OROVILLE — Fisherman Ryan Williams caught his first fish at 2 years-old with his father using powerbait and lures. He quickly found joy.
His dad then taught him how to tie his own fishing knots and Williams began to catch trout and larger fish.
In 2003, at age 12, Williams’ friend invited him along on a family fly fishing trip on the Trinity River. He caught one fish that day with a fly rod. He saw others catch and battle larger fish, but that one fish made his day. Williams took one more fly fishing trip about a year later on Lake Amador with the Granite Bay Fly Casters, a family friend’s fishing club, and after that, he was hooked.
“Fly fishing — I was addicted. I got a fly fishing rod for Christmas and waders after that and it was game on after that,” Williams said.
On Jan. 2, Williams of Oroville, teamed up with Logan McDaniel of Forbestown, to win the Wild West Bass Tournament on Lake Shasta, the first-of-four stops on the Wild West Bass Trail.
In a competition of 178 boats, the two caught a combined weight of 13.87 pounds for the maximum allotted five fish caught, 1.94 ounces more than the second-place winner.
In 2011, Williams opened up North Valley Fly Fishing in Oroville where he guides fishing tours on the Feather River, Sacramento River, Lake Oroville, Clear Lake and Putah Creek. He also sells fly fishing flies and other tools at the shop.
Williams said he took a non-traditional approach at the Wild West Bass Tournament, choosing to apply his fly fishing techniques he has learned and used teaching guided trips over the past nine years. He was the only fly fisherman in the tournament that day.
However, McDaniel took the heaviest fish of the day for the duo, a 4.55 pound bass on a traditional rod and reel setup.
“He got a really big fish. Made everything for us,” Williams said of his partner. “That was Logan’s fish that day, so that was just a hell of a fish that he got. ”
Williams’ largest fish he’s ever caught on his fly reel weighed in at nearly the same weight as McDaniel’s, coming in at 4.5 pounds two years ago also on Lake Shasta. He has devoted his career to fly fishing and honed in on techniques which he has shared through instructional videos on his website flyfishcnv.com.
“That’s really been a major goal of my whole guiding deal throughout my whole career is to try to get people to open their eyes to bass,” Williams said. “I’ve done videos and just promoted the heck out of the bass stuff. So this is just huge as far as legitimizing all the stuff I’ve been talking about.”
Williams and McDaniel have not known each other long. In fact, it was their first tournament fishing together. Williams has won two prior bass tournaments including the 2019 Costa Bass-N-Fly with his teammate Brian Pultz.
Williams and McDaniel first met when McDaniel did construction work on Williams’ home. McDaniel then hired Williams for a guided fishing trip along the Feather River where the two discussed a love of bass fishing. From there Williams said that it was McDaniel’s interest in the tournament that sparked his desire.
Since the duo is from Butte County, the pair will fave a “home field” stop on the tour. On March 13, the tour will host an event at Lake Oroville. After Oroville the tournament will make a stop at Clear Lake before finishing on the Delta in Sacramento.
“I’ll tell you if we were going to take a win it would be on Oroville,” Williams said. “So we’re going into Oroville with a lot of confidence. We’re going to focus and pre-fish hard and we’re going to be on top of everything for sure.”
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