nervous Lani Waller.

I can’t remember exactly how it started, but Lani and I had struck up a friendship a year earlier. It was during my guiding days on the Dean River—a place Lani knew well. In fact, it was through Lani and his old Scientific Angler VHS tapes that I first learned about the Dean. Dated footage shows timeless glacial water framing a handsome man in a red...

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