At the age of 8, I was mesmerized when I first saw someone fly casting with a bamboo rod behind my house in Pennsylvania. Like many of my interests, I quickly became obsessed with mastering the art of fly fishing. Soon after, my parents took me on a family vacation to Montana for a guided fishing trip, where I met a guide named Jeff Jennings. He asked if we dry fly fished and instructed me to meet him at 4:30 a.m. the next morning. As dawn broke, fish were rising all around us while he rowed vigorously downstream. I was puzzled and asked if I should start casting. "Just wait," he replied. We pulled over to the bank and looked upstream, where we spotted hundreds of rainbows and browns feasting on trico spinners. Coming from Northwest Pennsylvania, where wild trout are scarce, this was the pinnacle of trout fishing, especially for a 13-year-old.
From that moment on, I viewed Jeff Jennings as a legend and a hero, and I knew I wanted to become a fishing guide. After ten years of guiding the rivers around Missoula, I’m proud to announce my new outfitting license and the launch of Missoula Fly Water. I hope to make as much of an impact on someone in my boat as Jeff had on me.
