On a saturated afternoon in early March, a group of us met on the northern Oregon coast to document the culture of winter steelheading and, ideally, a native winter steelhead itself. Such a task, I have learned, requires a vast amount of stamina—more than the steelheading itself and on par with steelhead guiding.

To capture anadromous fishing effectively, artfully and creatively is to be able, first, to identify a handful of meaningful moments over the course of a trip, and shoot them in a way that hasn’t been done before and will resonate and inspire. As we prepared for our first day on the water, it became clear that the passion and focus of the anglers were matched by our photographer, Chase White.

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