Category: Fly Fishing

I had some schedule movement and have some days this week that opened. Save $50 on a full day.  Weather looks great for Fishtober Fishing.

I’ve got less than 10 days left to run for 2024 trout season.

It’s been a blast. I had an amazing busy spring with over 50 guide days.  Got most of the summer off to spend time with my son, fish, and explore new waters in Michigan.  The late Summer and Fall back in the tak has been busy and fishy with another 70 or so guide days. Busy and lucrative. Thank you anglers.

Behind the scenes new things have been brewing. All the new stuff with Kristen and Troutpsychology, the new skiff, bass fishing, captains license, sea run cutthroat added to the program, and the 2025 season already booking up.  The business is well and so am I. 

The season is alrqady starting to slow down.  Fish are feeling the winter creep closer. It’s almost over. 

I switch gears.  I head south again for a week or so.  Then it’s off to Puget Sound to learn sea run cutties and start getting g prepped for the late winter and early spring season for the Sound and for the Yakima.

It’s never stops.  This fly angler guide life. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. 

I’ll see ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack.

There are only a handful of weekend dates open! 

Weekdays still open. Grab a date before the season fills and you have to wait until 2025.

Reserve Today! 

The PNW is home. And the natural spaces my backyard. A big communal backyard. My first outdoor memories are of the places I know work and live in. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over the country.  I can say with certainty that there are no other places that compare.

Montana, in all it’s vastness is in a category if it’s own and is just adjacent to the PNW. An 8 hr drive for the trout bum, hike seeker, or park visitor.  There is a reason the Northwest part of the country draws so many to it. 

It is diverse, with mountains, oceans, deserts, rivers, lakes, streams, forests, farms, and cities.  It is like a melting pot of all the good stuff from all over the place, in a smaller compact form. Just the ability to drive in any direction for 3 hrs and be in a completely different landscape is a huge reason. Everywhere else, it’s a much longer drive to see anything different. Hours.   Like lots of them.

The roads here are amazing, and not clogged up with billboards and crazy lights.  Say what you want about traffic, it’s worse…way worse in places. Detriot and fuck me sideways Chicago is a nightmare.  LA…ya, traffic here sucks…but it could be a lot worse.

It’s pretty here. It’s not filled with smog.  Yes we get smoke these days but that is everywhere.  The planet is literally on fire. But the PNW isn’t dirty, trust me.  And all the construction is happening everywhere. From Michigan, to Florida, up the Northeast and into the nothingness of south Dakota and Wyoming. Infrastructure bill is everywhere you go.  But here. It’s less impact full, mostly because this place is always updating roads due to our crazy weather. 

The PNW has some of the most diverse and actual seasonal weather.  We still have a spring, summer, fall, winter.  And they feel like it.  Other places it’s rather the same.  Dry and hot, wet and hot, dry and dry, cold and dry, wet and cold. The PNW has more than 2 modes and the ability to drive and change biomes in 3 hrs is not something other places of the country have. Cold in the winter, drive to the other side of the mountains where it’s 20 degrees warmer, and not filled with snow.  Head south east to the desert and have sunshine in December.  Don’t like the heat, head north into the mountains, or to the peninsula where it’s temperate.  Everything is right in our backyards here.

This place is unique. And it is special. Coming back here after time in other spaces only solidified that feeling.  Only through experiencing new places could I quell the nomad in me.  I get periods of drive and ambition to explore and change things.  I do not like to sit still.  Tis why my lifestyle suits me.  Having a space where I can do that all the time with ease and accessibility is why the PNW is home. 

As an angler the PNW is very diverse and way less populated than other fisheries.  Trust me.  Less people here compared to other places, and with less diversity in spaces and longer distances away, other areas of the country get very very crowded.  

We have all the fishing.  From saltwater fish and spaces without the palm trees, we have salmon, trout, warmwater species, sturgeon, big rivers, little ones, desert lakes with flats, steelhead, we have harvests, and commercial fisheries that are rather well managed by comparison to others. We have high alpine streams and lakes, places you have to hike to, big mountain lakes, saltwater sounds, bays, sand flats, open deep sea, and that’s just fishing.  The sheer diversity of outdoor use and accessibility is unparalleled.  We are lucky to have it. 

I say all this because this is my backyard.  I was a boyscout in these woods.  Raised my kids near these mountains, make my livelihood off the waters, I’ve played here, grown up here, made a life here.  I have a passion for sharing these spaces witb others.  Helping them discover and play in our big backyard. 

As a guide I want to be more diverse, and operate in more of these unique and special spaces.  To bring people into them so that they can appreciate, respect, and find enjoyment in the place they call home.  There is so much here all around us in the PNW.  Coming back here the drive to chase more, explore and share more of it is increasing.  To learn more about it, to seek out and find new things, revisit familiar places, meet and interact with more people.  Share with others that feel the same kind of pull and connection to the PNW and what makes it home. 

I am so happy to be back.  Excited and stoked to be doing what I love.  Grateful and thankful that I have the ability to explore and share this place with other.  And always appreciative of the support I receive from my clients, followers, fellow anglers, outdoorsy folk, river rats, guides, and PNW lovers.

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack

I’m less than 1000 miles from the homewater.

I’m stoked to get back to work.

Here’s my dates for August. Bass and Trout. New boat is with me!

I am going to tell you a fish story. A simple one. Not one to try and get you to book trips or to try and teach you something. Just a fishing story.

I love Smallmouth Bass. I started my fishing journey with bass. It has been years since I have chased them with a purpose or had an opportunity to. Here in Michigan there is a lake that is renown for its Smallmouth Bass Fishing. Lake St. Clair.

I have fished a lot of places. And some pretty cool lakes. Lake St. Clair is by far the coolest Stillwater I have ever experienced. This lake is large. Not by Michigan standards, its tiny compared to the Great Lakes. But its large for a PNW native. Can’t quite see the other side of it. The Detroit city scape grazes the horizon on the Southeast end. Canada to the East. The lake is roughly 430 square miles of surface area with an average depth of 11 feet with the deepest natural depth is 24ft. Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake by surface area on the planet…is 31,700 square miles for comparison. Saint Clair’s bottom is mostly hard packed sand and areas of vegetation and grass beds. The water is warm above 65 degrees, and the water is a saltwater blue and green. A 30 foot channel splits the lake between the two countries and had been used for shipping for over 100 years. The lake connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie and is 6 miles south of Downtown Detroit. It is 22 miles long and about 21 miles wide. A Big Lake for me. One that perfectly sets the stage for the story to come.

It is home to a myriad of species. Over a dozen. From musky, carp, whitefish, even trout, there are catfish, gar, bream, bowfin, walleye, sheepshead, and what we were after…Smallmouth Bass. Plus a few more species. There is no shortage of fish to target and the lake has plenty of water at 10 feet or less which makes fly fishing a very workable method of fishing. These fish see a lot of lures, bass tournaments galore on this lake. Its so large though you feel like you got the place to yourself and everyone keeps a pretty good distance. Not as many people flinging a fly rod out there. We might have been the only ones the two days we were there. Those fish don’t see a lot of flies and they didn’t mind what we threw.

And with that playing in mind, we set out. My son, Kristen, and I, along with Ollie the dog. I had done some homework on the lake and we had a few areas we knew we wanted to check out. The first area was just kind of to warm up and get used to the lake. Then we ventured 2.5 miles out across Anchor Bay to hit the flats on the other side near Strawberry Island and Goose Bay. Tullies and big sand bars, coves, bays and peninsulas appear as the lake shallows out. Swallows swarm the hazy air like bees, and egrets and herons plunge skyward as the boat approaches; evidence of the nearby bird refuge. Here, the water is an average of four feet deep with six and eight feet deep shelves that border the whole area. The water is blue like the Florida Keys, with sandbars every where. It totally has the flats vibes.

Amongst the shelves and light refraction on the bottom, there are smallmouth. Everywhere. You can see them on sonar, but we usually sight fish and read water instead of relying on it. Fly fishing we only fish about ten feet down anyway. If they are deeper we can throw the gear if we want. We saw fish cruising the shelves, running along the deeper sandbars, up along the tullies and Michigan Mangroves. We spooked large groups of them as we motored around. Less spooky than a lot of saltwater fish, smallmouth will dart away only to return with curiosity and seeing if any easy food is also spooked. They are aggressive hunters. Unlike Largemouth who sit and ambush, Smallmouth locate structure, then surround in and hunt it by darting into it and chasing prey out and running it down. They are wicked fast, can do a complete 180 on prey, they can change direction quicker than just about any freshwater fish I’ve encountered. They also are acrobatic- they will run line out, they will run line deep, they will counter and run sideways and turn, headshake, they will jump more than once, slam the water, kick tail, flare their fins, flash all sorts of different colors and put up a wonderful two to six minute fight on a 6wt. They are a close second to trout on a fly rod. They are roughly the same size- a big one is over 18 inches, and they top out around 10 lbs. They can live up to fifteen years and spawn multiple times. The facts about these fish fuel and heighten the experiences with them.

They chase flies down anglers. It is fucken wicked to watch. Streamer fishing four to six feet down we would have Smallies chase, follow, dart by and turn on flies. We also fished gear and flies at the same time. My son at fourteen years old hasn’t got the 6-weight big heavy fly stuff down quite yet. So getting those fish to smack both gear and flies at the same rate was pretty awesome. A fascinating thing happens with Bronzebacks when an angler gets a hook up and has one on; the fish will regurgitate and puke up its stomach contents as a defense mechanism. Other Bass and fish know this and hone in on the fish and eat what is puked up and disturbed by the angler and fishes encounter. These fish are predators and they are brutal. A fly angler can take advantage of this and throw flies into the group of frenzied fish. One of them will peel off and chase down the fly. The dance ensues as the fish turns, darts, and plays with the prey waiting for the angler to get it just right and then they kill the shit out of it. Its an aggressive heavy hit on the 6wt and a fly.

The fish might go deep it might run, it might jump and throw its body feet into the air, it might tail walk, its fast, its fluid, and it keeps an angler on their game. This happened multiple times. Brown Bass will also hunt around other larger fish like catfish and carp and eat what they kick up and chase and pester the other fish to get it to kick up more food. We watched this and targeted fish doing that on a large catfish. These fish aren’t scared or shy to eat. They also know they are an apex predator. Spines keep them from being prey to a lot of things once they reach a decent size. They are also fast, so they can move and dart away from predators that may be around….like a musky, or large brave bird.

The three of us encountered many fish. With ample opportunity to play and land them. We got to experience the kind of fishing we were seeking out east. Lake St. Clair did not disappoint. I have shared a lot of fishing experiences over the years and the two days I spent on that Lake are by far some of my best and most memorable.

I promised a fishing story. My son who has been staying with me for a month, has high interest in my line of work, outdoors and recreation. He is my fishy outdoorsy kid. Yoinking frogs and spiders, journaling about the critters he encounters, swimming in any water he can kind, he is a regular little Steve Irwin. He isn’t little, he’s damn near my size now, but his love for the outdoors makes the young kid in him shine. He loves fishing. He is out of practice with fly fishing but can still send it with a 3wt. The 6 weight is a little much, but man he can chuck a gear rig. He got really good at it over the month he was here. We fished at least 4 day a week. He got lots of practice and landed 6 different species of fish and I lost count of how many during his stay.

Anyways, he was slinging this big chatter bait and had one hell of a smack. My partner Kristen was working the trolling motor and started coaching him through the fight. I was fishing off the bow and had set my rod down to watch my son play this larger smallie and get ready to net it. Kristen saw the pod of bass move in on my sons fish. She hollered at me to pick up the rod and cast it into the fish. I fumbled and grabbed the stick and chucked a shit cast into the fray as my son continued to reel on his fish. First cast, nothing, she coached and said, “Again!” Back into it, not much better cast. A large fish peeled off from the group and zoned in on my fly. Kristen could see the fish better than I could and told me where to cast out in front of the fish. I did again, got follows and turn, she coached, another cast.

The fish about 30 feet out and 5 feet down looking for my fly. I presented again. Finally a better cast. Follow, chase, turn, almost. Another cast she says “Six feet further! Pop it and let it sit!” I throw, the fish zones in, she says strip, I strip, the fish closes the gap. On the hang-down it goes for it. The commotion starts, there is a “set!” yelled and I am late. The fish still there, hunting for its lost prey. I throw again. At this point Kristen has landed my sons fish and my fish has now worked its way toward the bow still about 20 feet out but getting close. I’m nervous it will spook with the boat. Its been my first real shot at a fish since I stood up on the bow. I am fucking sweating, my heart is pounding, adrenaline at a hard eight, and I am thinking that fish seems big and I am gonna fuck this up but its wicked fun.

Kristen asks if its still there as now I have eyes on it from being up on the casting platform. I throw another cast and get the same reaction. She delivers instructions as I am slightly losing faith. I throw again. The fish hovers under the fly and closes the gap on the next strip- waiting for a presentation I can only hope to match. There it is, just a foot off my fly …just looking at it. A strip. A follow. The fly drops back down and the fish slides up within inches. I hold my breath. There is a millisecond of absolute quiet and calm….I can’t see the fly anymore…I set. For once in my life I fucking finally get a good strip set! Fish on! The shit hits the fan and the whole boat loses its collective mind. Remember there is already a large fish in the net my son just landed and the three of us just watched this entire thing go down and work it together. It was fly fishing magic anglers.

The fish runs, jumps, kicks, goes deep, runs for the boat twice, fights for almost 5 minutes and puts one hell of a bend in the rod, ran enough line out away from the boat and down into the depths that I had to get the fish on the reel which I rarely have to do. Counters left and right, the fish pulled the rod sideways and down, at one point it flexed so hard I thought it might snap as the fish took its first run under the boat then out away from the bow fifteen feet. This fish was a lot bigger than I thought and it has been a long while since I was tested as an angler. The flashes of emerald green as it ran through the blue water with the sand backdrop and the low morning sun poking through the cloud was amazingly beautiful. The light through the water giving the fish a intimidating shimmer as it changed color from dark to light as it moved through the water. The fish came to the net and my son, Kristen, and I had just accomplished something that we could have never fathomed.

In the net were 2 trophy sized Smallmouth Bass. My son’s at 18 inches and a gorgeous bronze striped and marbled bass. My and Kristen’s tag teamed fish…a ridiculous 23 inches, emerald green, bright, big powerful shoulders, an old fish, a perfect fish. The largest Smallmouth Bass I have every caught and probably will ever catch. A big one by Lake St. Clair standards, which kind of sets the bar impossibly high. I was amazed and in awe. It was one of the most rewarding and fun encounters I have ever had. The three of us were just bewildered and full of energy in our lungs.

I love fishing. It has been a passion of mine for twenty years and my career for ten. These kind of moments are the milestones, the highlights, the one in a thousand fishing trip days that we can encounter as anglers. It was fantastic. To share that experience with my son and my partner was by far the best part. Lake St. Clair is the first place I have been since heading out 2 years ago that has made me want to explore, share, and experience more. It is by far one of the coolest fisheries my partner and I have encountered.

The trip was a complete success with a nice shenanigan to end the day. We ran out of fuel and had to use the mighty little trolling motor to get back to the marina for fuel. Then I, flooded the engine and had to wait for a bit. We took the shenanigan in stride and came back the next day for another amazing time. We will be back. I am already wishing I could fish it more before I leave.

So there is a fishing story. A rather good one I think.

I return to the west in a few days. I am excited to share the water with clients again. And am looking forward to my next encounter with Lake St. Clair.

Tamarack

Anglers! Streamside Coven Co. and I are hosting a three day streamer specific retreat on October 4th thru 6th.

This is a 3 day streamer chucking and learning fest.  Details below. We have 2 spots left on this retreat. I highly recommend it for anglers wanting to really learn how to streamer fish and find big trout.

Bass.  Ditch Pickles, bucket mouth, trash compactor, big lipped buddy. I love bass.  I have a special spot in my heart for large and smallmouth bass.  They are the species that got me into angling. I was a hard-core gear guy when I was younger.  I loved to Bass fish and learned and discovered my passion for the puzzle of fishing through Bass. 

I am old enough. I actually watched Bill Dance Outdoors on the Tele.  I watched and learned from all the fishing shows. I had gear, lures, lines, boxes, of all shapes and sizes. I had just gotten into fly fishing but it wasn’t my primary way of fishing. Then I had all my fishing gear stolen out of my truck when I was 19 or 20, they left all the Fly gear.  It just so happened at the same time I was transitioning to fly fishing more and more, so I just made the switch then and never really gear fished much after that.

But since coming to Michigan I have gotten back into bass. Mostly on the Fly.  I gear fish in Michigan and learned I still know how it all works. My son hadn’t really gear fished so I spent time showing him and getting to fish with a spin rod again myself in the process. 

Side by side on a typical day, each method catches the same amount of fish.  It’s all about effort put in. Bass are pretty straightforward. They sit in relatively easy water to decipher and find relating to conditions.  They eat and kill things regularly, fight hard, and are way less fragile than trout.

I grew up in the Columbia Basin farm country. Bass are everywhere. Both species. With this new boat, they are a little easier to get to now.  I have wanted a larger fishing boat with a motor since I was 18. It may not seem like much but to a poor kid from dusty old farm country nowhere…my new skiff is a big deal. I get to fish those familiar places in a way I’ve always wanted. No oars required.

Bass I dare say are in close competition for trout on the Fly. Especially smallmouth. They are the same size as trout.  A nice 18 inch smallmouth is a wicked nice fish, just like trout.  They weigh about the same, and at that size, they put up similar fights, especially in moving water. Bass can be just as pretty as trout, just in a different way.  The colors, the marbeling, stripes, cool gill plate colors, neat fins with spines, Bass of both flavors are wicked cool.   They take the Fly similar on top and underneath with chases, follows, swipes, smacks, giant lunges, and acrobatic slaps. They fish hard and jump like trout, Bass are a wicked good time on a 6wt.

Now I will say Bass can be just as finicky and unwilling to cooperate as trout. Conditions like sun, weather, wind all play a role.  Water temps, food sources, time of year. All need to be accounted for…just like trout.

So trout anglers will find that they can relate to Bass on the Fly rather well. There is a lot to learn about Bass.  When trout are kind of figured out learning a new species can make you a better angler with both species. They eat different food, sit in different water, use structure, move in groups, they have a whole new slew of things to learn and casts to use and flies to get into that open up the world of Fly fishing that much more. It’s pretty rad.

I’ve taught a lot of people how to chase trout with Fly and rod.  It’s never been the only fish I know how to chase.  Underneath the past 10 years of heavy trout fishing and guiding, there is another decade of other species chasing and fishing I was fortunate enough to partake in. I’m excited to have the opportunity to share my skill sets with others.  I’ve got the proper equipment finally, I’ve got years of experience built up, and I’ve got a whole group of anglers who, in my professional guide opinion, are ready to learn new things and venture into the wider world of Fly fishing.

I’m back in a week and August is a great time for bass fishing and learning new stuff.  It ain’t all on the lakes either. We got rivers smallmouth will crush on during the warm summer. If you wanna up your skills and learn a new species and all that it entails I recommend coming out for a bass day.  I’m stoked to teach it and experience it with anglers. And I’m so excited to guide out of the new boat.

See ya riverside for bass anglers.  Soon! 

Tamarack

This season, I focused heavily on just being present in the space. I needed time off.  Like many of us do. I felt like I had been in a grind that was getting me nowhere. Honestly, since covid, it’s been this weird survival mode, and the current state of the off river world hasn’t made things any easier.

Places can get stale.  And I put this out there with no ill intent, but people can get mundane, too.  I can become mundane.  And I felt that way with the spaces I found myself fishing. Michigan has been an out of comfort zone adventure that I needed.

Learning to appreciate new spaces for what they are, overcoming the urge to compare them to others. Just being present, listening, observing, enjoying. When fishing is work, that part of it can be lost or fuzzy. Michigan and the disconnect from my beloved western rivers has been eye-opening.

A reaffirmed appreciation for my lifestyle, what I have been able to fish, see, and share.  The places I call home and know best, missed, and I posses a want to seek them out fully I haven’t felt in some time. Exploring and discovering places the past 2 years has been something I always seek out.  I have gone through several bouts of wanting to nomad and freely disperse. Over my adult life I’ve done it many times. From week long excursions to Montana or BC, to months in Alaska, or Florida, to part of a summer in Michigan and many more. The desire and need to venture out has always been there in me. The older I get the more I want to chase it.

My partner has made it more possible. Her desire for adventure and nomadic life is similar to mine.  She plans more and operates less in the chaos than I do, which is a benefit to us both. But sharing this experience with someone who seeks it out as wholly as I is by far the best thing about it.

This life is never boring and is constantly riddled with sections of class 4 and 5 water to get through. Learning to appreciate the space one finds themselves in no matter the situation is a true, sometimes painful, but always enlightening lesson. Must be why I’ve got such a chill demeanor.

Michigan is a place where things are slowed down, quiet, and it leaves time for contemplation. There hasn’t been any pressure to produce, guide, be a certain way.  I’ve gotten to just explore, fish, and find things out for myself. It’s the experience I prefer.  I don’t want to be guided or shown.  I prefer to find out myself, fish are secondary for me. 

I’ve learned to slow down more here.  To just enjoy fishing. Spent time with my son just being a dad who takes his son fishing instead of a guide who does it for a living. I’ve had time to just be in a new space and learn to appreciate it and the others I’ve been.

Heading back to the homewater I feel a different kind of excitement. A longing to be on the rivers I call home that I haven’t felt in some time. The pull back into those familiar spaces is at its peak now.

Appreciate and slow down in the spaces you find yourself in. The river is never a place to be hurried. A lesson we can take off river.  Spend a few more seconds, taking in the sights, smells, sounds, and feelings around you in the moments you find yourself knee-deep in the river.  Examine the fish a bit longer in the net.  Sink and settle into the feelings these encounters, places, animals, and people give you. I encourage it.  It’s what you’re really after in the end…those few moments when all else is faded and it’s just you and the space you’re experiencing.

Tamarack

Remaining Available Dates!