The fish pulled struck the barbless hook at the end of the line rushing rapidly from his fly rod, which came alive as the fish tugged and dove deeply right away, the rod pumping some more, and Ryan Williams’ heart raced with excitement.
When he finally netted and landed the fish, a 3 1/2-pound bass, the Vacaville native knew the 17-incher would well add to the total weight numbers needed to compete and possibly win the Wild West Bass Trail, a Northern California regional bass tournament, held Jan. 2 at Lake Shasta, north of Redding in Shasta County.
Fishing from one of the tournament’s 178 boats, Williams’ teammate, Logan McDaniel, using a spinning reel and traditional rod, landed the biggest bass of the day, at more than 4 1/2 pounds and about 18 inches long.
At the end of the tournament, their total weight haul of five fish, a tournament criteria, was nearly 14 pounds, two more pounds than their nearest competitor, good enough for first place and more than $8,300 in prize money, fishing gear, and memento plaques.
But what caught everyone’s attention was the use by Williams of a fly rod and hand-tied flies during a sanctioned bass tournament, believed to be the first such fly fisherman to do so, making national sport fishing news in the process.
“We were hooting and hollering, for sure” when he and McDaniel learned their catch was tops of the tournament, said Williams, 32, an Oroville-based fly fishing guide and owner of North Valley Fly Fishing, which offers guided fishing trips on Northern California rivers and lakes.
“We were beside ourselves,” he continued during a brief telephone interview Thursday. “I knew we had made history. I knew it was a big step for fly fishing in general.”
History, indeed.
In his first-ever bass tournament, Williams and McDaniel outfished 177 other teams — “Some of the best bass fishermen in the country,” noted Williams, a 2006 Vacaville High graduate — that used conventional tackle.
As they watched the fish bags being weighed on the lakeside dock, he sensed they were among the top contenders.
“We knew ours was way above what was being weighed,” recalled Williams. “So it was pretty promising.”
For their achievement, he and McDaniel were the subject of stories in Fly Fishermen and The Drake magazines, the latter boasting a national circulation.
“It’s an awesome feeling to catch a fish on a fly rod, the fight,” said Williams, his voice resonant with the pleasure of a memory. “They go down real deep when you hook them.”
In keeping with tournament rules, he and McDaniel released the fish they caught, saying it was “standard stuff for the tournament. All the fish get released.”
According to the website calbassunion.com, Williams’ ascent to the top ranks of Northern California bass fishermen began 20 years ago, when he started fishing on Putah Creek north of Vacaville. His interest and eagerness eventually landed him a job at Sweeney’s Fly Shop in Napa. He later began guiding walking and wading trips along the creek for the shop.
Discovering the pleasures of fly fishing and hearing stories from anglers who caught record-size bass in Clear Lake, he began to check out the Napa and American rivers for striped bass and local reservoirs for spotted, largemouth, and smallmouth bass on his days off from work.
Moving to the Oroville area in 2008, attending college classes and guiding on the Feather and Sacramento rivers, Williams eventually decided to devote his time to being a fly fishing guide full time and tying flies for his business, North Valley Fly Fishing, at flyfishcvn.com.
“It’s growing rapidly,” he said of his business, which he operates out of his home. “I’ve done a ton of business with my flies. I’ve been swamped since the tournament.”
Calling his tournament win “a big bump for his business,” Williams said he makes enough to support himself as a single man and to pay the bills.
“It’s more a lifestyle than anything,” he said.
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