the drift

drift image

Time Off & The Steelhead Debate

Alex Ford
October 20, 2022

And other obscure hierarchies

September is an important month for us at oakpool, and hardly at a professional level.

Our original 3 team members found each other through fishing, and you could say that in the early years of the company, oakpool was simply a means to keep ourselves on the water more consistently. While we’ve all grown up a bit and spend a lot more time behind a keyboard than behind the oars, center console, or wheel of a Tacoma these days, every few weeks or months is often punctuated by a week fishing somewhere. Most times, it's as a group in a WiFi friendly location. But in September, conflicting trips often put us OOO in different parts of the world at the same time.

If possible, we’d all sign up for a year of Septembers. Fish everywhere are migrating, whether it be albies and striped bass in our native New England, steelhead in the Pacific Northwest, permit in the Bahamas, Atlantic salmon in Canada, and so on. The fish are moving, and we must follow. Our inner fishing strings pull us in separate directions, frequently to off the grid locations for long stretches of would be workdays.

So it was in the last week of September 2022. For me, it was my first trip back to Terrace, British Columbia since before COVID. Dreams of real Pacific steelhead haunted me during the down days of COVID as deposits rolled forward another year. To be a little too honest for the company blog, I was ready to burn oakpool to the ground for another week of swinging flies through the glacial rivers of northern British Columbia. Our trusted General Manager Dan Zazworsky has the same feelings about steelhead and salmon on the Salmon River in upstate New York.

The steelhead debate is a classic one in the fishing industry.

A pacific run, naturally occurring steelhead in its native British Columbia or the PNW is among of the fly fishing’s most coveted catches. A hatchery grown steelhead in the overcrowded Salmon River is not. Many anglers question its legitimacy as a species and whether it should rightfully be called a steelhead or a lake run rainbow trout. To be fair, both “real” steelhead and the hatchery creatures of upstate New York are genetically identical, even if they have vastly different journeys. 

The inarguable thing about British Columbia steelhead is that they are not easy to find and take time to catch. I’ve heard that occasionally you can get lucky and hit it just right, but I personally have never had the privilege. For me, a week in BC is a web of open tabs checking river gauges, searching for the heaviest sink tips, and unanswered WhatsApp messages to guides and other fishermen in the area. BC steelhead is largely a “shots on goal” situation - your fly needs to be in good water for the maximum amount of time allowable in order to connect. For Dan in upstate New York, it’s a matter of buying access to private water and casting questionable flies to questionable fish.

On a typical week where one of us is out fishing, the other would cover for any meetings or client emails / WhatsApp messages. For both Dan and myself, the concerns of the other’s work day were irrelevant this time around. The week prior, we had dealt with a client fire drill or two and felt comfortable that our trips had fortuitously lined up on a week which should be on relative autopilot.

Max Kantar hooked up to a BC Steelhead

In the end, the week fell into place perfectly, despite some elitism on my end as to who’s fishing trip was more important. The 3 hour time difference on the Pacific Coast allowed me to get up early and work until 12pm EST via Starlink. Dan was able to return the first volley of client emails in the morning pre fishing, occasionally hit a spot of service during the day, and consistently build and grow marketing campaigns across multiple clients in the evening back at his AirBnb. Maybe even with a rum in hand and likely with a fly tying vise resting behind his laptop.

While Dan slammed countless hatchery bound chinook and cohos “for the smoker”, I think it was me who potentially left the week most satisfied. With 8 days of fishing under my belt and no steelhead to show for it, the last day in BC was my final chance to land the fish that had been on the back of my mind for four years. We turned off the main highway and up the active logging roads that fishermen use to access rivers, announcing our presence on the windy dirt road with a lyrical “Kilometer 1, going up” on the trucker’s radio channel. I hit one patch of cell service around Kilometer 9 where a solitary email appeared from a client, stating in the most fantastic terms that everything was okay and that oakpool team efforts had found a way around that morning’s Google Analytics reporting glitch. I stashed the phone in my wader pocket - it’s sole function for the next few hours to act as a camera.

The fish took on my second pass at the bottom of the pool - behind the famous international guide Max Kantor nonetheless. We decided it must have just come in, otherwise he almost undoubtedly would have hooked it. Steelhead fishing ruins lives because the fish’s first run is so electric - culminating in a big leap from the water to confirm its presence - that once you’ve hooked one, you are never happy again until you’ve hooked another. After we landed and released my first steelhead in 4 years, I sat by the river and leaned against a boulder for a good hour, smoking a leisurely cigarette and basking in an emotion that could best be described as elated relief. It’s an underratedly powerful feeling, and glows brightly on the drive back to the airport that afternoon.

The author with his prize
You Don't Need Validation
Read More
Right Arrow
Shoshin as a Leadership Philosophy
Read More
Right Arrow
Shoshin and Collaboration
Read More
Right Arrow
The Art of Shoshin
Read More
Right Arrow
Navigating the Digital Seas with a Boutique Agency
Read More
Right Arrow
The Silver Wave: Navigating the Tides of Change in Professional Services
Read More
Right Arrow
Ego
Read More
Right Arrow
Digital Marketing Mixology
Read More
Right Arrow
Applying Occam's Razor to Digital Marketing
Read More
Right Arrow
2024's Top Digital Marketing Strategies for SMB Success
Read More
Right Arrow
Creating a Global Brand Presence for Boutique Hotels
Read More
Right Arrow
On Novelty
Read More
Right Arrow
Spill It: 5 Paid Media Tactics that Will Make Your Target Audience Drop Their Coffee
Read More
Right Arrow
Paid Media: "What Gets Measured, Gets Managed"
Read More
Right Arrow
Scaling Content Impact: The Paid Media Strategy of Giants
Read More
Right Arrow
Scalable Naming Conventions in Meta Ads: A Strategic Must-Have
Read More
Right Arrow
How to Engage a Digital Agency in Your Due Diligence Process
Read More
Right Arrow
Take a Dip in the oakpool: Fierce Independents Welcome
Read More
Right Arrow
Securing Your Facebook Business Manager Account After a Hack
Read More
Right Arrow
Our Advisory Board
Read More
Right Arrow
What Snow Crash Got Right
Read More
Right Arrow
Your Marketing Team + LLMs
Read More
Right Arrow
Why Private Equity Needs Digital Agencies
Read More
Right Arrow
Working With What You've Got
Read More
Right Arrow
The Digital Prescription for Health & Wellness
Read More
Right Arrow
#TheGreatOutdoors
Read More
Right Arrow
Adventure Awaits
Read More
Right Arrow
Advertising in Telehealth
Read More
Right Arrow
See You in London
Read More
Right Arrow
Let My People Go Surfing
Read More
Right Arrow
Dalio on Team Construction
Read More
Right Arrow
See You in Austin
Read More
Right Arrow
Partner Interview: Tim DiPietro from StartSure
Read More
Right Arrow
Advertising's David & Goliath
Read More
Right Arrow
What's a ZKP?
Read More
Right Arrow
Partner Interview: Jamie Storrs from Chenmark
Read More
Right Arrow
Up the Creek Without a Paddle
Read More
Right Arrow
Shinrin-Yoku
Read More
Right Arrow
The Fractional Workforce Revolution
Read More
Right Arrow
What are UN SDGs?
Read More
Right Arrow
What's Greenwashing?
Read More
Right Arrow
What Does "Fair Trade" Really Mean?
Read More
Right Arrow
What's a Customer Journey?
Read More
Right Arrow
Advertising in Digital Health
Read More
Right Arrow
Culture Leads Success: Time Perspective
Read More
Right Arrow
What's Digital Due Diligence?
Read More
Right Arrow
Bootstraps or Golden Handcuffs?
Read More
Right Arrow
When is It Time to Hire an Agency?
Read More
Right Arrow
The Perils of Tools
Read More
Right Arrow
The Original DAOs
Read More
Right Arrow
What the Heck is "Jidoka"?
Read More
Right Arrow
Culture Leads Success: Optimism
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Tom Robbins
Read More
Right Arrow
Brand Messaging: Social Media
Read More
Right Arrow
Culture Leads Success: Humility
Read More
Right Arrow
What Are Ethnobotanicals?
Read More
Right Arrow
Culture Leads Success: Compassion
Read More
Right Arrow
The Acronym Dictionary
Read More
Right Arrow
Call the Plumber. GA4 is Breaking Your Pipes
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Remick Smothers
Read More
Right Arrow
What's "Decentralized Outsourcing"?
Read More
Right Arrow
The Role of Media in Digitally Native Businesses
Read More
Right Arrow
Organizational Structure: Outputs vs. Inputs
Read More
Right Arrow
3 Signs Your Marketing Strategy Needs an Audit
Read More
Right Arrow
See You in Edison
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Acorns
Read More
Right Arrow
Brainwash Yourself
Read More
Right Arrow
Cultivating Sustainable Culture
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Sage Yazzie
Read More
Right Arrow
What's The Difference Between SEO & SEM?
Read More
Right Arrow
7 Social Platforms To Consider
Read More
Right Arrow
Klaviyo vs. Mailchimp
Read More
Right Arrow
2022 In Review
Read More
Right Arrow
What Made Figma Worth $20B?
Read More
Right Arrow
Website Building 101: CMS Selection
Read More
Right Arrow
Yamez: 2022 Lessons & Affirmations
Read More
Right Arrow
How to Tell Your Clients You're Retiring
Read More
Right Arrow
How to Retire from Your Digital Agency
Read More
Right Arrow
Looker Data Studio vs. PowerBI
Read More
Right Arrow
Vignettes: Microdose
Read More
Right Arrow
The Private Equity Digital Marketing Due Diligence Checklist
Read More
Right Arrow
Does My Landscaping Business Need Digital Marketing?
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Dan Zazworsky
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Bryan Abarca
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Cydney Dean
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Elijah Smith
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Karen Yeung
Read More
Right Arrow
Giving Tuesday 2022: Elevate Youth
Read More
Right Arrow
Why We Joined 1% For The Planet
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Alex Ford
Read More
Right Arrow
The Austrian Defense
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Alex Delano
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Kevin DeGulis
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: James Hamilton
Read More
Right Arrow
Nomadic Vignettes: Iceland
Read More
Right Arrow
Meet the Pool: Alan Spencer
Read More
Right Arrow
Welcome to The Drift
Read More
Right Arrow
International Strategy: Airbnb
Read More
Right Arrow

what's oakpool?