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