Good Takes- April Vokey

I first became aware of April Vokey two years ago.  I was researching my dream kayaking trip- paddling with the orcas on the British Columbia coast.  Since I have gotten more and more into steelhead fishing, I thought "Why not combine the two?".  We have lots of steelhead here in MI, but who wouldn't want to chase them in their native water? Aprils website was near the top of the Google results.


My first reaction was much the same as every red-blooded guy.  Who is THAT?  Because let's face it, April is quite beautiful.  I don't think I'm breaking any new ground by saying that; no one I know of has ever seen a picture of her and said "Wow, what a nice fish".  After my heart rate returned to normal I composed a friendly email including 15-20 questions about the fishing out there. Much to my surprise she got back to me, sent me her phone number and we talked BC steelhead for about an hour.  I've tried to stay in touch since then in case I'm able to make that trip happen- I'd like her to at least be aware of who I am.


I've made it no secret that I'm an admirer.  My interest in April isn't simply that she's beautiful- there's plenty of beautiful people in this world to admire, nor is it the woman-in-waders fetishism that seems to be so rampant among fly fishermen.  I have been fascinated by steelhead since childhood, and April fishes for big wild steelhead in their native waters. She pursues them via a method that likewise fascinates me- swinging flies with spey gear.  Add in that British Columbia scenery that has always fired my imagination, and you bet I want to fish with April Vokey.


April hasn't been without her detractors ( "She's not that hot", "The only reason she get's clients is because she's hot", "She really can't cast") but hating April for being beautiful is like hating LeBron for being tall.  No one would suggest he should quit basketball because he has an advantage.  Both are using the gifts they were born with.  You really don't want to see me on those magazine covers.  Give some credit where it's due- if Kelly Galloup looked like April Vokey, we would all still be fishing Zoo Cougars.  I think in her early days there was a tendency to dismiss her as "wanting attention" or worse- a cupcake in waders.  Let's face it- if Ape didn't know her crap, she would have washed out long ago.  All of us guys like getting our picture taken with a pretty girl, but when you've spent that much money to fish for BC steelhead your guide had better get you into fish no matter who it is.  There's plenty of better ways to make a living.  We talk about living the dream, but guiding is a hard life- you trade normalcy for that dream.  If April didn't love the fish, the fishing, and the life she wouldn't be doing it still.  April has withstood all of that, continues to grow her business, and her reach in the world of fly fishing seems to grow exponentially each year.  She writes for or sits on the editorial staff of more publications than I can mention here, and she has worked with and continues to be involved with many charities and conservation issues, all while operating her outfitting and guiding business Fly Gal Ventures (http://flygal.ca/).

who do you want to see on your magazine covers?  The choice is obvious....






I spent quite a bit of time with and around April at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo.  She very generously spent most of an evening answering my questions, and at times I wondered who was interviewing who.  April is not just nice, she's hilariously funny (just try to photograph her- she's a real cut-up) and the life of the party, and not in a party girl kind of way either. I got to witness some of the behind the scenes sophomorish behavior of the guides and others at the hotel, and while I won't say April is one of the guys, she is definitely one of the guides.  She made me play poker.  While our conversation was long and rambling, I did make her answer my prepared questions.

FR:  April- you overhauled the Fly Gal website last year.  It seems you’ve taken a lot of focus off of yourself.  Was this the result of your business maturing, or a personal shift in focus?

AV:  It’s both actually.  It is a result of my business maturing, because I am maturing as a woman, and ultimately I was/am my business.  I only put the focus on myself initially to market myself so I could have a business.  Now it’s been done, and now I can step it on back.  That was my mission from the get-go.  Not because I need people to look at me on the internet and say “Oh, what a pretty smile”, I don’t need that.  I need people to go “I know that face, I trust that she catches fish, maybe we should book with her.”  Granted, okay, maybe I was a little bit off-color when I first did this and I was 22 and didn’t need to have blond hair and fake nails, but that’s who I was.  I was the best woman I could be back then, so I have no regrets.

FR:  You were kind of young back then.

AV: 23 is young.  Those photos are like 19 and 20.. You were expecting to meet me and I was going to look really young and…..

FR:  Today?

AV:  Yeah.

FR: No.  There was a couple (of pictures) I thought (laughing) “Okay, she shouldn’t be on there.

AV:  Yeah- out of control.  A lot of people see those photos and think that’s me today.  I’ve read people on the internet who are like “What can she know, 21 years old, there’s no way..” and I’m thinking “Dude, I’m 29”…There’s a big difference between 21 and 29.

AV:  Excuse me.  Uh, yeah, that is what you think it is.

FR:  What is that- cookies?

AV:   YEAH

FR:  Dang, I’m having cookies with April Vokey.

AV: It’s awesome.  Now I’m going to get into that salsa.

FR:  That salsa is going to melt your face.  Okay? Just so you know.

(authors note: I brought gifts for all my interviewees from American Spoon Foods, a local gourmet food manufacturer specializing in local and Michigan products.  April chose the Peach Cherry Salsa.)

FR:  It seems you have gone very quickly from being a hard driven up-and-comer to being an icon in the world of fly fishing.  Was that your goal, or was that a by-product of survival?

AV:  Has that happened?

FR:  You’re an icon, yes.

AV:   No, not yet. 

FR: No, you are.

AV:  I...

FR: No- I’m on this end of the magazine.

AV:  I still feel like an up-and-comer.  I am still- in my head.  Today was a shock to me.  I didn’t expect anyone to know who I was.  Not to that degree.  You have to understand that I don’t watch TV with myself in it, I try very hard not to Google myself, though it’s very hard not to.  People do send me links and I do read them.  My friends know that I don’t like talking about it so we don’t talk about it.  So, I’m just a girl that fishes, and I’m so busy that I just don’t notice.  I don’t believe that I deserve to be an icon figure.  In fact I will tell you that I don’t deserve to be an icon figure, not yet. 

(At this point she tries the salsa, and yes, her face melts.)

AV:  that’s not right.  I’m going to dip everything I have in here.  I’m going to eat the entire jar.

AV:  Was that my plan, to be an icon?  I don’t even know what icon means.  What the hell is an icon? 

FR:  Well, in the fly fishing world…

AV: yeah, but what is an icon in fly fishing…

FR:  Well, I think Kelly Galloup, I think Joan Wulff, I think John Gierach, I think Yvon Chouinard.

AV:  No, my goal was never to be an icon for being the best caster.

FR:   No, no, nope, I did not ask about casting or fly tying…

AV:  I want to be an icon on a do-good level.  I wanted to be able to show people that if you have a voice- do you want to know what my goal was? Can I be honest with you?

FR:  Yeah, you can be totally honest with me.

AV:  I’m so sick and tired of people telling me constantly how great they are.

FR:  (laughing) That’s why I’ve fished alone all these years.

April giving a lesson to a young fan

AV:  I’m tired of it.  I wanted to be that person that just was real.  Because I am real.  I just wanted to always be the same and just be me.  I’m not perfect at anything, but I stand behind what I believe, and what I believe in is a lot of conservation issues.  And I always promised myself way back in the day that if I ever became quote “famous”, for anything, granted I thought it would be in music, not fishing, that I would do just that.  This (fishing) is my hobby.

FR:  Music?

AV:  Yeah, I was way more into music. I thought that I would use that voice for (garbled).  When I was really young I wanted to make a lot of money.  The fame I could do without, but I wanted a lot of money, because I wanted to buy up a whole bunch of land in Africa.  And I wanted to be the next Diane Fossey.  She was my idol. 

FR:  Diane Fossey?

AV:  Absolutely!  Diane Fossey was my idol, I mean I would have done anything to be a Diane Fossey.  That’s what I wanted to be my whole life you know, twelve years old, that’s what I wanted to be.  And then it just so happened that a series of events put me to where I’m at now.  I never wanted to be that girl that everyone recognized because of her photos.  In fact it hurts a bit when people say “Oh, you’re world famous for your photos on the internet.” But I did that to myself you know.

these girls traveled three hours to meet April

AV:  Was it a plan? No.  Did I want to make a living doing what I love?  Yes.  And did I need people to know who I was?   Yes.

FR:  You’ve traveled all over the world from your home in BC to Iceland, the Seychelle’s, the Bahama’s, Belize, and all over the US- what destinations do you still dream of?

AV:  BC.  I need mountains to live.  If I don’t have mountains I’m not myself.  If I don’t have rapids and grizzly bears, that kind of grosses me out. 

FR:  What grosses you out?

AV:  It doesn’t really gross me out, but when I don’t have mountains and grizzly bears…. I need BC, it keeps me alive.  It’s the epitome of life.  Look around you.  Human beings are not made to be sitting in buildings from 9 to 5, with fluorescent lighting. 

FR:  That’s why I go fishing every night after work.

AV:  Yeah.  We're made to survive.  This is why I’m so fortunate.  Everybody is trying to be happy in life.  Think about it. What makes you happy?  I know what makes me happy.  Excitement.  There are a lot of things that makes me happy, but one of them is excitement.  And what excites me?  Survival.  I looove surviving.  I love surviving!  And I have to kind of play make-believe really when it comes down to it because, unfortunately every time I turn around there’s a car going by, and another building I have to look at.  So the only way for me to be able to live my life the way that human beings were supposed to be living, is to take myself to the river and get lost in it, do what I’m supposed to be doing.  This isn’t natural.

FR:  Do you have any fish still on your wish list?

AV:  A permit.  Oh my god, they’re making me go crazy!  Or go broke.

FR:  (laughing loudly) You haven’t gotten a permit yet?  I thought you had.

AV:  Two eats.  I’ve gone everywhere for them, I’ve – oh my God, I cannot get one to hook up.  Permit.  Permit is on the list.  Until I get a permit I’m not even going to (garbled)  I won’t even entertain another fish.   It wasn’t that recently that I had a trip that messed me up- the Seychelle’s.  I did it for the permit. For me, that was it. 

FR:  There’s permit in the Seychelle’s?

AV:  Oh my god, I must have had a hundred shots.

FR:  I did not know that.  I knew that there was bonefish and other things

AV:  I could not get one to hook up.

FR:  It’s like that one fish that eludes you huh?

AV:  I’ve fished for permit before, but always with a guide.  I love guides; I am a guide.  But, I need to have my own space.  That’s why I fish, is to be alone.  So I'm in the Seychelle's annd I’m with my buddy James and I’m fishing with (him) and he’s big- 6’4”.  We’re on the coral, and he’s too loud.  I’m 5’5” with little size seven feet, so it was like alright, just do it, you’re on your own.  There were these three huuge permit, and Seychelle’s permit are huge, over twenty pounds.  When we see these big, huge fork tails and he leaves me and I go away for the next half hour and it’s just me and these three huge fork-tails and- this is going to sound really sappy, but just bear with me here.  The sun was coming down and it was literally like gold was just lighting up, it was like arrows of gold pointing…

FR:  “HERE IS YOUR FISH..”

AV:  They’re the love of my life.  They were circling me, feeding around me, and it was truly like waltzing.  I say that because I was so concentrated on the positioning of my feet, because of the coral, I felt like I was dancing with them, and literally playing an instrument, because every time I would dance and waltz with my feet, I would play my instrument with my hands, casting to them.  It was truly like playing the violin and dancing with these fish.  It messed me up for half an hour waltzing with them.

FR:  It would.

AV:  And I, I fell in love, I totally completely fell in love with these things.  And that was it.  James was… at one point we were casting at these fish, and there was a 90 lb. GT(Grand Trevally).  It was seriously close to a world record GT that came right in front of us.  He almost fell over.  I couldn’t even, I didn’t care.  I didn’t care.  I didn’t even take my eyes off of the forktails.  And that’s how he knew we needed to go for permit.  We spent all week fishing for permit. 

FR:  I read a recent quote by Yvon Chouinard in which he referred to the dying fly fishing industry.  Is the industry dying or is the sport dying?

AV:  That’s a really good question.  Good question.  I don’t know. 

FR:  I mean, he has a company, and so he has stats that he can track. I mean, he’s looking at his wader sales and saying “Why am I still doing this?”.  I mean, to say that out loud- right?

AV:  Yep.

FR:  So is he talking about his own business, or is he talking about the sport?

AV:  It’s hard because I don’t know what it was like once.  I think that it’s just changing.  What does that mean?  Break that down.  You mean less sales?  Less people fishing?

FR:  I don’t know, I’m just… it’s his quote. 

AV:  I hear that from a lot of people.  I’d have to know what it was like back then.  I only know what it’s like now.  I think that it has definitely changed.  A lot of people are trying so hard to break the mold, that statistically it has to look different on paper, so naturally it’s going to look different. 

FR:  Are we relying on a business metric instead of what’s actually happening out there?

AV:  I think so actually. 

FR:  We’re going by wader sales rather than what’s going on out there?

AV:  I do believe that, yeah.  I believe that we’re not taking into consideration that now it’s grunge and cool to patch your waders and have glue all over you.  It’s different now, it’s not as....

FR:  “I’m a working class fly fisherman”

AV: Yes!  Exactly, it’s become affordable, and it is working class, which is what it always should have been. 

FR:  That’s actually kind of the point of my site.

April ties it up at the Expo

AV:  Good.  But that’s a good thing.  Maybe it’s not so bad.   I think that, to sum up your question properly, I will tell you that the outdoor industry as a whole is going to be running into problems, because of the internet, because of TV shows, and because of people not wanting to leave the house.   I take it seriously when I run into people, even in my own age group and I say “what’s your hobby?”  They don’t have one.  “Well, how can you not have a hobby?”  I don’t understand.  When I was a little girl we all played outside.  I don’t see kids playing outside like they used to.  The world is changing,  I think that we’re giving the fly fishing world too much credit and not looking at the rest of the world. Everything has changed...

FR:  You make a good point there.  So are women the future of fly fishing?

AV:  No.  Are they…

FR:  Is that a false hope by the industry?  That they’ll find that demographic that’s gonna ….

AV:  It’s not women.  It is and it isn’t.  They’re not the future.  Are they in the future? Yes.  To imply that they were the future, means that men are not going to be in the future.  Are they going to be equal in this sport, so that it’s almost matched one to one?  I’m going to predict that yes, in the next twenty years this is going to be, for every man that you see, or for every two men that you see fishing, there is going to be one woman.  I’m going to say that with confidence actually. 

FR:  Yeah.  Do you acknowledge the fact that I have not asked you one question about your sex appeal?

AV:  I’m thankful for it- thank you.

FR:  So what’s next- are you in a happy place, or do you still have more of this world to conquer?

AV:  I’m in a very happy place.  If I died tomorrow I’d be happy.  Do I have more of this world to see and experience?  Hell yeah.  I’m going down fighting. 

FR:  The Pacific Northwest including your beloved BC is faced with a barrage of challenges from farmed salmon, energy development in in your beloved headwaters, the Pebble mine, and a proposed oil pipeline from the tar sands to the coast- what keeps you awake at night?

AV:   Right now my big battle is the big Shell battle. 

FR:  And that’s the headwaters issue? 

AV:   Yes, the Sacred Headwaters.  The Enbridge issue- I don’t like to conquer too many issues at once. 

FR:   Is Enbridge the one that wants to build the pipeline across..

AV:   Yes.  After we get through with the sacred headwaters, that will be the top of my list.  I just simply can't challenge too many issues at one time. If I cannot be the best that I am, that I can be… I’d rather give it all I’ve got. 

FR:  Dilution of force..

AV:  Absolutely.  So we’ll work on one, and after we get through that one we’ll find out soon, probably within this year, and then we’ll move on to Enbridge.

FR:  Do you kind of wish that they would have built the pipeline through Nebraska so you wouldn’t face this issue?

AV:  I guess that’s technically not my backyard.  But it’s painful to watch either way.

FR:  Enbridge is the same people that, you know, their pipeline broke on the Kalamazoo river last year and spilled a ton of oil.

AV:  I don’t know a whole lot of what happens there..

FR:  Yeah, it’s too far away.

AV:  I know that by us with that Skeena issue (regulation change) now where Americans cannot fish on weekends, all of a sudden we’re starting to lose the support of the Americans with these issues and we need them right now.  And that’s hard for me to watch.  It’s painful to watch all of us slowly fall apart because of politics. It just makes me want to go fish more. 

FR:  Yeah, I’m the same way.  We’re in an election year, it’s painful.

 I want to thank April for spending some time and granting such a great interview.  I hope you enjoyed it.  You can keep up with April at her website which includes her blog at

http://flygal.ca/


Make sure you visit her Flies for Fins Website through which she raises funds for conservation efforts.  Shop for flies and gear, or make a donation and help April preserve our rivers. Check it out at
http://www.flies4fins.com/

Monday Morning Coffee- April2

aaaauuuuwwwwwuUUGGhh!!!  Yawn stretch, scratch, repeat.  It's Monday.  This  is starting to feel like groundhog week.  With a busy week coming up we'd better start it off right with some coffee.

Here, have some.  Is that better?  Good.

Well, I didn't fish at all during the week last week, but made up for it on the weekend.  I ended my steelhead snakebite by landing 4 out of 7 fish this weekend. All of the ones I got were smaller bucks, about 4-5 pounds; the ones I lost were all larger, in the 7-8 pound range.  I got a good look at all of them.  There's lots of shiny gravel, but not enough to convince me the run is over.  April should be a good month.  I ran into and fished with a couple of local guys including charter captain Don Mapes of Rodzilla Fishing Charters.  This explains how I got some better pictures of fish this week.  It's tough to handle these fish and shoot them by yourself.

captian Don Mapes with a good fish

In thinking about some of the trips I want to do I sat down and banged out a post last night so be sure and check it out.  With all the interviews I've been posting, it was nice to sit down and actually do some writing.  I have some really cool trips I'm planning, which I can't wait to share with you.  With Isle Royale being my next big trip, I may just stay in Michigan this year, but I have a long wish-list even here, and want to poke around a few places and fish some new rivers.  I would also like to poke around in the Algoma district of Ontario, seeing that it's basically in my backyard.


I finally finished transcribing my interview of April Vokey and nearly have that piece put together, so look for that to post Wednesday.  Don't forget to read my interview of Eric Stroup and enter to win his book "River Pimp".  All of these people have some good and important things to say about their piece of the fly fishing puzzle, and I hope you're enjoying these interviews as much as I am.

I don't know what else to say  except it will be a busy week.  I have a guide trip on Saturday on the Pere Marquette river, which  is supposed to be a streamer trip, but with the steelhead bouncing in and out of the rivers I will definitely have a shot at them as well.  I'm looking forward to a good float and fishing the PM again.  I plan on taking lots of photos and should get a couple of stories out of it.


Well, it's time to go to work.  Have a great week.  I'll leave you with a couple more shots from the weekend.

Let's get after it.

my first indie fish, caught yesterday

a nicely colored up buck

no, this is not an action shot

Dirtbag

I'm driving north in my little car in the chill and fog, eyeing the spreading crack in my windshield.  I've stuffed a ratty pair of wool gloves onto the defroster vents hoping to get them dry before I have to wear them again.  They smell of yesterdays fish, an aroma which fills my car.  I find comfort in this, it reminds me of my success.  I hope today is just as good.  I love this little car- it gets 32 mpg, and despite its age and hints of rust, it's a tight little machine.  I'm out to do a little dirtbag fishing- fast food breakfast, smelly wet gear and no real itinerary.

I've always thought of myself as a dirtbag fisherman.  I don't mean a hick or a low-life, but someone who loves the sport and always finds a way to get out there.  When I moved back north after having been gone for ten years, and after having been through an ugly separation and custody battle, I was pretty much broke and on the mend.  I managed to fish about  5 days a week that year, squeezing it in after work and on weekends.  Even while I still lived in the soulless hell of Detroit I managed some dirtbag fishing- catching pike off the jetty at Nine Mile road on Lake St. Clair, or catching perch on a Saturday morning at the Coast Guard Station with my daughter.  She was only 3 then, and very cute.  She helped me reel in some fish before curling up inside my oversized parka and napping in the warming April sun.  I was catching jumbos that day.  It is one of my favorite memories of her.

I took a dirtbag trip that summer, driving from Detroit to Baldwin to fish the Pere Marquette river.  I stopped at Dragonmead near Roseville and got a couple of growlers of beer and then headed it west, stopping at an Outback steakhouse near Lansing and getting into Baldwin at nearly 10 pm.  I looked around and finally found a launch, parked my truck and got into the passenger seat.  The beer in my growler was still cool and went down with a slickness.  I drifted off to sleep with my seat reclined as far as it would go.

I woke two hours later to the sound of thunder and the hot flash of lightning.  It had been so hot that I cracked a window, and now rain was pouring in on my face.  I rolled up the window, and the humidity was stifling.  The storms lasted for hours, but I finally got some uncomfortable sleep.

I woke in the gray light of dawn.  All was quiet, no one was at the launch, and I had the river to myself.  As I first waded into the river, a large dark, snaky figure swam up past me- it was a Skamania, a big summer run steelhead.  I would see quite a few this weekend, but I was spinner fishing for trout and didn't have a chance at them.

The rest of this trip- the driving through endless fields of asparagus (who knew Michigan was the asparagus capitol?), the girls at the bridge on the Little Manistee, my nap on the beach at Arcadia, and a second night spent in a road-side park are all dirtbag gold to me.  It was a rough trip, and still one of my favorites.

After I moved back up north I did a similar trip, this time in an old nasty Ford work van.  I removed all the tools and paint buckets, loaded it full of my camping gear and headed north.  I crossed the Mackinaw Bridge in this creaking behemoth, pointed it west down US 2 and made it as far as Black River State Forest campground.  As I turned off of 2 and made my way down the winding road I kept seeing this sparkle in the air like glitter.  "I really hope that's not..."  Yes it was- mosquitoes, and they nearly ate me alive.  I got my fire started, which put an end to the bugs- they were attracted to the heat and CO2 of the fire, and I could see them falling in faint curlicues as they were sucked into the flames and shot skyward.  I didn't get bit from that point on.

The next morning the bugs weren't as bad.  I fished the river for a short time, coming up with a couple of small brookies, before packing it up and heading north and west.  My goal was the Fox river, a goal I made in no short order.  When I got there, the mosquitoes were even fiercer.  I fished for a time, and even caught a couple of fish, but the clouds of bugs were downright menacing.  They were for some reason drawn to my neoprene waders, and I was killing them fifty at a swipe.  It was disgusting.  The bugs, and thunder in the distance made me get back in the van and head further west.  My goal was the Keewenaw.

I never made it.  I had researched the Sturgeon river and believed it held fish.  I drove for over three hours before reaching Sturgeon river campground.  It was beautiful.  The river is set in a deep gorge and you drive down in under a high bridge that crosses it.  I fished as soon as I got there, and even got one decent fish to follow, but it had been raining, and now it was starting to rain in earnest again.  The river got noticeably dirtier and began to rise.  I went back to camp, set up my cot in the van and napped through the rain.  I don't know what I had for dinner, I only know that it rained all night, and that the next morning the river was threatening my camp and was the color of chocolate milk.  I moved on to Emily Lake, where I caught jumbo bluegills, a trout or two and a couple of bass.  This trip was a dirtbag classic- lot's of unknowns, sleeping in my vehicle, bad food, bad weather, rivers blown out, and fish where I least expected them.

My dirtbagging hasn't been as dramatic since.  Sure, there was the San Juan river with Tim- lot's of burned meals and beer, broken off fish, snow and sleet, and the occasional fish landed.  I've spent weeks on the rivers at night, in hopes of the sound of the rivers surface erupting under the assault of a big brown.  I love to drive around in my work clothes, paint on my hands, the smell of work sweat hanging heavily around me, on my way to a river after work, but it's not the same.

My fortunes have risen and fallen with the economy.  I had some good years and made a lot of money.  My business tanked with the economy and I've been scraping by the last four years.  I don't care.  I live in Northern Michigan, the rest is window dressing.  I went fishing today and hooked up on four steelhead, landing two. I'm back to dirtbagging, and I love it.  My expensive Simms boots are falling apart, my car is a piece of crap, all but one of my rods are broken and repaired as cheaply as possible.  I'm going to do at least one trip this year where I sleep in my crappy little car.  It will be fantastic, my best trip ever.  I may stay at one of the upper Fox river campgrounds, or Pretty Lake, or who knows, cross the border and fish the Algoma district.  I just want to go, I don't care about food, or comfort, or the niceties of life.  I just want to be out there.

Dirtbagging.

We Have a Winner!

Mike Schmidt Photo

This is to announce that the Random Number Generator has spoken, and the winner in the drawing for the Mike Schmidt streamer giveaway is #29, John Helton.  I want to thank everyone who participated and read Mike's interview, and also to remind you that I have more to come.  Up next- April Vokey, so stay tuned.  If you haven't seen it, be sure and read my interview of Eric Stroup this week and enter to win a copy of his book "River Pimp".  By the way, I did announce on Facebook last week the winner of the TFM swag, but should announce it here as well, so congratulations to Dave Kuntzelman.

I'll be fishing all weekend- I'll try to get you some fish pictures.

Good Takes- Eric Stroup

Walt Young photo

I have a confession to make.  Before doing this interview, I didn't know who Eric Stroup was.  I had decided to conduct five interviews at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo this year (I did eight), and the first four people- Cameron Mortenson, April Vokey, Mike Schmidt, and Kelly Neuman- were either people I knew personally or at least had had some contact with and was aware of their work.  For the fifth interview I decided to pick someone at random, someone I knew nothing about.


In looking through the list of vendors I decided on Eric Stroup.  I recognized his name, but I didn't know why.  I sent him an email requesting this interview and then started my research.  This is when the anxiety set in.


You see, it turns out that Eric Stroup is a giant in the world of fly fishing.  He's worked almost his entire adult life as a commercial tyer, a fly shop owner, outfitter and guide.  He has fly tying videos out on various outlets, he has two books out with a third on its way, has been published in all of the relevant magazines, and he gave a ton of seminars and demonstrations at the Expo.  This was perhaps the most intimidating interview I have conducted- this guy knows his crap, and I had better not screw it up.


Eric is a tall guy with piercing blue eyes and a outdoorsman's beard that says everything from 1880's lumberjack to modern guide.  It's a little jarring for me to hear him talk- he sounds a lot like me.  Not his voice, but his word choice and phrasing, and in transcribing this interview and reading his book "River Pimp" I keep thinking "that's exactly what I would have said".  In the brief exchange that we had I came to understand Eric as a serious person, a professional, and someone to be reckoned with in the world of fly fishing.  Without further ado I give you Eric Stroup

Eric has given me a signed copy of his book "River Pimp" to give away to one of my readers.  Be sure and fill out the form at the bottom of this post to enter to win it.

FR:  What do you do?

ES:  I’m a fly fishing guide in Central Pennsylvania, and a writer, with a couple of books out- “Common Sense Fly Fishing” and "River Pimp".  I’m working on another book with Stackpole books called “Catching Trout in Tough Conditions”.

FR:  Do you have tough conditions where you live?

ES:  Yeah we do.  Our fishery is very technical.  It’s got hatch fishing basically twelve months out of the year, so you have to know what you’re imitating, it really helps.  Our streams are all limestone, so we have tremendous bug life.

FR:  So you’re located in Central Pennsylvania- what’s your sales pitch?  Here in Michigan we have a great fishery, but I still always hear people say “Yeah, this is pretty good, but it’s not Colorado”, so how do you get people to fish in Central Pennsylvania?

Eric demonstrates rod flex at the Expo

ES:  We’re like Montana, except we’ve got twelve months out of the year.  Our streams are all wild, our best streams are wild, they’re wild fisheries that are open year-round.  You don’t have to drive forty miles to get a gallon of milk.  It’s good technical tough fishing, wild trout, and open year-round.

FR: Fantastic.  You’ve been guiding for some time, have you had any memorable disasters on the river?

ES:  Well yeah, I had a guy have a seizure, and I had to do CPR on him, get the water out of his lungs…

FR:  Oh, he fell into the river?

ES:  He fell in.   I had two sports, I was with the other guy.  He fell in and never got up.  By the time I got down to him he was in a real heavy riffle.  He was under water and I had to drag him out, broke a couple of fingers dragging him out, got him to the bank, performed CPR on him.  Fortunately we were on one of the only places on the stream that had houses close by, and I sent the other guy to call 9-1-1.  We live in a pretty rural area, and it took about 35 minutes for them to get there.  The guy got back to me, said they were on their way.  Come to find out he’s a doctor.  Anyway, the guy lived.  He made it, and I ended up fishing the rest of the day with the doctor since the other fella was in good hands.  It was memorable.

FR:  We hear a lot about fracking here, is that a concern in your area?

ES:  Not in my immediate area.  It’s a concern north of us.  We don’t have the conditions for that right where I live thank god.  I think the hardest thing for me is to find good accurate information on it.  It’s so politically charged, in both directions.  I don’t know a whole lot about it; so far in my area we’ve been safe with it, but we’ve had disasters already in Pennsylvania, where the fluid gets released into a stream and it just kills everything.

FR:  It’s kind of a farming community where you’re at right?  So you’re probably more concerned with run-off issues right?

ES: Yeah.  For the most part where I live, our water has never been cleaner than it is now.  Our trouble now is with some of the development.  We’re drawing a lot of water out of the system, and we’re starting to see the effects of thermal pollution.

FR: From clearing the land?

ES:  Yeah.  Some of our streams are having those effects.  By and large our area is pretty immune to the major issues of the day.  For another sales pitch, that’s what it is.

FR:  You called your fishing technical and it sounds like you have good fishing.  What would you say to an angler that wants to come out and fish with you?  What do they need to do to prepare?

ES:  You’ve got to fish well.  You really do.  Take your game to the next level.  Most of what we do is a nymphing game, our fish ar wild.  We’ll put a dry fly on when they start rising, but it’s not a good way to just go out and fish.  You’ve got to nymph well, you’ve got to be deep, you’ve got to get good drifts.  You’ve got to have a stealth factor to you.  I think a lot of guys that we guide, they come in, they’re used to fishing stocked fisheries, where you can go in like the guy who did ten minutes before you and catch a couple of fish.  Our fish, if you spook them, you’re not going to catch those fish, so you’ve got to move.  You’ve got to be at the peak of your game.  Which I like, I think that makes it very appealing to me.

Eric tying up what works

FR:  You’ve been successful in this business- you’re a successful guide and author.  What do you say to a young person who wants to build a life in the outdoor world?

ES:  Work hard.  It just takes a lot of work.  Show up every day, do something productive every day that will take you to the places you want to go.  It’s the same in any business- be honest and work hard.  I think that eliminates about 60% of your competition.  Not that this business is dishonest.  By working hard you beat about half of your competition, just because it’s their hobby.  If you want to make it your life’s passion you’ve got to bust your nuts and work hard.  There’s always going to be this guy who does this on the weekends and charges half of what you charge.  You’ve got to take it to the next level; you’ve got to do something that separates you from those guys.  There’s nothing wrong with those guys, we’re all ambassadors to the sport, but if you want to make a living out of it, you’ve got to really be a little bit creative and work hard.

FR:  One last question- I just read an article in which Yvon Chouinard referred to the dying fly fishing industry- is the sport dying, or is the industry just over-bloated?

ES:  I don’t think it’s dying at all, I really don’t, in fact I think that the people that are in it today are far more serious than they were twenty years ago.  You had the group that came in from the movie (A River Run’s Through It- Ed.), they enjoyed it, they loved it, but they weren’t as serious.  The guys that stuck around after that…

FR:  A lot of that was fashion wasn’t it?

ES:  Yeah, I think it was.  Today lots of people tie flies.  If you want to do this there’s a million resources to find out how to do it.  When I started doing it I went to a hardware store in town.  There was one guy there who tied flies and he could get materials for you.  If you didn’t know someone who did it, it was really hard to learn.  Today we don’t have that problem.  There’s a lot of young kids today who are unbelievably good.  I think that’s good for the sport, because you don’t have that long learning curve anymore.  People that get into it, they get decent at it, they get proficient fairly quickly, and they enjoy it a lot more, so they stay into it more.  I really reject the notion that the sport is dying.  I don’t think it is at all.  I think we’ve got some issues with the buying public and where they’re buying.  That’s what I based my book “River Pimp” off of.  The real ambassadors to the sport are us in the shops, and if you eliminate the shops then I think we may have an issue.

FR:  Well, I know we have to get you back to the authors table, but I really appreciate you spending a few minutes to talk.

Eric and Tracey Stroup
They look so good together I had to share this

I want to thank Eric for participating in this interview.  I hope you enjoyed getting to know him a little better.  If you want more information or to contact Eric about booking a trip, or to buy one of his books, visit his website-

http://www.ericstroupflyfishing.com/ 

or you can call (814) 632-6129

Eric has kindly given me a signed copy of his latest book "River Pimp" to give away to you, my readers.  Just fill out the form below and I'll use the Random Number Generator to draw a winner next week.  Entry deadline is Wednesday April 4 at midnight.  I bought a copy and have been reading it and can say that it is thoroughly enjoyable, an inside look into the life of a guide and shop owner, but also a glimpse into the beauty and peace of the area where the Stroup's live and fish.  It makes me want to go.

Monday Morning Coffee- March 26, 2012

Aaaauuuuuugggghhhppphhhhh.  Yaaaaaawwwwn stretch, scratch, repeat.  I hate waking up tired on a Monday.  When you have to go back to work to get some rest it's a problem.  This calls for a serious amount of coffee, so let's have some.  Drink it black or not at all.

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon.... wait, wrong monologue.  It has been a busy week here at Fontinalis Rising.  The big news last week was the arrival of the March heat, with 80+ degree days for most of the week, and thunderstorms at the end.  Everything here is a month early- the birds are back, I got bit by a mosquito last weekend, the trees are budding, and down near Traverse City some of the cherry trees are starting to bloom.  With 5  more weeks of frost danger, this is not a good thing.  Yesterday the temperatures plunged 20 degrees while fishing, a welcome return to normalcy.

I fished a lot this last week, heading out after steelhead several times after work.  The fish are there, but you'll have to work for them, and a lot of the rivers are high and dirty from combined run-off and rainfall.  I look for the runs in Northern Michigan to peak over the next two weeks.  Inside info from the DNR is that they fear the smelt run will happen before the season opens April 1.

Speaking of April 1.  Michigan anglers- make sure you get your new fishing license this week if you're heading out, as your old one expires on this coming Saturday.  I got mine this weekend.  It's orange this year.

it's license time

I received a pair of Redington Sonic Pro zip-front waders to test and review and I already have four trips on them.  My initial impressions are positive and I'll post an overview of them this week, and then do a more exhaustive review after beating on them for a couple of months.  They have already gotten a taste of my Michigan fishing- bushwhacking through thick brush up and down high banks deep in the backcountry.  I hiked about six miles in them yesterday.  Kirk Werner keeps telling me that a gentleman my age will find the front zipper very handy-  I'm not sure how old he thinks I am, but it is nice for getting at my keys.

Scott and Melissa Smith of Eternal Outdoors at the
TC show. You'll be hearing about them later on.

I attended the Traverse City Hunting and Fishing Show on Saturday.  I'm not sure why- I'm still sorting through the massive pile of material I have from the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo two weeks ago.  The TC show was fun, and I met some great people there, including Michigan taxidermist Paul Borkowski and a couple of local gear manufacturers with great products which I'll be sharing over time, and even have a review or two to do now.

I continue to be snake-bit in the steelhead department.  I had a decent buck all the way to the net before losing it while fishing with Au Sable river guide Kevin Foerster this week.  Then I had one on briefly yesterday while fishing with Alex Cerveniak.  I had one on briefly Wednesday night while indie fishing, but when I went to set the hook I hit the tree limbs overhead, which subsequently wound my line through cedar needles.  One silver flash was all I got.  I've got to get this monkey off my back.  Alex says I jinxed it yesterday by catching a brook trout right away.  Maybe I jinxed myself by taking on the nom de plume Fontinalis.

If you haven't already, be sure you read my interview of tyer Mike Schmidt and enter to win some of his streamers- entry deadline is Wednesday at midnight.  I'll be posting my interview of Pennsylvania author and guide Eric Stroup on Wednesday, and I have a signed copy of his book "River Pimp" to give away, so don't miss it.

As always, this post is running long and I have to run out the door to work.  Let's get after it.

lots of fishing this week. no fish.

Good Takes- Mike Schmidt

I first became aware of Mike Schmidt  of Anglers Choice Flies (www.anglerschoiceflies.com) a couple of years ago, through the shadow world of social media.  Since then I've become a huge fan of his tying.  I have this streamer addiction that must be fed, and Mike's streamers are the stuff of legend.


When I think of Mike, it's easier for me to picture him donning a Viking helmet and pillaging English villages than tying flies - he's a tall guy with red hair and beard that just says "let's burn this place".  But once you get to know him, he's the nicest guy on earth.  It's like talking to an old college chum, and he is particularly good at making people feel welcome at his table at the Expo.  Some tyers are reticent and reclusive, Mike is gregarious and friendly.


I asked Mike the hard questions about being a tyer.  You be the judge. I should add that the first four questions I asked were  deliberately lame questions I asked him as a joke and he still gave great answers.


Enter to win a half dozen of his streamers and a fly box by filling out the form at the bottom of this post.

FR: Mike- so what’s your favorite fly?

MS:  That is a broad question- I think my favorite fly this last year has probably been a Red Rocket, just because it has such great movement.  It’s a nice pattern that kind of covers a lot of different species.  That and a new one called a Slap Pig, it’s a big ….

FR: I like the sound of that…

Mike: Yeah it’s the one that’s swimming in the back of the tank, so you can read about it… (laughs)  It’s very similar to the back end of a Conrad Sculpin and the front end is very similar to a Deceiver style fly, and you have a bit of an epoxy head over the front, so it gets really cool movement, it’s easy to cast, it sheds water right away, and it’s very durable.

FR:  What’s your favorite river?

MS: Uh, my favorite river is still the Au Sable.  I love the Au Sable.  If I had to narrow it down, to one area I’d probably- if you twist my arm I’d say the South Branch because there’s nothing on it.  I love the Au Sable, but if I was going to go up north, then I might go up to the Fox, fish the Fox.

FR: Yeah, I love that river.  What’s your favorite color?

MS: Maize and blue.

Yeah- Maize and Blue

FR: Marry, boff, kill… (Mike laughs loudly) Not really Mike- those were all my joke questions- I owe you better questions than that.  So what are the keys to a really great streamer pattern?

MS: Movement- absolutely movement.  Eyes are very important as far as I’m concerned, especially for a trout fly because I believe that they are an apex predator that is going to key in on that eye, but the number one thing across the board is going to be movement.  When I design a fly I’m designing it with different materials that have different properties in the water so that we have a fly in either a faster short strip, or a dead drift and still have movement on its own without me doing anything to it. 

FR:  Streamer patterns range from being realistic to pretty outrageous- why do the more outrageous patterns work?

MS:  People have confidence in them you know?  (laughs).

FR: So it’s a confidence thing?

MS: It’s all confidence.  You see some of that crazy stuff, and it’s out to catch people, not to catch fish.  But I think it gets back to movement, some trigger.  If you strip the fly back to you real fast so that the back of it kind of folds up on itself like an injured bait fish, let it flutter for a second like an injured fish- that is a heavy trigger.  You’re looking for those triggers, whether it’s eyes, or a certain movement, or sounds in some cases.  Those are all very important pieces.

FR:  I tie for myself and I get bored with it sometimes.  How do you keep tying on a commercial basis?

MS:  I try not to think about it. 

FR: Do you get a few Wings games in there?

Pavel keeps tying fresh

MS: Yes, a lot of sports, a lot of sports.  I’m very ADD, so I...

FR: And you’re a tyer? (incredulous)

MS: Yeah.  I have to force myself into just focusing on one thing and I just don’t think about it.  That’s why , while I’m tying I have to have on the TV and a DVD on my computer of music so that my mind is pulled in a bunch of different directions and I’m just zoned out, tying away.  I get into a groove.  I also have a  very addictive personality, and I keep doing it.  It keeps me out of trouble and it keeps me busy.

FR: It keeps you engaged in fly fishing as well?

getting close to 100 dozen of something

MS:  Absolutely, it (does).  You hear some of the seemingly ridiculous quotes from some of the guys like A.K. (Best)- A.K. likes to say “you don’t know how to tie a fly until you’ve tied a hundred dozen of them”, which on its face seems ridiculous.  But there are a lot of flies that I’ve tied hundreds of dozens of and I still learn, something will click every now and then that I didn’t even realize I was doing until I think about it and actually doing these shows does a lot of that for me because while I’m tying flies someone will ask me “Why did you do that?”  and I’ll say “What do you mean?”

“Why did you spin your thread there?” or “Why did you put your finger there?” or “Why did you twist your wrist just a little bit differently there?”  -- a lot of that I do without even thinking about it.  So I still… the more you do it the more you learn if you’re paying attention.  It drives me to continue, it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve tied a pattern.  I’ve tied a hundred thousand Meal Tickets, and I still learn tricks every time I tie a big batch of them;  I still figure something else out to make it easier as a tie. 

it's pretty

FR:  I really like your winged wets- why do you still tie those?

MS:  Why do I still tie them?

FR:  Yes.  I’ve never fished winged wets, but why…

MS:  They’re pretty.

FR:  They’re pretty?

MS: Yes.  You know, my majors were both in visual communication.  I was an animation and illustration double major.  I’m a database jockey for a telecom company now.  I needed that artistic outlet, that was why I originally got into tying flies, was that it was an artistic, outdoorsy thing to do…

FR:  That’s why I got into blogging.

MS:  There you go, something to keep you involved.  Once I started tying commercially, I wasn’t tying so many of the pretty flies, though a lot of them are gorgeous, and others are just utilitarian.  I try to tie something artistic at the end of each night, so I started tying one winged wet fly at the end of each night, so that I just have something artistic as an outlet, and something else to push a skill I wouldn’t get anywhere else.   Thread control is probably most important with winged wet flies.  You get that thread control down you can use that across everything else.  It made me a better tyer across the board.  I don’t fish them that often to be perfectly honest.  I do still fish them in the spring.  There’s a couple of patterns I think fish very well in the spring when the bugs are starting to get a little more active and move around.  I’ll tie them down to size tens and twelves, and dead drift or swing them just like soft hackles.  Most of the winged wets now wouldn’t be as effective the way they’re tied now versus the way they used to be tied.  The way they’re tied now everyone tries to imitate, and I do the same thing, to sell them, and for display purposes, I tie them with a very clean throat underneath, when in fact the original versions were almost certainly tied in palmer, with the hackle circling all the way around.  Almost as if you were tying a soft hackle over the top of a wing.  The ones that I fish are very natural colors.  Olives, tans, blacks, and I do palmer;  instead of doing a throat I do a full collar for fishing.  They fish really well that way.  I do fish them,  a little bit, but I still tie them because, it teaches you thread control, you’re using a very fine thread,  having to compress everything into a short amount of space to do it right. 

FR:   What do you say to a heathen like me who ties everything with Gel Spun Poly?

MS:  I hate Gel Spun Poly.

FR: Really?

the axis of evil

MS: Ugghhh… I can’t do it.   I use UTC 140 for just about every streamer I tie.  210 is acceptable, there’s certainly nothing wrong with it.  I love to have that stretch.  I use that stretch to my advantage.  If you’re tying under maximum pressure and you happen to break your thread, if you’re using UTC, the thread will constrict on itself on the hook and most of the time it won’t come completely undone.  You don’t lose that whole fly. That stretch also gives you a little bit of extra leeway.  You can tie under maximum pressure with it, and it is still going to get even tighter because it’s always trying to return back to its resting state.   I think it makes a better constructed fly overall.  The biggest problem I have with the gel spun is not the breaking strength of it, I think that’s fantastic, that you can really ream down.  I wish they could make a gel spun that stretched.  To me I think that stretch is really important in the thread that constructs a lot of these streamers. 

FR: It’s steelhead season- what streamer patterns should I be fishing? 

a Mike Schmidt Scandi

MS:  Feenstra stuff. (Mike laughs loudly as Kevin Feenstra walks by).  For my personal steelhead fishing, for steelhead stuff to swing I’ve actually gone old school.  I like fishing a lot of traditional Scandis and (unclear) speys, so I’m using a lot of double-wings, you know, a back wing and a front wing, with some Schlappen to hold it up, or arctic fox or Finn raccoon either as a wing or encircling the whole hook as a spey fly.  I think they have fantastic action in the water, and it goes back to “why do you tie winged wets”, I think that it’s the same reason I started tying Scandis, because it’s an old school fly, but they’re gorgeous, it’s such a pretty fly when constructed right.  Once I was tying them I realized they fish pretty good, and once I confirmed that they fish good, I haven’t gone back to fishing the other stuff now.  I really like the way they fish.

FR:  So are we going to fish this year?

MS: Yeah, whenever I can.  I’m going to be in Florida the second half of May, I’ll be in Wyoming in July.

FR:  Will you be fishing both of those locations?

MS:  The wife’s family is originally from down there, so it’s kind of like a second home for her, that’s why we go down there every year.  We’re going to go down there, then I’m going to come back, be home for a week, then fly out and fish with Strolis out in Connecticut, fly out there and fish with him for four days and then I’ll fly out to Wyoming in July to do big brown trout streamer fishing.  I guess I’ll throw some hoppers.  (Mike laughs again)

At this point some people walked up to his booth and it seemed like a good place to end it.  I want to thank Mike for letting us into the deranged mind of a tyer.  Back to the bench with you!

  Support a great guy and tyer, visit his website at 

http://www.anglerschoiceflies.com/ 

You can keep up with the latest at Angler's Choice Flies at his blog
http://anglerschoiceflies.blogspot.com/ 

Now it's your turn- Mike has put up a half dozen of his streamers and I'm putting up a large Morell fly box to put them in.  Enter to win them by filling out the form below.  Contest entry closes on Wednesday March 28 at midnight.