Bob Strobel

Salmo_g

Legend
Forum Supporter
Unless you were fly fishing for steelhead in the 20th century, you probably didn't know him. He quit fishing about 15 years or so ago. Rivers too crowded and too few fish were among the reasons he gave. I met Bob in 1971 at the fly casting lessons sponsored by the Washington Fly Fishing Club (WFFC) at Green Lake. He was pretty one dimensional in that his world revolved entirely around fishing. Fly fishing for steelhead, to be more specific. Bob was a minor legend locally.

When the November meeting program at the WFFC was about fishing for winter steelhead on the Elochoman River, we were pretty excited. When that program turned out to be how to fish for winter steelhead with Okie Drifters and pencil lead sinkers and bait casting rods and reels we were aghast. Bob rightly expressed that a fly fishing club program should be about fly fishing for steelhead or any intended species. That was the light bulb that generated the idea of a small fly fishing club that was about fly fishing for steelhead, and nothing else. So I worked with Bob and four other fishing friends to form what became the Washington Steelhead Flyfishers in February 1973. Bob Strobel was the new club's first president. That club included among its charter members many well known PNW steelhead fly fishers. Among them were Harry Lemire, Walt Johnson, Al Knudsen, Wes Drain, Syd Glasso, Pat Crane, and others. This conglomeration of personnel comprised nearly all that was known about the then odd art of fly fishing for steelhead. That was 50 years ago this month.

As a young steelhead fishing enthusiast this was heady stuff. I had only recently learned and become adept at fishing for and catching steelhead using bait and casting gear. Then I found and read the Haig-Brown books and discovered that steelhead could be caught on flies, so I dove into that. With the encyclopedic knowledge of club members, I just sort of naturally fell into catching steelhead on flies instead of bait and conventional lures. All because of the above listed men. And all because Bob Strobel didn't think a fly club program should instruct its members in how to fish for steelhead with Okie Drifters and pencil lead sinkers. Bob was friends with Jimmy Green, a fly casting legend and long time rod designer for Fenwick. Bob, Harry Lemire, and Al Buhr consulted with Jimmy on the development of two-handed rods for steelhead fishing. They built a lot of prototype rods at Jimmy's house. Jimmy gave me a blank for a 16' 4-piece rod that I built into and dubbed the "Thunderstick." Jimmy was friends with the founders of Sage rod company. From those prototype rods came the first Sage Spey rods in the mid-1980s, the 9140-4, followed shortly after by the 7136, and a few others.

Bob and his wife moved into a retirement apartment building in 2013. His wife passed away July before last. I hadn't talked with Bob for many months, so it was a round about way that I got a phone call from Bob's son the other day. He let me know that Bob Strobel died November 23, 2022. He tried to contact me then but had misplaced my phone number, so I learned of his passing only this past week. I thought there may be some on this forum who knew Bob and would want to know this.
 

Smalma

Life of the Party
Thanks -
I used to run into Bob semi frequently in out of way places on north Sound rivers and would watch him fish from afar - even at a distance it was clear he was man who understood steelhead and fly fishing for them I believe he quietly influenced the mainstreaming the fly fishing for steelhead game.

RIP Bob
 
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Evan B

Bobber Downey Jr.
Staff member
Admin
Great story and history. Thank you for sharing all of this!
 

Rob Allen

Life of the Party
Thanks Salmo, I was in the Portland crowd not the Puget Sound crowd so I never met Bob. If he was anything like the company he kept I am sure he'll be deeply missed.
 

kerrys

Ignored Member
I would run into Bob occasionally at different spots on the Skagit, perhaps more often at the plunkers’ shack sipping whiskey in Lyman and a few times on the Ronde. I enjoyed picking his mind and listening to the stories. Bob always had stories. Rest in peace Bob.
 

Robert Engleheart

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Sorry to hear of the loss of your friend, always sobering when a mentor goes. My FF club has a member who is 103 and still sharp as a tack but heart issues prevent him from going over 4500’ elevation which is where almost all the good fishing is down here. He’s a renown tyer, veritable encyclopedia on the flora, fauna, geology of the Sierras, up until a few years ago was boulder hopping on the freestone creeks with a bug net to show the kids in our TIC field days. Esteemed company you kept there, lucky man. I was with Rob but a few years older and probably in Alaska time Rob was around. I did get to know Bakke, Teeny, Amato and a few of the OGs in PDX area. I also was enlightened by Haig-Brown, who my father introduced me to but as I recall H-B didn’t pursue winter fish much with the fly, as he did the summer fish. A small tackle shop in SE PDX owned by a gent named, IIRC, Don McLain was the first I remember telling me he had success with a dry line approach to steelhead on the fly on the Deschutes. Told him I’d had a big fish swirl on my Bucktail Caddis on the D, he confirmed it was likely a steelhead, said all he ever used was a skunk on a dry line, across and swung downstream. Wish I knew then what I know now….
 
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