tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

Returning to Fishing

I have been an angler for 20 years now. Started at 18 and haven’t stopped. Fishing has been a determining factor of who I am for my adult life. I turned my passion for fishing, teaching, exploring, wildlife, the outdoors, and guiding into a business. It has been a good business that has given me opportunities my 18 year old self would have never dreamed of having. The past 20 years I have spent a good number of those days fishing. It grew exponentially as I hit my mid 20s. Then it plateaued. I became a guide.

Guiding meant I fished less for myself and helped others fish. I spent the past 10 years doing that. I still would fish. But it was much less than before I was a guide. The busier I got, the less time I fished on my own. I loved it. But burnout is a real thing and I have wanted to fish more and more for myself in the past few seasons. I started taking more trips for myself the past few summers. Hitting rivers I fished when I was younger, and finding new favorite ones. I shared rivers with friends, fellow guides, former clients, and anglers. I met my partner riverside and have travelled and fished all over the country the past few seasons. I moved to Michigan on a new adventure and to seek out new water and opportunities. I will be taking most of the summer off to just fish for myself.

Of course there is an underlying reason for the time off and fishing for myself. In my experience, the best way to learn a new area is to fish it. My lifestyle affords me the ability to be a trout bum and do just that. I get to enjoy fishing for a while. Find what inspires me, what fish species drive me to chase them, where will I find encounters with fish and nature, what areas will make me want to keep them to myself, and which ones will make me want to share? These are things I spent my 20’s answering, exploring all over the western trout fisheries. From Alaska to Colorado, and everything in between that struck my fancy and that I could get to. I found amazing fish, met wonderful people, and got to experience fishing in a way I didn’t know was possible.

Before social media mind you, I am that old now. This was back when digital cameras were a brick and we are all about megapixels. A lot of these adventures were captured on actual film or not at all except in memory. I didn’t have a decent camera the first time I hooked a bulltrout in Canada, there is a tattered picture of a greenback trout from Colorado somewhere, and on a sim card in a storage unit in a box, somewhere in Idaho there is a picture of me holding my lifetime steelhead from the OP when I was 22, right around my birthday. I had adventures, I caught fish, I experienced wilds and rivers, and places all before it meant likes and follows or was part of my business. It was just for me, for the joy of it. It had no influence other than I loved to fish.

I settled on the Yakima 10 years ago. I had opportunity to guide all over but I had a new family at the time and my personal off river life kept me close to where I grew up. I fell in love with the Yakima River. I know every inch of that river these days. I became a very good guide on that river and was fortunate to share that river with hundreds of clients over the years. I have built lasting relationships as a guide with people out west and will always return to chase the trout in the big waters out there.

The East is a different beast. And many have left comments or asked why I came East. As a home grown PNW angler who has fished just about all the good stuff over the past 20 years. I am good. I have experienced it all for what I wanted to fish and see. These days its a little more crowded then before 2010 but I have fished and caught enough trout out west for now. That will surely change with time but for now…I am good. The East has a lot more to offer. A bigger piece of the fishing world. I hit Florida this past winter for a month. It is one of the largest sport fishing destinations in the world. It is massive in terms of fishing. Michigan the the Midwest area are equally as large but more spread out and makes the western side of the countries sport fishing world look very small. Commercial fishing is the big dog out west, as someone who has worked in Alaska and been a sport guide for a while, commercial fishing for consumption is the big player out west. Here in the east its more just the sport fishing. Yes there is harvest, but its mostly for sport with a side of harvest.

I had some confusion with one of my last posts that I compared Michigan to Alaska. Now the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is like Southeast Alaska. Just without mountains. But what really hits me is the local fishing culture. That is what reminds of me of Alaska. Fishing is just older and more engrained in the everyday lives of people in Michigan, much like Alaska. That is the comparison. Here near Detroit everyone owns a boat, most people have fishing gear, and everyone has fished or does fish. Fly fishing is a little less common but the further north your go the more you find it. The west makes fishing out to be a really big deal, and dresses it up in really polished fancy cloths in comparison, takes itself really seriously. And I am from the west and am part of that. The east just doesn’t care as much. Fishing is just something everyone does. Less of a big deal, and with it readily available to everyone just about anywhere even these urban areas, the fishing culture is just very different. I enjoy it because as I just want to enjoy fishing with no pressure…that seems to be the main operating speed out here.

I have been back almost 2 weeks. I have fished more days than not. I have only had one kind of crappy experience, more due to a crummy fly shop encounter than anything else. Some places ain’t all they are made out to be on social media anglers just saying. But besides that, this fishing has been rather good. I can’t complain. A rained out Au Sable River last week sucked but I was able to learn about how finicky that river is and how I don’t want to fish finicky rivers right now….I have had enough of those for a summer. I love bass fishing. It is simple compared to trout fishing a river. I love simple fishing. Bass eat, they like topwater they are easier to track and predict, and when I put effort into catching them…I really catch them. I don’t care about size…I am a trout angler not a bass tournament guy…I care about eats. I want eats. So bass fishing is great…because in 3 hrs of puttering around the lake I can stick 15 to 30 bass when I put effort in. I enjoy that kind of fishing. Move into a zone, hunt the fish out of it, work a grid, depths, angles, lengths, structure, lanes, weed beds, drop offs, ridges, bars, I get to use sonar tools and really pick apart areas. Make my brain work without the pressure of having to produce for anyone or anything. I am just getting to fish the way I like.

For me it is freedom. I have been tied to the Yakima River’s schedule and rhythm for 10 years. Dialed and locked in. My drift boat and I just chunking out miles and working that river. My entire work life has been attached and dictated by the Yakima River. I wasn’t lying when I said I needed a break. Once I got out of Montana on the drive east…I finally felt things stop pulling on me. I love that river anglers…but I need a break.

The Freedom I feel out here is also because I have the 2 things that I need to really make that possible. My trusty guide rig, and my new boat. My new Hog Island Skiff is finally growing on me. I have had mixed feelings about it since Florida. But being here in Michigan I am glad I have it. It allows me to fish as I please, where I please. With my roof top, rig, and boat I can explore and discover as I see fit. Working out here is the goal and will happen sooner rather than later, but for now I am enjoying the ability to just fish for myself.

I enjoy the quiet of the stillwater and rivers out east. It has a different feel than the waters I have encountered out west. The eastern waters speak playfully, filled with life. The bird songs have a different cacophony than those I recall from my younger days. There is mystery in the east. A myriad of abundant species of fish make for a surprise each encounter. There is less pressure out here for me. I don’t feel the need to perform, no one knows me, I am just fly fishing. When I fish I get to be quiet, just enjoy, be a part of it. I missed this kind of fishing. The summer will be filled with days where I can fish as intense or as aloof as I want. A chance to recharge in a way I haven’t been able to in a long time. A chance to fish.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

A Michigan Summer

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer. Back on the homewater, the Yakima River, she is having her regular salmon pulse bringing the river up for the weekend. It will still fish just fine. But as always an inconsistent river. I will not say I miss it. To be honest I do not. I have fished and guided the Yakima heavy for 10 years. It has been my main fishery for 20 years. We both deserve, earned, and need a break.

Michigan is very different. It is humid here. Like Florida in November. I love it. Growing up in the Columbia Basin in Washington I am accustomed to dry heat. Which I loathe. Desert ain’t for me. But this place. Michigan, a deciduous, marsh, swamp, lake, river meandering maze of a state…is quite different and all to appealing. Even in the urban area outside of Detroit that I am currently staying it is a wonderful mix of nature and human development. There is water everywhere. From where I am sitting I am within 20 different bodies of water…all of which have fish, all of which have public access for wading and boats. It’s like Alaska, only thing I can reference this place too. The amount of water, the culture surrounding fishing, boating, and water is thick. The further north you go the more rugged and wild this place gets. It reminds me of Alaska. Even the humidity to a degree. But its much warmer here.

I have trout, bass, pike, and gar fished since I have arrived from my long drive across the country. What a drive too. I did 2200 miles in 2 days. It was nuts. My trusty Toyota Guide Rig made it all the way without a hiccup. Since then we have bummed it up to the Au Sable river. Which is having a weird summer just like most places out west. Rains blew her out so to speak, put fish down, and the water temps here are already on the rise due to low snow and warm temps. Just like out west. Which is a reason I moved east. Here, when it gets warm, there are considerably more options for an angler and a guide.

There are more warm water species here and in abundance than anywhere out west. I have a lake 10 minutes from the house I fished the past 3 days that has at least 6 different species in it. Largemouth, Smallmouth, Bream Species like Bluegill and Sunfish, Pike, and Gar, and probably a muskie or 2. Caught fish each day, some big, with effort could have really good days. That’s just one lake. I hit another a few days ago that was mostly a boating lake but also was full of bass and fished well for the amount of time and effort I put in. Better days than I’ve had out west chasin bass for sure. I haven’t even scratched the surface. Michigan is home to one the most famous small mouth lakes in the world. Lake St. Claire. We share it with Canada. Its an hour from where I am, and is touted as the best smallmouth fishery around. Again just one lake. Michigan is home to some of the best stillwater fishing for multiple species. Between Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, you have one of the largest and most diverse sport fishing regions in the country. Fishing is a very different animal out here compared to anywhere in the PNW and even Montana. Again Alaska is the only place that compares when it comes to fishing culture.

I moved here so that I could have more options and I have lived in the PNW my entire life. A big change was also something I was after. This is a big change. The driving and the urban areas alone here are above and beyond anything out west for my county bumpkin ass coming from a town of less than 2000 people. The fishing is overwhelming. Again what I was after. I have more options than I could get through in a lifetime here. So many places to fish. Not only that, Michigan is central to so many other places to fish. Its easier to travel to places like Wisconsin’s Driftless area, the whitewater of Pennsylvania, Canadian wilderness, I can get to Florida in 2 days skiff in tow and everything in between. It’s mind boggling.

In Washington, in 6 to 8 hrs I could be to some of the best trout fishing in the west. In 6 hrs I have access to literally hundreds of bodies of water. Blue Ribbon Trout streams, famous hatches, small and large mouth bass fishing up the ass, some of the worlds best muskie and pike fishing, carp, crappie, bream, catfish, walleye, there is so much here. This summer is a time to explore.

I find myself really digging the spaces I find myself in. I love to fish, and guiding the same body of water for a decade has taken its toll on my passion for fishing personally. I love guiding, but I started out with a pure love and passion for fishing. And here in Michigan, away from everything familiar, I am finally able to be free in that space again. It has been needed. Guiding is my career, and I am always chasing guide days on the calendar. Already my Fall Season for Trout on the Yakima is almost full. But I need to fish for me. That need to go fishing that my clients hire me for. That feeling has been lost on me over the years. I have been work focused. Which is still enjoyable but not the same as just getting to go fish. And even out west, when I would take time off to go fish, there was always pressure to produce. The west does that. It skews the fishing world and holds angles to this somewhat unattainable standard. Big fish, big casts, big takes, big likes, big profile views, all the right gear, look the part, polished, and porny. That’s just not fishing. And I am the first to admit that I feed into that with what I do for a living. I try and tame it with the live streams and the blogs, but the machine of social media and what commercializing this activity does will always be a facet of this business.

Here in Michigan I get to take a step back from that a little bit. Kind of figure out which way things are going to flow as we transition into something different.

Guiding here is not far off. But I will enjoy taking some time of from guiding. I have put a lot of time into guiding and there are other things in fishing that I am good at. A lot of that has taken a back seat to guiding over the years so I am looking forward to tying, producing content that isn’t in line with what our industry wants, give anglers something real. Me exploring the east through trial and error is pretty real. Out here, I am going back to basics. Tying my own leaders and flies, using less expensive gear, because it doesn’t really matter. Fly fishing along with everything else in the world is getting expensive and I refuse to let something like money keep me from enjoying fly fishing. When I entered this gig it was like that. It catered to the rich and wealthy. Fuck that, fish don’t care, and I see the trend of pricing out the regular fly angler happening again in fly fishing. It has never had to be that way. That’s something I want to show out here. Because I am a broke ass trout bum guide. I live this life for real. And you don’t need all that fancy shit to get it done.

I haven’t even started to scratch the surface of fishing out here. I am looking forward to it. And I will be guiding out here before too long. I already have been to places here that I want to share in a professional capacity. I want to test my guiding and fishing skillset with clients. I want to meet new clients and people, learn the things that connect them to the water and fly fishing, or maybe introduce them to it in their own backyard. It is why I guide. Not for clout, or money, or to be famous on social media. But to share spaces with others and let them experience nature, water, and fish in a unique way with a fly and rod in their hand. There isn’t anything that is quite like it.

Michigan is a good place for me to do that. I have accomplished that on the Yakima, it takes care of itself and I will continue to work the west. But I get to explore the east and share that experience with all my followers, clients and new people. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I am looking forward to exploring and discovering through fly fishing here in Michigan. The summer is just getting started. Lets go.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing

The last little bit.

The Off Season is ending. It has been a mellow one. I have been hibernating here in Michigan patiently waiting for the Guide Season to come. March is only a few weeks away. Plane ticket is bought, guide trip schedule is almost full. The next few weeks are for preparing mentally and physically for the work. I get to tie flies for guiding, finish up the last few things like insurance, tippet and leader orders, and prepping clients for the new additions to the guiding program this year. 

The winter or off season is always a bit stressful for those of us that live the guide life. We hope we have enough money to make it to the next season. We pay what bills we can, we hope we don’t hurt ourselves in the first few weeks of the season. The realities of guide season come with their own set of stress inducing things. Over the past decade I have grown very accustomed to this ebb and flow of patience finances, and mental stability. This life is not easy, especially when you live it real, no sponsors, no Instagram fame paying out dollars, at the end of the day its a service gig, with manual labor attached. And I love it. I work outside, use my body, get to share my work with others who appreciate the time and expertise I have garnered over my tenure as a guide. This gig isn’t for everyone. But it is definitely for me. 

This year is a big one in a lot of ways. I am adding new waters and states to my summer guide program. I am slowly working on a winter time fishery. I am changing my guiding program up. I am adding soft goods like hats and stickers. I am adding a motorized boat to the guide program and new fish species to chase. I am also squaring up my business. By the summer my business should be debt free. That has been the small business struggle and the bane of my existence since covid. I can see that light at the end of the tunnel and that is pretty awesome. It is necessary as I venture into new and bigger business things here in Michigan with my partner.

I have owned a few businesses in my adult life. They are always a bit of a struggle and need a lot of love and passion to survive. With the current state of things in the world, running a small business is a real bitch. In all honesty we get screwed over. So finally being able to see true light at the end of the tunnel and be able to move into a new and bigger phase of business is exciting despite everything going on. I have worked very hard and I am finally close to the business side of things working they way they are supposed to. 

That is due to all of my clients. I cannot thank you enough. This season had booked up so fast, you anglers keep me going. You inspire my passion and make me fall in love with fly fishing all over again every time I get to experience it with you. I am forever grateful anglers.

The next few weeks are always the hardest. Not being able to just head out and fish the weeks leading up to the guiding is a new thing for me. Not worried, just bummed I am not taking the boat out every other day as I get into March. I have a week before I start work when I arrive at the end of February and that should be enough time to knock the dust off and work out the kinks. 

There are only 13 days left open for the Spring. And one Clinic with 6 spots open on March 30th. That is it. I still have fall dates open but I am focused on the spring as we get close to it. Clients that are already on the calendar will be hearing from me a week to 3 days before your trip for our pre trip program that helps you prep for your guide trip. We also have journals for each client that will be used for workshopping and developing advanced skillsets. I am really looking forward to it. As my clients and anglers have improved over the season so have I as a guide. 

Thank you to everyone, the follows, the likes, the blog reads, and the trips. I am so excited to get back to it anglers. Only a few more weeks!

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Yakima River

Halfway….just about.

We are roughly 8 weeks or so into the off season.  Or the midpoint. In 8 weeks I will start to get a lot more fishy.  The boat comes back out regularly. I am riverside 4 plus days a week, plugging back in, and getting prepped for the guide season. 

This off season has been shit.  However, I will say lockdowns and quarantine have made cabin fever easy to bare. Broke as hell but honestly that’s not new being a troutbum and all. My previous blog post made it out like I was at this shit alone and I am not. I’ve have someone through it all, its private not a secret. But I have been good off river life wise, all things considered. Not seeing my kids has been the shittiest part.

I got a lot of comments and messages after that cranky blog. It was more venting the frustration and exhaustion. And instead of unload it on others who have their own trials and struggles right now….just throw it up and let the internet eat it. The biggest frustrations are work related. And there ain’t shit to be done until the new season at this point. Just stuck until the thaw.

Its the halfway point and usually I would feel this cabin fever riddled drive to be out. But 2020 sucked most of that out. I sleep. A lot. 10 to 12 hours some days. Hibernating like most other off seasons. But its quieter during the pandemic. And the exhaustion has taken its toll. And you can sleep through things that otherwise cause stress that cannot be fixed until the world gets right. So much outta my hands at this point. Sleep now work later. Or something like that.

While overlords argue about 600 bucks and cake, I just wanna make sure that I keep the internet on so I don’t have to sit with only books and flies until March. At this point the only thing that seems to fix shit is ourselves. So I get to wait until I can fix it the only way I know how…with trout and a boat. Thankfully we are in this together and there is help there. Its not all bad…its just sucks in general.

The midpoint of the offseason is usually a harder hurdle. Just not this season. I am in a hell of a hurry to get back to it in 2021. With a recovery plan in place for my business from the first trip to the last of next season. I don’t have a lot of faith in a national or even state economic recovery plan as this will be my third economic event in my life. Many of us are gonna have to get creative with making up the deficit of 2020. If trying to get relief during this shitshow is any indication….ya…its gonna be by our own bootstraps and on a community and local level. So getting the mind around what that might look like is essential moving forward.

The trout and the rowing take care of themselves at this point in my guiding. The nuts and bolts of the operation…troot and people….that shit is locked and I’ve worked very hard to get there. This pandemic changes how the business side looks. And with the surge in social media and its necessity for success in the 21st century business model driving a lot of what makes or breaks you…2021 is going to be a busy year to say the least.

So ya, I’ll sleep through a lot of the offseason. Because I can. Normally my body needs it but I think my mind needs it more this year. I’ll share time with the few people I can. I will prep for the offseason, and hold out like the rest of us. Still living day to day and week to week, still worried, but ready to move forward.

So ya, chill out. We all allowed to get mad bruh. Vent, sleep, try and see the good shit…watch Mandolarian…holy fuck! I mean we are all friggin’ stuck and its not like the headlines are making us feel any less stuck. So ya. Get ready for 2021…see if we can do a little better….(shy unenthusiastic yay, from the crowd). Fingers crossed. Let the countdown to trout begin.

Tamarack

tamaracksguideservice Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Yakima River

A Testament to A Good Angling Partner

 

A good fishing partner is something that can be monumental in an anglers life.  When I first started chasin trout I was selfish in my endeavors.  In my early years of angling I spent all my time solo.  Discovering and exploring every blue line and running water way I could find from valley to mountain peak.  I searched out the sources of my beloved rivers, hiked miles and miles, bushwhacked and cut trail to forgotten and unnamed streams and creeks.  Nothing but a box of flies, a cheap fly rod, and an insatiable hunger for all things trout and wild.

It wasn’t until I had fished myself silly and I got a little older that my solo time on rivers and with trout became a lonely adventure.  I had kids at home that were too young to chase trout with me, being very young with kids left little room for friends, especially when I spent all my free time fishing.  I recall even back then when I was in college and working the 9-5 to pay for shit that the few people I did know through angling were always too busy to keep up with my appetite for rivers and trout.  A good angling partner is not easy to find.  There is always someone ready to go fish…but just taking someone for a float or hiking into secret waters isn’t what I was looking for.  Yes I wanted another angler, with fresh eyes, different instincts, someone who matched or exceeded my own technical and physical skills to chase trout.  But damnit…I needed a friend and a person that had passion and respect for rivers that was in line with mine.

I’ve mentored anglers, fished with people and friends, but interests change, life takes people away from the river.  I’ve shown my secrets to some…only to have it bite me in the ass later.  Nothing worse than showing an angler a treasured spot that is still secret or ‘locals only’ and to find them guiding in it or talking too much about it at the local shop and causing it to lose it’s luster.  I still keep a lot of places close to the chest.  Areas that I still only visit solo…some places I haven’t seen in years over fear that they will be discovered by others and parts of me are still not ready to let them go.  Not many of those places are left for me…but a few.

My pursuit of a good angling partner came about as I began guiding more.  Meeting new people everyday, many of them lifelong angling partners, some married couples that have fished for decades, college friends that chased trout together in between classes, river side acquaintances that turned into life long trout aficionados.  I wanted that.  The chemistry angling partners have is a unique and interesting connection, as different and as varied as the people that frequent my driftboat.  It wasn’t until I had been fishing for almost 10 years that I found a fellow angler that shared in my interests, skill, and passion, for these wild aquatic animals and the places they frequent.

I shared a brief time with Casey, we fished almost everyday I wasn’t guiding.  Exploring the high reaches and rapids of the mountain rivers, floating the big water tricking trout, discovering more about each other both as anglers and people every time we ventured out.  Tying sessions at the house, dinners with the family, always talking trout and life.  That connection to the person formed over the catching and releasing of trout.  Learning about another person, where they come from, their perspective on life, where their passion is rooted, the desire to chase trout and why it is so fervent in them.  Those intricate things that tie a person to a river, and to the others that are woven into the riffles and runs are the part of angling that is lost when fly fishing is a job; and something that I was very grateful to have found with Casey.

I lost my angling partner to suicide.  A veteran, and man who suffered from intense PTSD, angling and sharing the river with me was his cure, his coping mechanism, the thing that allowed him to lose himself in the waters and disconnect him from the events in his life that brought sorrow and pain.  I miss him everyday.  I still have not visited a particular section of river in the mountains since his passing because of fear I will disrupt his memory.   Every now and then I hear his boisterous cackle of a laugh over the sound of our favorite riffle “Drake Alley” on the Upper Yakima and I catch myself looking behind me every time I float by.  Like the large wild trout that makes your heart sink when it frees itself from your fly and severs that connection, I still feel that phantom tug in my arm.  Haunting…but I feel privileged to have been introduced and spent however short amount of time with Casey riverside.  It changed me, had a profound effect on me and left me with questions, doubt, anger, sorrow, and a new sense of loneliness and longing that I had never felt before.

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I spent some time solo fishing again…wishing I was sharing these fish and places with another.  I threw myself into angling and tying throughout the off season.  The void left by losing Casey filled me with emotions and loss that I had never felt before.  A lot is shared riverside between two people.  Something that is hard to explain to those that haven’t shared a river with others.  He was my brother, uncle to my kids, someone I talked to everyday.  And not being able to share life on and off river with him was and is super shitty.  As the season after his passing approached I focused all my attention on honing my skills further as a guide and angler.  I worked constantly, spent every free minute I had wrapped up in trout and rivers.  My work doubled that season, and I was fortunate to meet a fellow angler through my work that sought me out as their angling partner.

As many who follow me on social media or have seen me on a guide’s day off recently riverside, Ross and I fish a lot together.  And while you never replace the people you lose, somehow the universe puts people in your life that just need to be there.  I must have done something good in my previous life, or have stacked up karma points, because I have been fortunate to have people in my life that share a passion for trout and rivers.  Sometimes the river presents an opportunity at another large wild trout.  Finding another angler, or having an angler find you, that rivals your passion and need to explore and seek out trout is the golden ticket.

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Being able to look at a run or riffle and pick it apart and have a counterpart do the same and arrive at completely different approaches both equally successful in their ability to trick wild trout is one thing.  But to be able to share in that often unspoken deep connection to nature, wild animals, and people is something else entirely.  Its that one thing that I think a lot of anglers who I take on trips are searching for but don’t know it.  Its something I see from time to time with life long angling partners when they reserve a day with me.  I have moved past the need to catch every fish, the want to catch the biggest fish, or the desire to be the best.  For me its about that connection to everything that is happening above and below the surface of the river.  To try and understand and decipher how its all connected and how I as an angler can be a part of it.  Ross shares that passion.  And while many of the things that pop up on social media are the weird, funny, and sometimes stupid moments that can fill a day on the river.  The days that you don’t see, the days I write about, the days that are discussed over dinner, the ones that are never even talked about…those are the ones that matter, that make up a life on the river.  For every dancing video, hoot and hollering trout encounter, every photo posted to keep butts in driftboat seats so I can pay the bills; there is a silent morning watching the river over coffee, enjoying the peace of the wild and the pleasure of another anglers company.

While its referred to as a bromance, and Ross is my Biden.  Its more than that.  A brother, a friend, a person that shares in my passion for trout and life.  A good angler requires a constant honing and fine tuning of the skills.  Being able to share in the chasing of trout with another equally but differently skilled angler is a key component of that in my mind, a fortunate byproduct of a good angling partner…because it’s not really about the trout at the end of the day is it?  Outside of angling people make connections with each other that last their lifetimes.  The connections that are made with people through shared passions are the ones that stick.  The ones that change your life, enrich it, fill it with the things that make us human.  All those intricate things that make up what it means to human.  Watching Ross and his lovely wife married in the woods, Thanksgiving dinner, my children excited to see them when they come to fish or hang out, the things that happen off river that make up the juicy parts of life and friendship.  They mimic the juicy parts of a day of fishing.  As I find myself getting older, watching my children grow, and spending more time riverside than I ever have, I chase the off river life as much as I chase the riverside one.

A testament to a good angling partner indeed.  When your entire life revolves around trout its nice to have another person knee deep in the run with you from time to time.  Not because they paid to be there, not because they want to know all your secrets, not even to learn from each other, but because damnit…fishing with them is bitchin’.  When the hatch is over, the river is quiet, and the boat is parked back in the driveway, and you still can’t pull yourself away from the conversation or the people you’re surrounded by…you know you found a good angling partner.

I hope to see ya riverside.

Tamarack.