Salmon River Steelhead

Fishing has always had the ability to bring people together from all sorts of places and backgrounds.  Sometimes even reconnecting people from the past.  Dane Jackson was more of an acquaintance in high school than a friend.  We shared friends, but never really crossed paths in our free time.  His name came up a couple years ago while Adam and I were fishing the Milwaukee River.  Adam was telling me that he was as crazy as us about fishing and that he started a custom rod company in up-state New York.  The Ithaca Rod Company was once a full service fly shop and guide service now still making fine custom fly rods and guiding, but  focusing more on getting their products in the wholesale market.  This last summer Dane was back in my hometown to help his dads company with a project.  While in town he stopped in my families restaurant and we got to talking about fishing.  He shared some info on where to fish out east when I made my trip to Connecticut that I feel attributed to my success.  The Delaware River changed my perception of the state of New York to say the least.  Now he’s giving me more reason to travel back that way.  Lately, he has been putting in more time learning the fall/winter steelhead game on Lake Ontario’s tributaries and seems to be having some success.  He also was telling me about a landlocked atlantic salmon run in central N.Y. that sounds like fun if you can time it right.