Dennis
Dickson Biography
Angler Tim Gallager & Dennis Dickson (2009)
As a native of the Pacific Northwest, Dennis Dickson has lived in Arlington his entire life, except for two year while attending the University of Washington and another two years in Hawaii. Growing up near the North Fork of the Stilly, he has fly fished his entire life.
He graduated with a BS in the college of Fisheries and worked for the next eight years as a fisheries biologist, on the Stillaguamish River system. Dennis left the biology field and began guiding fly fishers full time in the early 1980's. After six years of guiding up to 200 days a year, Dennis hit guide burn out and went back to Fisheries working as a consultant. After two years of full time Fisheries consulting, Dennis realized he missed flyfishing too much and decided to branch out.
As of 2009, Dennis is in his 23nd year as a flyfishing outfitter. A unique combination of a fisheries biologist and a steelhead flyfishing guide, Dennis devotes his angling year guiding the steelhead flyfisher. Dennis and now his son Mike also share their vast experience, teaching their highly popular flyfishing schools, bringing anglers from all over the world to enjoy the thrill of flyfishing steelhead. Dennis has fished with some of his clients for over twenty years. An angler’s view? Read Testimonials
Flyfishsteelhead.com is among the most widely read Internet weekly steelhead flyfishing reports in the state of Washington. Dennis also has personally written over 40 articles and stories about steelhead flyfishing. Flyfishing has been good to Dennis, writing is his way of giving something, back.
Dennis's great passion in flyfishing is wild steelhead and tarpon. His greatest thrill has been the ability to share this experience with his son Mike. Mike came into the business some eight years ago, developing Streamsideflyshop.com. Along with his father Dennis, the Dickson’s have revolutionized the local steelhead flyfishing market with their own custom flylines, flies, and rods.
You might recognize such flies such as “Chum Candy”, “Crystal Caddis”, & “Cop Car”.
Dennis & Mike continue to spend their time guiding for steelhead throughout the year in regions like the Skagit & Sauk Rivers in the North sound, the Olympic Peninsula’s Queets River, and southeast Washington’s Grande Ronde . Winters will find him guiding flyfishers in the warm Tarpon flats of the Caribbean.
He still enjoys fisheries work, such as saving spawning streams & watershed protection.
He and his sweet wife Dawn have been married for 33 years. (Any wife who can put up with a fishing guide as a husband should get some kind of congressional medal.) They have three wonderful kids, Mike being the oldest. Dennis is happy working in his community and church, (when he is in town). He enjoys people and loves fish. Watching anglers catch their first steelhead (or tarpon) on a fly is a thrill that never goes away.
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