Category: Fly Fishing

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!

I am in my last 2 weeks here in Michigan.  I’ve had some good down time, lots of exploring, some self discovery and building, quality and important time with my partner and I was blessed with my son wanting to spend a big chunk of his summer with me. I set out to have a summer off and get to fish and explore for myself and I’ve gotten to do that.

Michigan has taught me a lot. It is not the west. The vibe is different, the fishing very different, the landscape, the water, the people. Everything is very different. Not worse or better just different.

Warmwater species is by far my favorite out here in Michigan.  The plethora of options and spaces to chase pike, musky, gar, bass, bluegill, and smallmouth is overwhelming. Vast lakes, small lakes, lakes connected by slewy rivers. You dodge jet skis and speedboat, pontoon party barges and other big tournament style bass boats.

I’ve been out of the bass game for a bit but damnit it’s been a good time fishing both flies and gear. A soft plastic worm still catches the biggest fish so that hasn’t changed. Popper fishing is fun with most hours giving at least a few shots if not dozens.

I’ve barely scratched the surface out here and another May to mid July adventure is in store for next year. I still have 2 weeks to hammer out a few more warmwater species areas with my new boat.  I want some smallmouth and a shot at musky before I go. Lake St. Claire is on the menu.

The trout fishing is a different beast and I am leaving Michigan with a new found appreciation and respect for what I’ve been fortunate to fish over the past 20 years out west. Blue Ribbon out west and Blue Ribbon out east are two very different things. Out west it means there’s a lot of fish. Usually 1000 per mile to receive Blue Ribbon status. Out east Blue ribbon means easy access and wadable areas. Very different fish numbers aren’t part of the equation.  Michigan has a robust stocking program and many of the trout fishing on the rivers is comparable to small spring creek fishing out west. Large fish are there, but wary, seasoned, hooked many times, and spaced out in very specific zones. Small fish are common and days are typically a handful of smaller trout and maybe a shot or 2 at big ones.  It’s all at night in the summer. Usually a spot is picked and sat on until the window of feeding happens.  It is a crapshoot through and through. Might happen might not that’s trout fishing.

A day of trout fishing in Michigan is different than out west. After several weeks of trout fishing, various rivers floating and wading, talking with others, and experiencing it for myself, I have formed my thoughts on it all.

I leave Michigan knowing I prefer western trout fishing. Not better out west just different and more my speed and vibe. I cannot see myself guiding for trout in spaces out east. Just not my thing. And that’s okay.  I felt similarly about Florida, and Alaska, I’m a PNW boy when it comes to the troots. 

The warmwater stuff out east…doesn’t even compare to out west. Michigan and Wisconsin are warmwater paradise for anglers. I’ll be back working those fisheries into my guiding. A captains license for 2025 will make that an easy reality.

I am excited to head back to the homewater. Michigan has made me appreciate the experiences out west tenfold and realize how lucky I have been with the lifestyle I have. I get to travel, pick places I want to fish, work, and live.  The things I seen, shared, experienced, not just out west but everywhere I’ve been, I am truly fortunate. Thankful to the anglers that frequent my boat and allow me to help them experience fly fishing.

Excited to come back anglers…see ya riverside soon.

Tamarack

Anglers!  August is booking up and I’ve had some things move around which has opened up more dates! 

Remember I’ve got Bass on the Fly in the new boat and Yakima River Trips up for grabs.

August Open Dates:

4th thru 8th, 11th thru 15th

18th thru 23rd, 27th thru 31st.

New September Dates:

2nd thru 5th, 7th and 8th just opened!

16th and 18th.

October Dates:

2nd, 16th, 21st thru 24th, 30th.

That’s what’s left for 2024!  I’ll be back on the Yak August 1st.  I’ll be running early morning trout trips on the mainstem Yakima and Bass Trips on the lower Yak, Potholes, and Quincy Lakes areas.

Book a morning of trout and an evening of Bass!  Give warm water a try, why helping me log hours in my new skiff chasing bass around. Learn new stuff or just run hopper droppers for trout and have a good ol time. There are options and I’m back in the west doing what I do best anglers.

See ya riverside soon!  Reserve Today!

Tamarack

My last August weekends and Fridays are up for grabs.

Aug 11th, 18th, 25th

Fridays left are the 23rd and 30th

Weekdays open to beat the summer crowds.

Bass and Trout Trips.

Aug 30th and Sept 1st I have clinics with Kristen we are running together with spots open for $175.

Reserve before it’s full. Sept and October has a few open dates.

#flyfishing #flytying #chasintrout #guidelife #yakimariver #yakimarivercanyon #pnw #seattleflyfishing #suncadia #guidelife #troutbum #Trout #hogislandboatworks #flyanglerlife

Anglers!  The summer has been fun but I miss the West!

I’m opening up August Dates on the Yakima River and Bass Lakes.

I will be bringing the new skiff with me.  You all helped me get it. It’s only fair you get a chance to see it and maybe take a trip in it.

I will be offering Bass trips with my skiff on Potholes and Quincy Lake Areas.

Yakima early morning trips chasing those big bows and cutties on dries!

Michigan has been a trip, and it has been fun learning how this place may and can come together for me over the next few seasons.  I’ll slowly be building out operations here. But the Yak and the west are calling me back and I miss working.

You know the drill, reserve soon.  Big change of plans I know but I’m ready to head back west.

Hope to see ya riverside in August on the Yakima Anglers.

##flyfishing #flytying #chasintrout #yakimariver #yakimarivercanyon #guidelife #troutbum #trout ##catchandrelease #washingtonflyfishing #seattleflyfishing #suncadia #explore #education ##hogislandboatworks #flyanglerlife

Happy 4th of July Anglers!  I’m headed back to the Yak early. Michigan has been a fun experience that we can all talk about in the boat when I get back.

It’s gonna take more time to get things operational out here. So instead of not working or fishing this summer, I’ve decided to come back a month earlier than planned. I miss work and the Yak.

I’ll be taking August trip dates! 

I’m bringing my new skiff with me for real this time so everyone can lay eyes on it, I can actually work out of it before the winter, and it only seems right since everyone who has been a loyal customer and supporter of mine the past 10 years helped me get it!  I’ll have bass dates open in August on Potholes Resevior and the Quincy Lakes area.

Sign up soon. August gets here quick and I head out July 24th to head back. August 1st thru 30th are open. September and October are almost full but there are a few dates for the fall hanging out there.

I’m taking my son along with me on a road trip to take home home to Idaho. I’m gonna fish a bit along the way with him and have a proper father son road trip.

A bit of a change of plans but it’s just fishing. I hope to see you riverside in August anglers.

Book soon!

Tamarack

Washington Anglers!  I’ll be back this September and I’ve got the weekend set aside for Fly Fishing Schools!

Learn how to fish on a budget!  Build community, meet new anglers, learn from 2 experienced education based guides! Have a lot of fun!

We have 2 days with 10 spots for each day!  Get that friend into fishing, help your kid or significant other, or knock the dust off for the fall fishing.

Anglers who sign up will also receive 10% off a guide trip booked for the Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 season!

Sign up today!  The Fall season is almost full!

@troutpsychology

#flyfishing #flytying #chasintrout #yakimariver #yakimarivercanyon #pnw #suncadia #seattleflyfishing #guidelife #troutbum #wild #trout #catchandrelease #education #hogislandboatworks #scientificanglers #river #fish #flyanglerlife

I’m offering trips for July and August here in Michigan this summer. I’ve got dates open through the next 2 months.

With full and half day services as well as walk and wade tours.

Send me an email and let’s chat about chasing some fish here in Michigan.

Being a fly angler, you get to witness some really cool shit.  Especially if you take the time to observe, listen, discover, and just be in the space. Let go of the need to catch fish, the focus, and just get lost in it.

It can take practice to disconnect in the world we live in today. I like to think that a big portion of my job is helping facilitate that disconnect and reconnect for people.

I am very fortunate in the things that I’ve got to see, hear, feel, and touch while taking in the experience of fly fishing.  From the simple act of standing in front of almost 1000 year old trees in the high alpine lakes of the backcountry or the hidden swaths of the OP.

To amazing wildlife encounters with Moose in Idaho, Brown Bears in Alaska, Black Bears in Montana, to seeing gators of enormous size and beautiful stingrays, don’t even get me started on the birds.  The eagles of Kechikan getting into the trash behind the pub, to diving seas birds for mullet indicating fish are near by, to hummingbird rituals in the conifer tree tops of Washington high country. The dolphins, snapping turtles, cardinals, herons, loons, elk, Bears, orcas, sea lions, are just some of the things I’ve got to witness. All have a special place in my memory.

I’ve seen awesome lighting storms, rocks the size of houses roll down a mountain, storms that lift trees from their roots, floods, and heavy flows in rivers that shake you to your core.  The awe that the natural world has can be terrifying, alluring, and make you realize how insignificant you are. A true reality check. A reminder that we are but a small insect on this great ball of life rolling through space. It’s pretty fucken rad.

Insects, we got there eventually. As an angler you better get used to bugs. And I could get into the intricacies of a BWO hatch, or get into the October caddis life cycle, or when to fish for flying ants…but all I want to tell you about is a story about a bug hatch.

As anglers we know what a hatch is after a little time fishing. We are all chasing a good hatch of something in hopes of witnessing what I believe is the epitome of fly fishing. A trout, on a dry fly, during a hatch, on a river. It can be one of the easiest or one of the most frustrating things in angling.  It is by far one of the best ways to catch any fish in my opinion. I’ve caught all sort in all sorts of ways.   A dry fly eat from a wild trout has still yet to be beat for me.

There is a bug I have always loved. And it hatches during a wonderful time of year. The golden stonefly. An evening hatching, early summer time stonefly. Large, almost 2 inches long usually, bright yellow or burnt gold, they usually usher in the summer solstice.

Trout eat them as the evening sets in and the light changes.  Willing to expose themselves for easy opportunity at easy food. 

I was on a river in Idaho during this time a few seasons back.  My partner and I were there for several days. We were floating a 13 mile stretch of river into the 10:30 pm. time frame. I think we took out just after 11 with a few other anglers worried we were gonna miss the ramp. 

We had had a great day. Lots of fish. And we were just kind of vibing and floating. Not really fishing. It was just after 7pm. And we rolled up on a few other anglers in pontoons that were clearly waiting for something.

As we floated past them and back to a section we had to ourselves, the most amazing hatch happened. As the light fell behind the fir trees all the stoneflies that were residing in the branches descended from the tree limbs upon the river.  Not just a few, not a hundred, thousands.  Thousands of golden stoneflies hovered over the river and fell with soft plops and plurps. 

Like golden fairies lit up from the alpine glows light of the mountain sunset.  An occurrence that will not be missed. These bugs flittered and fluttered to the river surface.  The water sliding them down it’s current. The next generation being put to the river while the birds and fish fed, a complete cycle of life happening in real time.  It is a sight anglers. A true sight like the northern lights or fireflies for the first time.

We were so busy watching this amazing occurrence above our heads we didn’t notice the trout had also noticed and were smashing the ovipositing naturals.

We continued to just watch for a while. In 20 years, I can count on my hands how many times I’ve seen something like what we were in the midst of that evening. It may not have happened again like that for the rest of the hatch or even for several seasons.  Of course we fished before it was over.  But trust me just to be in the middle of it and just observe fish being fish.  The river being a river, doing this natural phenomenon regardless of if it is witnessed.

It was rare, special, and something as anglers we kind of just wind up in the moment of. We chase it, and I dare say not for the fishing but to be one of the few individuals in a large world, that get to be a part of it…no matter our insignificance in its presence. The rivers will do without us, we have no bearing on how a river flows.

Truly, we learn we can dam them for a time but they can always break free if they move that way.  They bring life and take it, we just step in and out, never remembered or forgotten, just welcomed and farwelled.  Just to see it anglers. In a world that is in short clips, audio bytes, regurgitated garbage with a smidge of worthwhile content that may show us our humanity or our culture, the natural world holds secrets and awesome chaos, beautiful creations and moments that slip by unnoticed but worthwhile and meaningful. Even if they only impact the individual for that moment. These encounters are of substance, they matter, they are a hard line connection into space, our space, internally and externally.

Chase these moments anglers. I fear that these encounters get lost in the noise. Be still, quiet, and just be in the space. Put the phone away for the next few fish.  Spend time with the natural a few seconds longer, with no motive but to be in the space and in that moment.  For yourself, selfishly for yourself, take it for yourself, snatch it, hold it, feel it.  Remember the smells, the light, the feeling in your body, what your thoughts bring forward.  Fall into it, get lost in those waters. 

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack