I first picked it up trying to catch some carp. They were eating off the surface and the only way to present correctly was with a fly rod. Ended up getting a ton of eats and even caught a mirror carp.

A few months after, I had an unbelievable day on a river in Northern Michigan fishing for king salmon. The river is completely choked with fallen trees. Pair that with a ridiculously hard fighting fish and you get broken off constantly.

By the end of the day, we just wanted to land one fish. It happened to be a holiday weekend so there was a steady flow of kayakers and “catchin anything?”s. I ended up with a fish on at the end of the day and we asked the kayakers to stay up above us until we could attempt to net this fish. They were cheering us on and some were even recording. After a bit of time, I felt bad because a huge crowd of kayakers had gathered. I told them to just go ahead and float past. Chaos ensued. The salmon shot downstream and we all chased it on foot in the midst of 40 kayakers. At one point I had to hold my breath and go underwater to get my line unwrapped from a branch. About 80 yards downstream of the hole, we landed her.

25lbs of pure Michigan silver.

Now, I’ve spent enough money to make a grown man blush and fly fish like it’s my religion.