With a Little Help From My Friends

When you casually ask someone what they do outside of making a living, you get the usual: family, travel, food, go to the lake etc. But fishing, really having the pull to be on or in the water with a fly rod, it isn't that common.

One of my best fishing buddies I met through my wife. She set up a double date and it took me all of ten minutes to ask him if he fished. He did. A few months later we were wading through a shaded little stream in Southeast Minnesota.

So many great friendships have started with a simple "Do you fish?" or become stronger with a "We should go fishing."

I've conned a handful of my closest friends into fly fishing, most of them still do. The score keeping and light hazing that comes from knowing someone from your teens into your 40's comes out on the river. But there is also a certain kindness that comes from a shared history. A trip or a day on the water becomes a team sport and you're just as happy taking the picture or netting a fish as you are hooking it yourself.

Since I opened the shop I have a hundred new fishing buddies. I get pictures of their first fish on a new rod. Pictures of their kids holding bluegills. Pictures of trips I helped them chart out.

I feel grateful to have so many great people I get to fish with and who want to share time on the water with me.