I’ve been fly fishing for a long time. Perfecting the cast even longer, tying flies longer than that: none of which amounts to much if you can’t put it all together. Enter my homie Brian Schmidt. He and David Tyler Hess coached me to finally gently lay down my first solid presentation and get my first trout. Since then much has past. We’ve fished many places and learned many things. Every time ‘dr. Lüp’ stated “you can’t do that.” Brian managed to do just that! He’s always been an innovative fisherman, beyond ability, more like a fortunate experimental gene. Brian now works for Umpqua the proclaimed “feather merchants”. Last night I found the negative of photo I thought lost for good: it’s the best tying photo i’ve ever captured.

We headed out into western PA looking for Yellow Creek and listening to Widespread Panic's new album, till the medicine takes. We found refuge in a state park the first night and geared up to fish the morning hatch. I caught our prep work late that evening, by lantern and headlamp light, on film... It just so happens he's the only one of us who pursued his passion as a career. Cheers Bri!