Fish Untamed

Jon Hill is a writer, angler, and rodbuilder. He started his own custom fly rod company, Yellowfin Rods, after falling in love with the craft as a hobby. Jon was the person who first introduced me to the world of building fly rods, and helped me through the process of building my first one. In this episode, we cover how he got into rodbuilding, what goes into building a fly rod, the necessary mate...

Hal Herring is a writer, hunter, angler, and conservationist. He has been featured in Field & Stream, High Country News, and Montana Outdoors, among many other publications. Hal grew up in Alabama, but now lives in Montana, where he enjoys chasing elk and high-country trout. In this episode, we cover his upbringing in the outdoors, the culture of southern outdoorsmen, the importance of public land...

Allen Crater is a backcountry fanatic who has been on many adventures over the years. He just got back from a trip into the Montana backcountry with his two sons and came on to share some stories. In this episode, we discuss his recent trip to Montana, how having a little superstition in fishing can be helpful, and some of his previous trips that taught him a lesson or two about being in wild plac...

Steve Culton is a writer, guide, and fly fishing instructor with a passion for stripers. He has taken a somewhat out-of-the box approach to catching them, employing techniques typically reserved for trout. In this episode, he walks me through his approach of “trout fishing for stripers,” including reading the situation before taking the first cast, using currents to drift small flies, making use o...

Heidi Lewis is an avid angler and founder of Utah Women Flyfishers. She fishes nearly every week year-round, has completed the Utah Cutthroat Slam several times over, and is passionate about swinging wet flies. In this episode, she tells me about her introduction to fly fishing, a few stories about completing both the Utah and Wyoming Cutthroat Slams, and her preferred techniques for fishing wet f...

Jessica Haydahl Richardson is a professional photographer who specializes in the sportfishing industry. After getting invited to shoot a remote island salmon fishing trip, she continued to chase her passion throughout the world of fishing. From targeting bass with gear to fly fishing and offshore, she has made a name for herself in fishing photography. In this episode, she shares her history with...

My buddy Mel Moss (also featured in episodes 12 and 13) and I spent four days fishing in Wyoming at the beginning of May. In this episode, we’re recapping our trip: talking about what went well, what didn’t, what we learned, and more. Many fish were caught, and even more laughs were had. If you’re looking for valuable knowledge and insights about fly fishing, this might not be the episode for you....

Mark Norquist is the Founder of Modern Carnivore, an educational website and community devoted to bringing people closer to their wild foods. Mark is a generalist outdoorsman who loves to catch fish, hunt game, and forage for interesting foods in the woods. Growing up in Minnesota he had opportunities in every season to get outside with a different activity. His passion nowadays is to get other pe...

Ron Belak is an avid backcountry fisherman and author of several books and many articles. His first book, Fly Fishing Colorado's Backcountry, details how to effectively fish Colorado’s remote alpine lakes and streams. His second book, published in April of 2021, is called The Fishing Guide to 800 High Lakes in Colorado, and discusses 800 lakes in the state that Ron and other anglers have personall...

Nick DelVecchio (also featured in episode 6) is a passionate angler and fly fishing guide based out of Franklin, PA. He is the owner and head guide at Wildwood Outfitters. Although Nick, like many of us, spends his summers focusing on trout, he spends the rest of the year targeting Great Lakes steelhead in PA, OH, and NY. In this episode, Nick walks me through the basics of Great Lakes steelhead f...

Bucky Buchstaber is the Founder and Executive Director of the Fly Fishing Collaborative, an organization dedicated to harnessing the fly fishing community to fight human trafficking. Bucky decided that he wanted to dedicate his life to helping others, and figured the best way to do so was to channel his passion for fishing into nonprofit work. The Fly Fishing Collaborative uses money raised throug...

Preston Smith is the Managing Partner of Wildwood Environmental Credit Company and President of Trout Headwaters Inc. Wildwood owns, operates, and manages roughly 35,000 acres of permanently conserved ecosystems in the southern US. In this episode, Preston walks me through environmental offsets and how they work. We also discuss the Clean Water Act, including how it started, the changes that have...

Michael C. Williams is a passionate fly fisherman and also starred in one of my favorite horror films, the Blair Witch Project. I was so excited when I learned this, and even more so when he agreed to take the time to speak with me. The bulk of this episode is geared toward his love of fishing. We discuss the need for closures on certain waterways for the benefit of the fish, his desire to pick up...

Scott Roush is the Deputy Regional Manager of the Northeast Region of Colorado Parks & Wildlife. In this episode, we discussed the pandemic’s effect on the outdoor industry. While Scott’s facts and figures were specific to Colorado, many of the overall trends were not. We covered the increase in outdoor recreation during the lockdown, issues faced by the state due to concentrated numbers of users,...

John Kumiski is a writer, photographer, guide, and teacher. After leaving his childhood home in Massachusetts and settling down in Florida, John got to know the Everglades quite well. While it’s easy to think of the vast landscapes of the west or the dense woods of the northeast when you hear the word “backcountry,” John frequently finds the same solitude by paddling deep into the marshes and brac...

Derek Sheehan and Ron Barch are Michigan-based bamboo rodbuilders. After years of playing around with the idea of building his first bamboo rod, Derek reached out to a forum for help, where he ended up being connected with Ron, who took him under his wing. Ron has made hundreds of bamboo rods, including some he designed himself. In this episode, Derek and Ron break down the process for me. We star...

Bart Lombardo is a panfish fanatic and loves chasing them with a fly rod. Although he considers himself a fan of all fish species, bluegills, crappies, perch, and other panfish are his forte. He is the creator of Panfish on the Fly, a website and Facebook group where thousands of people come together to share their love of these fish. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, including whi...

Mike Raether, who first appeared back on episode 22 to talk about using pack goats for backcountry fly fishing, is back again. This time, he came on to talk about backcountry navigation. Of course, it’s not really possible to actually learn how to navigate with a map and compass over an hour-long audio podcast, so this episode is more about the pros and cons of digital and paper maps, when you mig...

Tim Hepworth is known to many by the social media handle @timandwren, which he shares with his daughter, Wren. Tim and Wren, who at the time of recording is five years old, get out on the water together as often as they can. Wren has been fishing for years, and although she sometimes needs help with the finesse of setting the hook or making long casts, she is already a well-rounded angler. She’s a...

Alex Ermatinger and I met just a few hours before sitting down to record this episode, as he passed through town on his way to an antelope hunt. Alex is a hunter, angler, and guide who moves around throughout the year chasing different seasons across the country. In the summer, Alex guides in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison chasing rainbows and browns, including during the legendary salmonfly hat...

Joe Evans is a Journalism student at the University of Montana, and aspiring guide and media creator. He spends his summers with Henry’s Fork Anglers in Island Park, ID, and one day hopes to travel, fish, and create media around his adventures. In this episode, we discuss storing a drift boat with limited space, the pros and cons of drift boats vs. rafts, fishing Pyramid Lake, careers in the fly f...

Nick Viau is a traditional bowhunter and fly fisherman, and cohost of the Traditional Outdoors Podcast alongside Steve Angell. Nick is a dive-right-in kind of guy who always goes straight for the type of activities others build up to. He’s an avid smallmouth angler, but also loves chasing trout, panfish, and anything else that’ll take his fly. In this episode, we cover everything from why Nick is...

Steve Angell is a lifelong outdoorsman and host of the Traditional Outdoors Podcast, which focuses on fly fishing, trad bowhunting, and other similar outdoor pursuits. A frequent fisher of Georgia’s native brook trout streams, Steve has switched mostly to fiberglass rods. In this episode, we talk about what Steve enjoys about fiberglass, how his trip out west opened up opportunities to fish new ty...

Sam Ayres is a hunter, podcaster, and most recently, a new fly fisherman. Sam grew up catching fat stocker rainbows on a spin rod but always wanted to try fly fishing. After picking up his first rod a year ago, he has slowly started building up his knowledge and skills. And in the past few months, he’s had more time to seriously devote to it. Since he recently passed through Colorado after an Ariz...

Darrin Schenck is an avid fly fisherman and head coach of the Arizona State University racquetball team. We had originally planned to talk mostly about his recent fishing trip to Utah and Idaho. When the fishing success turned out to be less than expected, we decided to switch gears a bit and branch out more in the conversation. What followed was a discussion of what happens when the fishing is la...