I’m back riverside Friday. I’ve enjoyed being at home but I’m anxious to get back to the river. I hear of March Browns and Salmon Flies and all other thoughts kind of leave me. It has been great seeing my family. I’m kind of the outsider to my families routine during the season. My internal clock is not aligned with the hustle and bustle of kids to school, lady to work, lunch for the little one, kids home, homework, soccer practice, dinner, rinse repeat. My wife knows I’m just not built for that life, neither of us are. My lady and I have always had a ‘non traditional’ way of parenting and general lifestyle. It doesn’t always mesh well with others and to this day people in our orbit still don’t grasp what I do for a liv no and the kind of life both Hannah and I are trying to create for ourselves and our children. The life you want takes work, patience, and time…Hannah and I hav never settled for the life we get…we chase the one we want.

That life involves a lot of fishing. For us it’s our way of life, how we pay the bills, feed the kids, fix the car, all that shit..paid for by running trips down the river. It’s a sweet rewarding, fulfilling life, with its hardships but hat life is worth a damn if it doesn’t have struggle. Struggle is what makes life interesting. After a while, you realize anything can be faced with your loved ones supporting you and standing by you no matter the doubters, haters, and naysayers.

I fish a lot. Some 150-250 days a year. I hope most of those are guide days but you get what the river gives you. You change as a person when you spend that much time outside. To the point where others around you notice things. Like how I hate being inside…I’d rather sit outside and listen to the world. I’m not antisocial, well that that much, I just don’t like 4 walls. Inside is noisy, tv, phones, kitchen, people, just lots of things making background noise that drown out the world around you. People notice how all I talk about is fishing, but it’s also all I think about during the season. While most people leave work at work, owning a business and all that comes with it means it’s a constant thing. I’m always buried in my phone or device. I’m usually working, looking at insights, checking feeds, river reports, answering emails, blogging, editing, planning, all that shit.

People notice how I just check out. I’m pretty aloof when I’m not riverside, I just don’t have a lot of interest in things other than fishing. But I like it that way and I also get paid to be that way. Part of being that ‘professional’ angler I guess. Not many professions allow you to completely get lost in your work and come out the other side better at said work without all that stress and bs that comes with it. There’s a reason people are envious of the guide life. I always was. And getting back to it is all I’ve had on my mind since taking this little break. It’s nice out, the snow is melted, the weather warms, the bugs hatch, troots eat, what else is there I ask!?

So now it’s time to prep the rig and gear, say my goodbyes again, and head back to the river to chase fish and introduce clients to the riverside way of life. This season is gonna be good. Hope too see ya out there.

Tamarack