Getting Started

I live in central Vermont.  I spend as much of the spring, summer and fall as possible on the streams, mostly chasing trout.  Compared to a lot of my local fly fishing friends, I don't get out that much.  If I get out 30-40 days per year, that keeps me pretty happy.  It's late May and I think I've fished 6 or 7 days so far this season.

I've been at this a long time (30+ years), but I had periods of time where I would go years without fishing.  I fished a lot in high school, a little in college (caught my first trout on a fly that I'd tied on Penn's Creek in 1983 or so), a little right after college, and then I took a break.

In 1992 or so, I bought my first decent fly rod, a Fisher rod and Ross Gunnison reel.  That rod snapped a few weeks ago, but the reel is still in use.  In those days, I lived in Silicon Valley and most of my fishing was on backpacking trips to the Sierra Nevada or an occasional weekend on the Truckee River.  I was primarily a distance runner in those days, training for marathons and ultra marathons, and that and my job were very time consuming.  And then kids happened.

I did manage to add a Sage RPL+ along the way and that was my primary rod for years.  In late 1996, I moved to AK and my fishing picked up again.  I bought an 8 weight Sage and used that for salmon a lot.  The only king I ever took on a fly came purely by accident while fishing for grayling with my Sage 5 weight trout stick.  It took 2 hours to land that fish on 4x tippet (the fish was 30-35 pounds), and I immediately released him.

While in AK, my wife and I had our second child, and late in 1998, we were pretty sure we were going to return to the lower 48.  My last fishing day in AK was bittersweet, knowing that I was likely to move before spring.  I was fishing on the Russian, just above the Kenai, sight fishing egg patterns to huge rainbows.  I hooked the rainbow of a lifetime that day, probably 6-8 pounds and close to 30 inches, but he was able to snap me off.

The next spring, I was living in Vermont, and for quite a few years, I spent most of my weekend time running and hiking rather than fishing.  I've even traveled to some amazing locations to run ultra marathons, but I never took my fly rod along.

And then, a few years ago, I backed off on the running.  I dusted off my fly rods.  I started fishing again.  Then, my son showed some interest, so I got him set up and we started to fish together.  His interest seems to be waning these days, but my wife is now starting to fly fish.

I'm tying flies again after a long, long break.  I fish just about every chance that my busy life allows it.

I live in the center of Vermont, and I spend the majority of my time on the White River (all branches), the Dog River, the Winooski River, and the Mad River.  When I feel like driving a bit more, I often head to Addison County to fish the Otter, the New Haven, the Middlebury and the Neshobe.  When I visit my in-laws in the northeast kingdom, I fish the Barton, the Clyde and the Black, and occasionally the Lamoille.  I have a handful of new rivers that I'd like to explore this season, including the Waits and the Ottauquechee.  Someday I'll make it down south to the Battenkill.  Someday I'll make it to NY for salmon and steelhead.  Or, I'll get some steelies from a Lake Champlain or Lake Memphremagog tributary.

And, when I can, I still return to PA, where I often fish the Codorus (my high school stream), the Yellow Breeches, Spring Creek, Fishing Creek, Penn's Creek, the Little Juniata, the Loyalsock (both of them) and tributaries, and sometimes the Delaware.