Transcript: PODCAST INTERVIEW: A Fly Fishing Life with Jeff Currier
Transcript
Intro:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly.
On this episode, I'm joined by my friend Jeff Currier. We take a deep dive into designing a fly fishing life and how to travel anywhere in the world and be successful on the fly.
I think you're really going to enjoy this one.
But before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items.
If you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating review in the podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out.
And this episode's brought to you by our friends at Artisan Angler.
If you're looking for a better way to organize your flies, tippet, and tools, you should check out the Fly Trap at artisananglerllc.com.
I've dropped the link in the show notes. They sell direct through Amazon, so you get prime shipping and free returns.
It doesn't get any easier than that. Make your time on the water more productive and check out the Fly Trap today.
Now, on to our interview.
Marvin:
[1:02] Well, Jeff, welcome to the Articulate Fly.
Jeff:
[1:05] Thanks, Marvin.
Marvin:
[1:06] Yeah, I'm really looking forward to our conversation, and we have a tradition on the Articulate Fly. We'd like to ask all of our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.
Jeff:
[1:15] Well, for me, it would be, probably like a lot of people. I had a red and white bobber and a worm underneath that.
Probably very, very young, probably three to five, somewhere in that range.
And it was at the neighborhood pond right down the street from where we lived.
And I do remember the first fish was a pumpkin seed and I was so excited that I had to drive that around town and show it to my aunts and uncles and both grandparents.
And it was not a catch and release pumpkin seed, but made me a fisherman nonetheless.
Marvin:
[1:49] Yeah, I kept a few of those as a kid too. I kid too. So where had you moved on from like a Snoopy, uh, riding real to a zip code 33, or what was it that you caught that pumpkin seed on?
Jeff:
[1:59] Well, I don't think the Snoopy thing was around then. So it was just like a, a really weird look.
And I still have the rod somewhere, like a really short white rod with, uh, it actually, uh, it actually was an open face spin reel, so I'm sure my dad was very close by to make sure I didn't screw that up, but I don't know why he was anti closed face reel.
He just thought that was for like babies or something. So yeah, I learned fast.
Marvin:
[2:23] Yeah, I've still got my first Zepco 33 and all the cane poles I used as a kid too.
Jeff:
[2:29] Yeah, mine was the old, you know, Garcia Mitchell. It was a classic.
Marvin:
[2:33] Yeah. And so, when did you come to the dark side of fly fishing?
Jeff:
[2:39] So, my dad, you know, I'm the oldest, so my dad had me when he was in his 20s, and my dad fished hard, fished and hunted hard.
And I went with him a lot of times, and he also was a really good fly fisherman.
So, you know, when I was six years old, I specifically remember my first opening day And it was on the Ipswich River, which was in our town.
Dad woke me up at like 4.30 in the morning, and it was the first time I'd ever been up that early.
It was pretty amazing, really, listening to the birds and everything, and all that cool stuff, watching it get light.
But we went up to the Ipswich River in our canoe, he dropped anchor, and he set me up with a nightcrawler. Actually, I kind of think by then I knew how to put it on myself, and slung it out there, and I looked in the back of the canoe, and he's got all this activity going on.
I'm like, what the heck is going on? he doing? You know? And well, he was fly fishing and he just started murdering the stocked rainbows that were put in this river for opening weekend.
And I was catching pretty much nothing. And I just, I very much remember that I caught two fish and he caught at least 15 or 20. And uh, I was an angry little guy and I wanted a fly rod.
And he told me I was too young, but that Christmas I got a telescoping fly rod and reel and everything.
And the next, The next spring, he showed me how to use it a little bit, so by the time I was seven, by the end of that first summer, I was done making messes and actually catching fish.
Marvin:
[4:08] Pretty cool. Yeah, absolutely. You've been around the sport a long time, but in the early days, who were some of the the folks that mentored you on your fly fishing journey would they teach you?
Jeff:
[4:16] Well, my dad definitely taught me. He wasn't the type of guy that's going to teach you how to cast. He kind of expected you to see what he was doing, but he was really good at catching fish.
If I was doing a bad presentation, he would take the rod out of my hand, but I did do it like this. He always had a favorite line, too.
It would be like, I love acting.
It's a little different than what we're used to when we're fishing a mayfly, Feeding it down to a child, but he liked to fish like little wet flies and he would just twitch the heck out of these things And uh, sometimes i'd be throwing to a fish and you know, it wasn't eating me that he'd grab it He goes I love action.
You would just whip it around Twitch it and he hooked the fish and he had it to me and i'm like, you know I learned how to move my fly from him Um, my both my grandfathers had a good influence on on my fishing Um one grandfather fly fished but during my lifetime, you know know, he had already kind of quit. All he did was talk about it.
You know, next summer I'm going to take you out. I'm going to get my rod back out. But he never did, which, you know, would be a lesson in my whole life to be like, you know, if you want to do something, you do it. Don't just talk about it because he never did.
And my other grandfather was a bait fisherman, but he would, he would sling a worm over the side of his boat and fish from, you know, eight in the morning until seven at night, have dinner and go back out fish for catfish, and so I learned the patience from him.
I had a fishy family at a very young age.
Marvin:
[5:42] Very, very neat. It's funny because you and I have talked about this before.
There are a lot of people in our world that think they're passionate about fly fishing, but I think you're absolutely eaten up with it.
What is it about fishing that grabbed you so completely? Did that attention grabbing happen the first time you went out, or was it something that that kind of grew over your childhood.
Jeff:
[6:05] Well, there's no doubt that it grabbed me the first time I ever went out, because the curiosity of what was on the end of the line.
And I was lucky because I grew up in fantastic warm water fishing, so it could be a bluegill, it could be a pumpkin seed, it could be a crappie, a bass, and you know, we did that trout fishing, so that was always something special to wonder what was out there, but then it grew more because I'd end up in a unique place and it was more like, what's actually out there?
We were close to the ocean.
So, you know, we would go to the ocean and fish Plum Island, you know, Cranes Beach sometimes, and it's like, okay, there's some different stuff out here.
I have to learn how to catch it. And, you know, I started loving those challenges, fishing challenges at a very young age.
And we both know that no matter what age you are, LA fishing, you can always find a new fishing challenge, which is, you know, what's kept me going all this time. And it will right to the end, I'm sure.
Marvin:
[7:02] Yeah. And I would imagine what you were fishing, stripers and blues and all sorts of stuff, right?
Jeff:
[7:07] You know, when I was a kid, the striker populations in New England were so low that I actually never saw one. My entire childhood.
Um, lots of blue fish, quite a few flounder. Um, there were a lot of Pollock when I was a kid. Unfortunately they're gone now.
Um, but the strikers really didn't start bouncing back until I was in my late teens, early twenties. So it was more like when I was going back to the family that I got to striper fish.
Marvin:
[7:29] Yeah. Interesting. Do you remember the moment when you decided you wanted to build your life around fly fishing?
Jeff:
[7:37] Well, yeah, it wasn't at a super young age, it was more like I loved fly fishing.
And, you know, and I thought, at that age, I was gonna have to go to college and become, you know, a businessman of some sort, like my, like my dad did.
But I knew I wasn't gonna do it right away, I was gonna screw around.
And actually, I was lucky, I went to college and kind of became a naturalist, I did realize there are other careers out there, but still not fishing.
And I made a deal with my dad when I started college, I said, when I finish, I am going to go be a trout bum for at least a couple years.
And he was totally behind that.
And I worked at the Jack Dennis fly shop in Jacksonville, Wyoming, which is a great platform to be on.
And I was surrounded by people that were making a living in fly fishing.
So after that first year, whether it be, you know, Jack Dennis himself, who wrote books and, you know, was lecturing around the country in the wintertime, Or was it the guides that, you know, guided all summer and then some summer went to New Zealand in the wintertime or South America.
Probably after that first year, I said, you know what, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make this happen one way or another.
Marvin:
[8:46] Yeah, that's neat. And so, you know, to kind of fast forward a little bit, you spent, I guess, a little bit over 20 years managing the shop.
And, you know, I can remember watching the movie that was made about the time you kind of made the decision to go out and be kind of completely self-employed in the fly fishing business.
You want to tell us a little bit about kind of how you got to that point in the journey to get there? Yeah.
Jeff:
[9:08] Well, I'll just tell anybody listening right now, especially the youngers, that if you're going to work in a fly shop, you're not going to make a lot of money.
And so what I did was I did a lot of other things as I did the fly shop.
So as most people know, I've written a couple of books. I mean, I did those books before and after work over the course of a couple of years.
I did my art, a little bit of my speaking stuff. So with all that together...
[9:36] I made a living, but it was also like, oh my God, I'm working so much.
So it was my dream to get out of the shop. And I thought really, I would probably be when I'm 55, 60, something like that. And along came the 2008 financial crisis.
And our shop was a very prominent shop, and it was owned by some very wealthy people.
And funny thing, when the millionaires and the billionaires start losing a few bucks, and basically took it out on their employees.
So everybody that was on salary went to hourly and they gave us less hours.
And they said, now, if you go fishing career on your own time, it'll be your own time.
We'll have paid vacation, utter baloney.
And granny said, you know what? You've been wanting to quit and go full-time with your art. You've been wanting to take on more speaking stuff.
Now you won't have to ask somebody when you wanna travel. I think you should walk right in there and quit.
And I didn't do it that quick, but after that year of suffering on not being able to travel, losing my vacation time after a year, I finally did that.
I stepped it up, walked in, and gave my two months notice.
Marvin:
[10:48] Yeah. And what was it? I couldn't remember for the life of me the title of that movie. If I remember correctly, I think you were painting either a cliff box or maybe a guitar, and you were talking about kind of getting to this point.
Jeff:
[11:01] Oh, yeah, that was Turning Points North with our Arribiade.
That was pretty cool. That was about turning 50, but also the new life, which it had been in progress for a few years at that time.
I think when I left the shop, I know it was, it was October of 2009, so I was 44. And yeah, I never looked back. It was pretty amazing.
Marvin:
[11:25] Yeah. So when you made that move, you know, Graney kind of pushed you over the edge, but was it, you know, were you doing a lot of planning or were you saying, you know, look, I believe in this, this is what I want to do, and I have faith that the road's going to kind of of keep opening up in front of me.
Jeff:
[11:41] Yeah, I did. I mean, like I say, I stuck out, you know, the job for another year. And that's all I did for a solid year was make the plan.
So I saved, I worked as much as I could save as much as I could.
So I'd have a little buffer. And then when I actually walked out the door of the store, for the next three or four months, I did travel, I went on a trip with one of my best friends.
He too had not taken a lot of time to travel. I actually was traveling when I was working.
I went and saw my family for Thanksgiving. I hadn't seen my family for over 30 years on, you know, during any sort of holiday because I was in retail.
[12:20] Just did a lot of things that I wanted to do, but all the meantime I was doing that, the unexpected was happening. I thought after I had this little, you know, two month vacation, it would start 2010 where I'm doing tons of art, trying to get the speaking thing lined up, but my phone was ringing.
And it was, you know, after being in the store, you know, that storefront, like I say, the big storefront, everybody came in there and I had really good relationships with, uh, you know, the retail companies out there from Sims to Winston to Sage, you name it.
And, uh, they're like, what are you going to do? Curry, would you be interested in staying apart at Winston? You know, we loved, you know, the way you sold rods. And, you know, every time we're down there visiting you, you seem passionate about the rods. We'd love to, you know, have you fish our stuff. What would it take?
And I'm like, Oh my God, are these people asking me to fish their rods?
And, you know, help me fish all the time.
And, uh, yes, that's kind of what happened. It was just unbelievable.
The whole thing just kind of came together. I had a plan, but my plan was okay.
But then the plan that I didn't have that came together with all the companies and working to fly fishing shows and stuff mixed together. Next, you know, I had a real job, but it was a lot more fun than it used to be.
Marvin:
[13:31] Yeah. Very, very neat. And, you know, obviously it took you a while to get there and I can remember, I think reading Sarah Griggs' article about how when you first got out of college you were selling ice cream in Yellowstone, kind of what's the craziest thing you've ever done to kind of stay in the game.
Jeff:
[13:48] I would say it was probably that last year at Jack Dennis.
It was 2008 when, I'll say it right out there, I basically got screwed.
All the managers are at that store pretty much got screwed and couldn't walk out right then.
And that's what Granny wanted me to do. But I'm like, you know what?
I'm going to suck it up for a solid year and get my feet under me.
I'm going to let all my good customers know that I'm going to be making this big move. So I have ways to stay in touch with them.
And it was kind of a miserable year. The first time, I think I didn't leave the country, but that was probably the first time in 15 years, that entire year.
But it was well worth it because then when I did walk out that door, I had my plan, everything in line.
And like we just said, kind of circled back, it really worked out.
So that was my big, crazy move.
Marvin:
[14:40] Yeah, that's awesome. And what was maybe kind of during that journey kind of the closest you ever came to getting pushed onto a traditional path in the sport or even potentially leaving the sport entirely?
Jeff:
[14:53] I don't think I was ever going to leave the sport entirely, but there was a very good chance that I was just going to do – basically, the routine in Jackson Hole is that you either work in a fly shop or you're a fishing guy in the summer, and then in the wintertime, You tune skis or you're working at ski patrol in Jackson Hole, which is a great life.
And I kind of did that my first couple of winters, you know, I didn't do ski patrol, but I, you know, helped rent skis out of the same, checked in a store, basically the fly shop converted over.
But then all of a sudden, you know, I got a couple of opportunities to pick up some work down in Belize. I got to go to Belize basically to see if it was a place where I'd want to host my clients.
And then all of a sudden, it was like, wait a minute, I don't have to tune skis anymore. I don't have to crank on bindings for people to go up and down the hill. I can do this year round.
And that's what I did. I started doing the hosting trips.
And when I started hosting trips, I was working at the store.
And even the store was like, wait a minute, we actually can make money in the fly fishing year round because we can send people all over the world.
That's what we did. Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
Marvin:
[16:01] I mean, to your point, you see those folks where they're either going down to South America They're going usually down to the Caribbean and that's kind of their second season.
Jeff:
[16:11] Yeah, that's right. And at that time, you know, we had a relationship with Frontiers, which are, you know, great folks. And they put together some great trips and I got to host them.
But when I went on my own, ironically, I ended up with Yellow Dog because of Jim Kluge and I are very good friends.
And, you know, he kind of started his company about the time I was leaving Jack Dennis. So it was perfect for me to be with those guys.
Marvin:
[16:32] Yeah, absolutely. And speaking of, you know, kind of building this fishing life for yourself, you've been able to fish on six continents, and I guess I could ask you what you want to catch in Antarctica, and you've caught over 430 species of fish on the fly.
When did you get the travel bug?
Jeff:
[16:49] Well, my parents traveled when we were kids around the country.
My mom is kind of cute. She had a country western store in Massachusetts, and in that store, she sold cowboy boots and western shirts with square dancing stuff, all kinds of weird stuff.
So we would go out to Denver every year and we would drive the family van out and she would go visit these places and buy stuff.
And then she started selling turquoise jewelry so me and my brother would be running around the reservations with the Indian kids down in New Mexico and she'd be buying jewelries.
But I was always the kid, I was always so excited about, oh my god, what state are we going to dad, on this trip?
And I'd be like, okay, we're really close to California, can we go?
No, but I always wanted to go take it a little further.
Kind of like, I guess, you know, I think everybody that fishes, you know, when you're walking down a river for the first time, you might have something you have to be back for or it's getting dark, but you just keep taking that extra step up around the next corner, even though you know you might be walking home in the dark. So I had that at a very young age.
And then being in Jackson Hole at that fly shop, you know, we had a lot of very wealthy customers.
And they did go all over the world, we'd send them to Argentina, Belize, New Zealand, wherever.
[18:12] So I couldn't talk to these people sensibly, number one, without doing some travel. But also it just made me crazy because it would be 20 below in January.
So I'm like, you know what, I'm going to head down there. And I did the old-fashioned way.
I just grabbed a backpack and saved up for the plane ticket and then went down there and figured out how to do it yourself.
Marvin:
[18:31] Yeah, it's an interesting thing too, because I think, you know, we're relatively close in age that, you know, I think kids today have really missed out on all that car travel that happened if you grew up in the 60s and the 70s. Yes. Right.
And, you know, gosh, I can remember sitting in the backseat on road trips and you had your Etch-a-Sketch and you had your books, you know, that was a whole big thing, right, to go to the dime store to buy the stuff to keep you occupied while you were in the car to get to wherever you were going.
Jeff:
[18:58] Yeah, the good old days. Now they just look at their phone and look out the window.
Marvin:
[19:02] They don't know what state they're in. Yeah. So, gosh, I just think about all of those motels I stayed in as a kid, you know, and you'd get there and hope you could get there early and the swimming pool was open. That's right.
Jeff:
[19:12] Yeah.
Marvin:
[19:14] So, when did you decide, you know, I got the travel thing, but, you know, when did you decide you wanted to see how many fish you could catch on the fly?
Jeff:
[19:24] Well, yeah, you know, I was always like a mini scientist as a kid.
I mean, I was always checking out fish. It's very interesting because when, you know, my parents pretty much moved all my stuff to Idaho, you know, that's where we ended up for many years.
I'm in Wisconsin now, but my dad was, you know, throwing boxes in my house.
He's like, I found this in the basement and I pull it out. One was all calendars from like 1975, 76, 78, you know, and every one of those calendars In the summertime, I wrote down every single fish I caught. It was like four pickerel.
Oh, wow, I caught a crappie today.
So I always was looking at fish and pretty excited about it.
And then, of course, the first time I went saltwater fishing in Belize, I was very intrigued. It wasn't just the bonefish tarpon permit.
It was everything got me excited.
And I wasn't really keeping track, but I would talk to people, especially at the store, like, yeah, great time. Make sure you keep eye out for this cool fish, too.
These groups that are right there when you're tarpon fishing.
And somebody said to me one day, he said, man, you've caught a lot of fish.
Have you ever added up all the fish you've caught? And I was like, you mean like make a list? And they're like, yeah, you need to have a list.
You know, like a birder does. And I was like, yeah, that'd be kind of cool.
And actually, literally when that guy left the store, I went over and grabbed some scratch paper and started writing it down. And...
[20:43] You know, I thought I had everything written down. I said, I'd look at some pictures one day and I'm like, oh, wow, there's fish I don't think I have on my list, you know.
But I got serious about it, you know, made a real list and started, you know, every time I went on a trip, I would take a look at the species, the oddball species that I might find there.
And I made a point to try and hunt them down. And I still do that now.
Now it's kind of funny because I've, you know, caught a lot of fish that would have to be sometimes is something really weird.
A good example would be last year I was looking for this specific type of triggerfish called the vampire triggerfish yet where it's in the safe shells.
So we should be Trevally fishing career, we should be fishing for, looking for permanent big bone fish. What do you mean you want to catch the vampire triggerfish?
I'm like, eh, it's kind of a long story, but yeah, let's go find it.
Marvin:
[21:31] Yeah. It's an interesting thing though because I mean, you and I have talked about this kind of in the past when we've seen each other at shows.
Know, it's a real skill to travel somewhere that you've never fished before, to go get a fish that you've never caught before to eat your fly.
And, you know, can you kind of break down that kind of research process for folks so they kind of have an understanding of kind of what goes into making that happen.
Jeff:
[21:59] Yeah, in fact I like that you asked this question because the fly fishing show, you know, this is the time of year when we're getting our programs ready for the next year and that was something that Ben suggested, he's like, you know, just how to catch a fish now that everybody's pursuing different species.
It's like, what is the process of going for something other than a trout?
And so yeah, I'll tell you what it is. is. So you know you got to do the research as far as you know where the fish lives, what other fish live there too, you know what kind of bait there might be.
A lot of times I'll just look you know really study the the picture of the fish and you know if the fish has downturned mouth you know you for instance you're gonna be fishing on the bottom if it's you know looks like a trout or a bass then they're probably gonna be looking up.
So all kinds of things that I'll do and think about.
[22:48] And when I'm putting my flies together for one of these trips, there are some specific things that I'll go with to try and match what I learn or even just talking to people nowadays.
But also, there's flies you don't go anywhere in the world without, like your plows or minnow.
You don't go anywhere in the world without a plows or freshwater, saltwater, warm water, jungle, it doesn't matter.
And same thing with, you know, you got to have poppers, you got to have Chernobyl ants, you have to have, you know, parachute Adams, even if you're not on a trout trip and parachute Adams is just it's a great imitation of a lot of things that fish eat.
So that part's kind of the easy thing. You also got to, you know, make sure you get there. There are some places in the world, like, I guess the fish that, you know, I really want to catch bad is the Goliath tigerfish. I've got almost all the tigerfish of Africa, but I don't have a Goliath.
But it's almost impossible to get to where they lived and they're in the Congo, which is not a safe place, not an easy place to get into.
[23:47] So, yeah, I mean, there's a whole process that goes in to make sure you're prepared when you go on that trip. And sometimes you're not prepared.
I've made some mistakes.
Probably the biggest mistake I ever made with when I went for Golden Moss here in India.
And this is a fish that back in the year 2002, pretty much nobody knew about.
They've actually gotten kind of popular the last five, six years.
But 25 years ago, you ask about that fish, nobody knew what you're talking about.
So I had to guess. And it's a fish that gets huge.
So I was overpacked with tarpon flies, peacock bass flies, and stuff like that, only to learn in my three-month expedition over in India that they're like the world's largest carp and they would rather eat a size 10 woolly bugger even though they're 30 pounds than they would a big other fish.
So you win some, you lose some. You need to try to win more than you lose. Yeah.
Marvin:
[24:44] And do you carry a tying kit with you?
Jeff:
[24:47] I used to when I was younger and it definitely paid off sometimes.
But nowadays, you know, travel is, you know, you can only bring so much stuff on the airlines now and when you're doing a do-it-yourself and you're moving around, you know, you have The only time I might bring some fly tying stuff is if I'm going to be based in the same place the whole time, whether it's a lodge or a camp. But in general, no, I do not. do not.
Marvin:
[25:13] Yeah and it's interesting too because I guess you know do you do all of the research kind of you know books are you kind of getting human intelligence where you're sending emails and Skype calls and writing letters probably writing letters more back when you first started doing this to kind of of get kind of the local skinny on what's going on.
Jeff:
[25:33] Oh, yeah, the good old days of, you know, going to a place where nobody's been, like I said, India, and not having the internet to look everything up.
It was, it was pretty crazy. You know, back then, you know, I basically would buy a Lonely Planet guide and just get off the plane with that, you know, I'd have a little bit of a plan with some maps.
But we would just have to go for it. It was really hard. And you know, I have to say that success rate back then was very, very minimal in a place like India or you know, Granny and I hitchhiked across Africa in 2005.
The internet was around then, but most of Africa didn't have it, so we didn't have access to it when we were there.
But now, yeah, it's so easy now, Marvin, it's almost embarrassing.
Like, I can, number one, you can almost find somebody that's fished every one of these places, even some of the most remote places, and you can usually DM them or something, you know, Somehow, you get a hold of them and get some info.
You can look at maps. You can Google Earth places. It's really easy.
But I do all those things before every trip. Absolutely. Mandatory.
Marvin:
[26:37] Yeah. It's interesting because I can remember when I went to Argentina the first time in maybe 2006 and you'd have to go to the Internet Cafe, right? Yeah, that's right. Kind of a funny, kind of slightly creepy experience.
Jeff:
[26:52] Yeah, and they were slow. That was still very, very slow. And you're paying by the hour. You're like, dude, I've got one email done.
Marvin:
[26:58] Exactly.
Jeff:
[26:58] I'm paying a quarter.
Marvin:
[27:01] So, which fish species took you the most trips to get on your list?
Jeff:
[27:07] Well, the one that took the most trips was a milkfish, which is kind of annoying because you know, when you really focus on a milkfish, you should get them because we have the right flies now.
But I just had bad luck. There are fish that are menaces to you no matter what.
And I think I cast him the first time in Baja and I think on that particular trip, because that would be back to late 1996, I didn't know what the hell they were. I mean, they look a little bit like bonefish.
At that time, I thought it might have been a bunch of 20-pound bonefish.
I'm like, oh my God. They were out in the blue water.
[27:45] Then as that fish started hitting the map in the early 2000s and around 2010, 2015, that stretched there.
I was in Sudan on one of the early trips to Sudan. I guess you can't go to Sudan anymore in the last few months.
We got into a school of milkfish where there There was literally miles of them and they don't last long, meaning they're on the surface doing their thing, but it might only last 10 minutes, might only last an hour.
Well myself and my buddy, Mark Murray, that I was fishing with, he hooked up and he hooked his fish. The entire school went down, took him an hour to land his fish and that opportunity was gone.
I could go on and on. I had like five of these experiences where I'd either be with some of the caught one or the school would go down as soon as we got serious about fishing for them.
So I finally got mine. I guess it was 2021, 2022, yeah, 2021 at Providence Atoll in the Seychelles.
And it's actually, I have to tell you a little bit about this because I've been fishing the Indian Ocean a long time. And I know a lot of the really good guys have become great friends of mine, mostly from the South Africans.
And I literally got off the plane with my clients 11 clients got on the boat and like, career, this is going to be the trip where you get your milkfish.
We're going to go for him tomorrow. We're going to do this, that. And I'm like, Guys.
[29:11] I'm getting off the plane with 11 people that are playing a ton of money to be here to catch a giant trevally, chase cormorant, do sugarfish.
I'm not the priority tomorrow. They're like, well, it's the best day for milkfish with the tides and everything.
I'm like, well, I'll throw a carrot out there at dinner time, but I guarantee everybody's going to refuse it. Maybe my buddy Sammy will jump on that with me.
So I did it at dinner. I said, by the way, everybody, you know, we're going to have a great trip this week. And does anybody want to catch a a milkfish, tomorrow's the best day to do it. It was absolute crickets.
And I'm looking at my friend, Sam, and he's just like, turns his head because he wants a GT so bad.
[29:48] And also one of the guys, probably the guy that I knew least on the entire trip, on my trip was like, oh, if you wanna catch a milkfish, I'll watch you do it, that'll be great.
And I was like, really? Okay, we'll do it. And at Providence, it's three people to one guy.
So there's three of us in a boat. So, you know, Rich watched and my friend Randy watched and Randy was probably another guy that I knew the least on the trip.
And we went out and found the school of milkfish and made a couple of casts.
They wouldn't eat, wouldn't eat, getting frustrated. I went to do this big quick roll task to change direction.
My fly, my little algae fly spun through the air in this loop so hard that it hit me and it went through my bottom lip and into my top lip.
Pretty much sewed my mouth shut.
[30:34] I mean, I started, I was like so shocked. I haven't hooked myself in years.
There I do it in front of these guys and my buddy, the guide, is truly a buddy. He's just looking at me in total horror because first thing I do is open my mouth so I rip the top lip part apart and lips bleed.
Bleeds just, the bleed was just unbelievable and I tried to yank out the hook out of my bottom jaw and of course, you know, first hour, didn't pinch my barb like an idiot. I'm the guy that always preaches to pinch your barb.
It was an awful mess. Luckily, Randy is a doctor and he got up, he pulls the pliers off my holster and he goes, this is going to hurt.
You sure you don't want to go back to lodge? I'm like, I definitely don't want to go back to lodge or which was a boat, not a lodge.
Anyway, he tried to rip it out the first time. It didn't come.
Holy cow, did that hurt. It was the most unbelievable pain I've had on a fishing trip in a while.
He got it the second time and I was bleeding so much. My line was all sticky.
So I said, you guys get up there and give it a try. I, this is not meant to be for me. And Randy catches one of them. Oh, no, it was awesome. It was awesome.
Marvin:
[31:37] Yeah.
Jeff:
[31:38] And, uh, on the way home, Rick caught one that night. So it was just a menacing fish, but at the very last day of that trip, the tide had recycled, we were there for 14 days, two weeks.
And I got my milk fish. So it was kind of fun. By then everybody knew the whole story and it was just a little party after I got my Milky.
Marvin:
[31:55] Yeah. It's amazing too, right? Cause we're not talking about driving six hours.
We're talking about flying halfway around the world to not catch a fish. Yep.
Jeff:
[32:04] Yeah.
Marvin:
[32:05] No.
Jeff:
[32:05] Well, that fish, you know, specifically I've actually that first trip and I went for golden mass here in India, that was three months. I did not get the fish.
So that's probably the one I put the most time in before I actually got one.
And, uh, honestly never thought I was going back to India again, because granny and I, we did wing it. We did it. It was doing yourself and you know what India stands for Marvin.
Marvin:
[32:27] I do not.
Jeff:
[32:28] I never, I never do it again. That's what it stands for when you live out of the backpack back in the year 2002.
So I never thought of going back, but I got invited back by who's now a great friend, Misty Dillon, who born and raised Indian and been back to India a few times and fished with Misty and I got my must here with him and I will get many more hopefully with him.
Marvin:
[32:49] Yeah, I can always remember the film tour movie where they were cutting the little balls off the tablecloths cause they were eating mulberries and they made mulberry flies.
You know, and, you know, we know you're obsessed with fishing and you fish a lot. I think I saw your recent blog post and you put 16 out of 30 days of June on the water. You know, how much of your success do you think is just by being fishy and just putting in your time?
Jeff:
[33:14] A lot of it, definitely. It makes a huge difference to stay fresh.
You know, it's not just, you know, the casting. It's not just, you know, doing your knots quick, but there is, you know, a sense we have.
You know, we're hunters. we really are.
And you get rusty if you don't do it all the time. So, it helps tremendously when I get out on these trips to just, you know, be tuned in to not just my skills, but the fish themselves.
And I always tell my people, you know, I do host a lot of trips for Yellow Dog.
I'm just, you know, I'm hounding them to get out there and fish.
And they're like, well, you know, it doesn't do me any good to go trout fishing, Curry. We're going I'm like, yes, it does.
It does a lot of good because it means you're out there doing it and just everything's going to be, you know, flowing for you better if you fish a lot at home.
Marvin:
[34:03] Yeah. And speaking of a lot, I mean, how many days a year do you normally get out?
Jeff:
[34:09] I average 144. So I think last year I did 142. I think this year will probably be about a, I might do 160 this year. It's hard to say, but the way I'm going, I'm just going frigging crazy. It's been an awesome summer. an awesome year.
Marvin:
[34:23] Yeah, only because you got a new place to explore, right? Because you've kind of moved to Wisconsin, so you've got all this new water to fish, which probably helps a little bit, right?
Jeff:
[34:30] That's exactly it. It is very invigorating. Every time I go out, I have an opportunity to go to completely new water.
Be honest, you know, the muskies, the walleyes, the pike on fly is, you know, I'm pretty good. The pike stuff's been doing a long time, but you know, I'm learning about muskies.
Walleye are always challenging. It's It's just, yeah, it's, it's great, man.
I can't even wait. Even my trout fishing around here is different.
So it's really fun to go out and chase the trout on some of my local rivers here. It's cool. I'm digging it. I knew it would be this way, which is why I made the move.
Marvin:
[35:05] Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. It's kind of funny, right? Cause I mean, you spent a long time in Idaho and I mean, there's a time, right?
Where you're like, gosh, do you want to go fish $3? We've done it a lot, right? And it's good, but it's not the same. Exactly.
Jeff:
[35:14] Yeah. I mean, my friends thought I was crazy. They really, they really do.
I think they're, you know, they follow me on my blog and we talk a lot and they're like, I think I'm going to come visit you, you know, I've got to see you in a year or two, I might have a look out there. I'm like, no, you're not, you're not moving out of here.
You can come visit, but you know, this is a new life for me.
Marvin:
[35:33] Yeah. And so, you know, if we wanted to kind of boil it down, maybe this is like the beginning of the outline for your talk for Ben and the fly fishing shows in 2024, you know, from that whole process of catching a new fish on new water, you know, how should the average jangler think about that and apply that to his day-to-day fishing.
Jeff:
[35:53] Well, I think it's like I'm saying, I mean, there's a lot of people out there that would love to go chase permit, but they may not be able to do it, you know, financial or, you know, too much time at work or, you know, family stuff.
But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be in training.
I guess a good example there, which where I lived in Idaho, one thing I was very passionate about was fishing Blackfoot Reservoir for carp.
And I loved it. But I also knew that that those carp take it fly the same way the permit do.
Like you're sliding your fly, sometimes you don't see what the fish is doing, and they grab it, spit it out just as quick as a permit.
So, here I am in my backyard essentially, making myself to be much more successful on the other side of the world, four months later when I would be in St.
Brandon, that's all trying to catch a yellow permit.
So it is important, just like telling my folks, I know we're not gonna be fishing for trout in the Seychelles, but I still think you need to get out there because it's all about the hunt, no matter what fish you're going for.
Keep your stealth, keep your cast in line, keep your sixth sense about what's going on around you.
It's very important, really important.
Marvin:
[37:10] It's interesting, because I mean, I always think about it, I always try to work on process, right? So I don't have to remember stuff.
And all that stuff, like trying to weigh the same way time and having my gear arranged the same way every time and not that I don't change things but I always try to think about it from that process perspective too.
Jeff:
[37:27] Yeah it's important.
Marvin:
[37:30] Yeah and you know the interesting thing is we haven't even really talked about the logistics because I mean I've heard you tell stories about like sleeping multiple nights on like a trawler to go somewhere to fish.
You have a lot of logistics around your travel and I was wondering if you kind of talked to folks a little bit about kind of you know how you do it what you carry and kind of what your approach is.
Jeff:
[37:50] Yeah, so like, there's all different kinds of trips. You know, when I'm hosting a trip for Yellow Dog, everything, you know, is pretty well organized in advance.
And if a person goes on that trip, they don't have to worry about anything except their personal belongings.
But for me, for instance, if Granny and I were going to go do another African trip or something, which hopefully we will, there's a few things that I'd do, go anywhere in the world without one would be be like a water purifier.
That's a critical thing because you're going to run into a situation where you cannot get clean water to drink.
You get some bacteria in Africa or Asia or wherever, you're going to be pretty damn miserable.
So mandatory. Always have energy bars of some sort.
I'm sponsored by a company called Kate's Bars. I always have a good supply of those with me because when you're down, that will help you out pretty tremendously, get a little more energy going.
You got to have a flashlight, you should have your special meds.
A lot of my expeditions when I was young were two to three months at a time.
[38:57] I got a toothache doing the Inca Trail fishing. We were fishing really the headwaters of the Amazon that trip for rainbows, ironically.
I got a severe toothache, and toothache can kill you.
I've learned on that trip from being miserable for two weeks and luckily surviving it that, you know, I carry a special drug, that's ampicillin.
If I get a toothache down a trip, I can take that at least I'll live.
You know, same with like, you know, respiratory infections, which you often get when you go to India to some of the cities, the air pollution is so bad.
But I definitely carry a little, you know, kind of a safety kit as far as meds go.
[39:35] And obviously carry, you know, my phone with me, my phone with me, but I hand write like very important numbers, emergency numbers.
So for me, it would be like global rescue, which is, you know, if you work for yellow dog, you have to ask, have that.
But if I were to break a leg or, you know, I even get into civil unrest, you know, I could have been in Sudan, you know, when this thing blew up with a couple of months ago, cause I've been there a few times, um, they'll get me out of there. So.
Um, and a lot of common sense, let's just say that Marvin, that's probably the I think there's the biggest shortage of when you see people traveling is common sense.
You know, because when you get yourself into a mess, it's usually that phone's not going to work because you're in that mess and you're in a place where it's not going to work.
So you have to figure out how to get out of it by just having your head together and patience and all that good stuff.
Marvin:
[40:29] Yeah, interesting. And I imagine too, you know, I know taking hosting trips is totally different, right?
Because you got to have backup rods and all kinds of stuff and I'm sure Yellow Dog handles a lot of that logistic stuff for you, but you know when you're fishing and you're going to be gone far away for a long period of time, you know, how do you skinny down your gear kit?
Jeff:
[40:49] Um, well, I don't, I used to be like, okay, I'm going to bleeze.
I'm going to bring a seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, and 12. Um, that's great. You know, you don't have everything you need, but if that 11 breaks, then your 11 was completely done. So for instance, the sensational people like what rods do I need?
I'll probably have to buy some. I was like, do you have a nine weight and a 12 weight? And they're like, no, but I got two nines, two 11s.
And I'm like, perfect. That'll work.
And the idea behind that for me is, okay, I don't have to bring extra reels.
If you bring a 7-weight, an 8-weight, an 9-weight, a 10-weight, an 11, a 12, that's five reels right there. If I just bring two 9s and two 12s, I mean, really, I can get by with two reels.
Rod break, reel 99% of the time don't break.
[41:36] So I can really limit my gear right there because quite frankly, reels are the heaviest part of your equipment.
So if you can limit those right off the bat, that's good. You don't need clothes on most trips.
You're gonna have a couple pairs of everything, but don't go overboard.
Even if you're winging it in the jungle, you can usually go to the water and just rinse your clothes off.
Or if you're staying at us today or something, you can have a little soap and kind of clean them off a little bit. But the truth of the matter in the tropics, the second you put on clean clothes, eight minutes later, you're sweating already. So it doesn't matter.
So limit that stuff big time. And flies, you know, people are always excited.
They're tying flies for trips and they almost always bring too many flies.
You know, for me, it's one fly box per trip, no matter where I'm going in the world.
And you quickly learn that, you know, I really don't lose that many flies.
You know, as long as it's got half way to the right stuff, one box is perfect.
So I am a master of it. I fly a lot and I don't think my bag's ever even close a 50 pound, you know, on a trip. Yeah.
Marvin:
[42:43] And it's definitely not as much fun to fly with stuff like it used to be.
Right. I mean, you know, it really is not fun to carry a bunch and check a bunch of bags. Nope.
Jeff:
[42:53] And even when you get into your, whatever accommodation you have, whether it's a lodge or you are winging it, you know, if you have too much stuff, you can't find stuff and, uh, it sounds ridiculous. Well, it's two duffel bags.
Kerr, I think I'll find it. Well, you'd be surprised.
You'd be surprised what you won't find, you know, without having to dump it all over the bed. In America, rooms are big. Any other place in the world, they're like a quarter the size, everywhere.
So less is more, you know, the old saying truly is.
Marvin:
[43:24] So what does that boil down to? are the bags that you take with you.
Jeff:
[43:28] So, you know, usually I have my waterproof Yeti or my waterproof Synth Rollaway duffel.
I should mention this, you know, sometimes I take two duffels and I split my stuff down the middle.
So like if I was going to Africa tomorrow, that is a long way to go.
There is a slight chance a bag could get lost.
So I will usually split my stuff down the middle and have two bags, you know, two 20 bags and if they both make it which they probably will then I'll just you know leave one bag behind you know at the first accommodation I have you know probably in the capital city I landed a lot of times they'll store stuff for you and then I'll put it all together but yeah definitely a waterproof duffel bag and you have to have at least one for every trip because your stuff's gonna be laying out on a tarmac somewhere or you're gonna be in a boat and there's gonna be three inches of water in the bottom because you're leaking or you know, critical.
Marvin:
[44:27] Yeah, particularly with the camera gear and it's funny you say that because I've got a fishpond bag and I think it's great to travel in but the great thing is then you unpack your stuff when you get where you're going and keep all your gear in that and that's your boat bag.
Jeff:
[44:37] Exactly.
Marvin:
[44:40] Yeah and yeah I've ruined enough camera gear to know that I don't like doing that. No, it's expensive.
It is expensive and so you know I've heard some of the crazy stories of things that have happened to you on the road but what's the most challenging travel situation you've ever been in?
Jeff:
[44:57] Oh God, boy there's been some amazing ones.
I'd have to say there's probably ten that are just absolutely unbelievable that I thought my life was over but one of the worst ever was on that trip when Grant and I did three months in India.
We had been in the bush, we had actually been in Nepal and we did the Everest base camp trek and we fished all through the lower Himalayas there, it was awesome, the fishing stunk, but it was awesome.
But we came out with the intention that we didn't want to drag a lot of of money with this on that so we were gonna go you know go to you know an ATM. Well, We couldn't find an ATM when we got back to the hills. And I think we had maybe $150 that we had turned over to Indian rupees.
[45:49] But that started getting lean. We kept thinking, OK, the next town is a pretty good city. We'll get some money there.
[45:56] Well, we finally got to the big city of Agra, which is where the Taj Mahal is.
And we were out of money now. We basically were down to no money.
And we got off this bus, luckily we had paid before we got in the bus, and I said, we'll find a rickshaw guy right now, and we'll have him take us to a bank.
So we get this rickshaw, a bicycle rickshaw, we hop on the back with all, you know, we had each had, you know, a pretty small bag really, because it was a three-month trip. We don't have a lot of stuff.
That was interesting as far as clothes on that trip, because our clothes would literally rot off our body. So we would just go to like a tailored place and have them make us new clothes. We were like true Indians, it was pretty cool.
But anyway, this guy, I'm like, hey, can you take me by an ATM machine?
He goes, I think I know where there's one. So he rides like, I mean, it was like a 45 minute ride. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm always got 10 rupees for this bike ride, we get there, and we can't get the machine to work.
So I'm like, Okay, dude, how about just a bank? He goes, Well, it's a holiday, he goes, there's no banks open.
Every day in India was a holiday, there was always something going on.
We didn't really know that yet because we were kind of new there at that time.
So we were screwed. I'm like, dude, I can't even pay you right now, I feel terrible. And we have no way to get an accommodation or anything until tomorrow.
And here's the fascinating thing though about travel.
Here we are on our knees, and this guy has nothing.
[47:23] And he says, I have a friend that owns an accommodation, let's go see him and see if We can put you up for a night, then I'll come get you tomorrow.
And I'll take you to the bank when it opens and you can pay me and pay him.
Let's go see if that works." And it did.
But I gotta say, I thought we were doomed on that situation right there.
Because we had a lot of close calls prior to that of just all kinds of crazy things going on. So that's a good one. I got a lot of good ones though.
Marvin:
[47:51] Yeah, it's interesting hearing you tell that story makes me remember like my early days, like when I was in college and I would travel, You'd have to go somewhere that would cash a traveler's check without charging you a ton of money. Right? Yeah, right.
Jeff:
[48:02] You don't want to lose it.
Marvin:
[48:04] And there were no ATMs. And it's funny because I was telling one of my boys, and you'd have to go buy the phone card, right?
Because that was how it worked. And, you know, you didn't just activate your international plan on your cell phone. Right.
But I also remember, didn't you have a – you had a really bouncy ride with Malaria in the back of a pickup truck somewhere? I think you told me that story when we were together at the shows earlier this year. Yeah.
Jeff:
[48:26] Yeah, I've definitely had some bad stick issues, you know the amount of travel I've done I've probably had four or five of those but yeah, I got We're in Namibia, oh no Zambia on the border of You know, basically on the Zambezi River and it's kind of winding down the end of our trip after hitchhiking across we're there about two and a half months and and started coming down with something, started with the shits and then started throwing up.
And when you have both at the same time, you're in bad shape.
And I remember that night too, because we actually had a python come into our room and we had to catch it and get that thing out of there.
They're pretty, they don't really try to bite you, but it was just a rough night.
[49:12] And we were staying with kind of a little accommodation and there were the people that ran it were, you know, they were born and raised Namibians, but you know, they were from the US at one time.
So, you know, they can relate to the situation I was in because my wife, Granny, went down there and she was down and woke him up and like, yeah, my husband is really, really sick. I'm kind of worried about him.
And he goes, well, let's get him to the hospital in Zambia, downtown in Lusaka, which was like a five hour drive.
And I'm like, no, I'm fine. It's just food poisoning. It'll just, you know, I'm just gonna sleep it off. And he goes, no, you've got malaria and we need to get you to the hospital right away.
[49:53] So yeah, four hour bouncing around, the truck puking off the back there and not too much fun. And I remember when I got into the hospital in Lusaka It was rough, dude, I'm telling you, it was...
It was not looking good and this would have been 2005. So, you know, I don't know you think you're going to get something when they shove the needle in you.
So, and I definitely was was worried about that and normally I back then I carried my own needle and I had thrown it away because it was towards the end of the trip and it was kind of a nuisance or I think a packaging had opened anyway wore out my backpack.
Anyway, so I'm like man I want to watch you take this out of the package and everything.
He draws my blood and stuff, and it turns out he's like, they come back about 10 minutes later, like, you don't have malaria. I think you have food poisoning.
I'm like, damn it, I knew I had food poisoning, but it was bad.
So I got my blood drawn at this shady, shady place, and it ended up being just food poisoning anyway, like I thought.
Marvin:
[50:52] Yeah, and anyway, and it's been almost 20 years, so you're all good on the needle front.
Jeff:
[50:56] So I got a free ride back to Lusaka, you know, I didn't have to take a bus actually, even though it was a rough ride back to the pickup, I still got there. Yeah.
Marvin:
[51:04] And so I know you kind of take your medical kit with you, but I know you also, you know, these trips can be physically grueling, even if you don't get sick.
How do you prepare yourself for that component of your trips?
Jeff:
[51:15] Well in general, I try to just stay physically fit all the time, whether I have a trip on the books or nothing.
For instance, my daily routine, my routine today was I rode my bike about eight miles, but two of those miles were like straight up this, we do have hills in Wisconsin and we have a brutal one in our town.
So I went to the top of that down and back up the top of it twice. And then the...
[51:43] Did some light weight lifting today was upper body just keeping my arms and stuff, but you know I'm not trying to get bigger.
I'm just trying to it's funny, you know, you mentioned you're 53 I'm I turned 58 here shortly.
It's not a matter of trying to get in better shape anymore It's trying not to lose what you had yesterday So, you know, there's aches and pains and you just want to make sure they don't get any worse So that's kind of the workout I do but that being said like I have uh expedition to Bhutan next April you will see me working it pretty hard at the gym at the shows this winter and when I get home from the last show it'll all go into like an intense training because you know you don't want to do something stupid like pull a muscle and you know miss a couple days of fishing you don't want to be you know weak for your trip you know and so the any any more strong you can be the better off and endurance is huge.
Some of the places I go it's like it could be 95 degrees and we might have to go for a 10 mile hike over rocks you know so I need to be prepared to be able to handle that and you know I think we're it's kind of funny where I think it helps me the most sometimes when you get off a plane and you have to make a connection and you have a short time and you have to run to the airport it seems like I'm always the first one to the gate if I'm I'm with friends and like, oh, Calcutta, what are you doing?
[53:07] I'm like, I did not want to miss the plane. They're like, yeah, we shouldn't even keep up with you. I'm like, you know, dude, that's because I'm in shape for this trip. And it just paid off because there has been times when I made the plane and whoever I was with, you know, didn't run fast enough.
So yeah, it's very important. I even tell all my clients, I'm like, listen, you know, maybe you are 80 years old and you're not in very good shape, but you have accepted your 80.
I guarantee if you walk to the post office, you know, this next two weeks for a trip, you will be able to walk more in the flats. And they're like, yeah, that's a great idea. And it is a great idea. So true.
Marvin:
[53:40] Yeah. Yeah. I think I remember you and Landon sharing fitness tips because, you know, Landon's a bit of a workout freak.
While we were eating dinner, I can't remember which of you two guys was talking about the phenomenal number of crunches you did every day.
Jeff:
[53:54] I do a lot. Tomorrow's the day. Unfortunately, I hate it. That's the one I hate.
I hate when I have to get on the floor and do that crap.
Marvin:
[54:00] So it's important.
Jeff:
[54:04] Your back is the most important thing to keep you going. And it's the first thing to go on most people. So if you can keep your core muscles strong, it makes a difference. And you know what it makes a real big difference for?
Is being in the bow of a boat. I watch people that have sea legs.
They just can't stand there either.
They can't stay up on small waves. have to get down and they can't fish properly or they can't stay up there for more than you know 45 minutes before they need a break. I love fishing those guys because then I get the bow but I don't want to be that person myself so So, yeah, the crunches is important.
Marvin:
[54:39] What's the magic crunch number?
Jeff:
[54:42] Well, I'll do like maybe eight different types. So yesterday, I think it did 360, you know, but I do like maybe a dozen, four different types, and then do a couple that I do a lot of those exercise, those medicine balls.
That's like the best thing I ever got. But I hate that they weren't I'm done.
I kick it as far as I can across the lawn.
It kicks my ass. Holy cow, that thing's vicious. But it is good. It's a lifesaver.
Marvin:
[55:09] Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you mentioned Bhutan, you know, what's your kind of your trip roster for your upcoming exotic locations you want to share with those?
Jeff:
[55:18] So the really upcoming, so I actually, I think Blaine and I are going to try and do some fishing in Virginia, you know, off the coast, hopefully in the next few weeks here, we'll see if we can pull it together.
He's been busy. I've been busy, but I've done a couple of Canada trips.
I'm going to go see the guys from gang. We're granny's going to go with me on that. So we're going to go up to northern Manitoba and, you know, fish for pike and lake trout and do a northern light sting.
And after that, we have the World Championships of Fly Fishing.
I retired last year, but I've already been invited to go back.
So I'm going to participate in that.
And then I got some Mexico stuff. I'll be in Baja like I usually am.
And then it'll be time to work. I'm sure something will come up in between that, but Bhutan is in April. And then after Bhutan, I have a lot of stuff.
I'm going kind of crazy the next few years. I'm doing a lot of hosting in Africa and a lot of hosting in the Seychelles, Indian Ocean type stuff, which is good because I am a fanatic of it.
Marvin:
[56:17] Yeah. And is the best way for folks to find the hosted trip stuff, your website and probably Yellow Dog has a probably a separate listing for all the places that you take folks? Absolutely.
Jeff:
[56:27] Yep. But you know, the best thing to do in that is, you know, just ask me and I'm very reachable.
You know, I've got my website, which has a contact button. I always tell people that's the absolute best because it sends me an email right away.
And I'm pretty good about checking my email a couple of times a day, especially when I'm home.
And if I don't, you're going to hear from me within 48 hours.
You can DM me, but I'll be honest with you. I'm not a phone guy.
I'm still old school. old school. So there'll be times when I don't have my phone with me for a couple days.
Guys are pretty crazy, but I'm really in that way. I was the last guy to ever get a cell phone and probably still don't use it enough, even though it's a great tool.
But yeah, just shoot me a note and say, I want to get on your travel list and I'll send you reports when I have a trip coming up.
Marvin:
[57:14] Got it. And is there anything else you want to share with our listeners this evening before I or I'll let you hop.
Jeff:
[57:21] I mean, I guess I just have to say, you know, I've been a lucky guy to fish around the world and make a living in fly fishing.
But you know, I say lucky, you also, everybody out there can do the same thing if you really want to do it, especially the young folks that are listening.
You just have to put your mind to it, you have to have the patience to do it.
But work hard, fish hard, share your knowledge when you learn stuff.
If somebody asks you and wants you to help them out, for goodness sakes, help them be a better fisherman too.
And it all comes back. It's just amazing. People will discover that you're a good fly fisherman or a good person if you just keep doing it for a while.
And this is one of those sports and industries where there's a lot of generous people out there, a lot of good people out there, and we all kind of share, you know, our fishing time and everything with each other.
And it's worked out for me. Got to see the world and get to work with some great people. So that would be my last kind of advice or something I would say.
Marvin:
[58:29] Yeah, it's funny you say that. I always tell my boys to be the change they want to see in the world, right? Yeah. Right. If folks want to keep track of your adventures on and off the water, what's the best way for them to keep track of Jeff Currier?
Jeff:
[58:43] I would say jeffcurrier.com. That's my website. I have a blog.
My blog is different than most blogs.
My last entry was in May of 2021. It was actually yesterday.
I've written about every single day of fishing since late 2009.
Instagram is a great way to, which is Jeff Kerr 65, because when something really good happens, you know, fishing wise in my life, or even art or travel, you know, I usually post it there.
And that will remind you to go check out my blog and get the full details on what's going on.
Usually some pretty cool stuff. And there will definitely be some cool stuff at this summer. Probably some big smallies and maybe a muskie or two.
Marvin:
[59:27] And there you go. And I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes for folks. Sounds good.
Jeff:
[59:31] Yeah.
Marvin:
[59:32] Well, Jeff, I really appreciate you taking a little bit of time away from the water and chatting with me this evening. My pleasure, Marvin.
Jeff:
[59:38] I enjoy it, too. Yeah.
Marvin:
[59:40] Take care and be well.
Jeff:
[59:42] All right, buddy. Thanks. Bye-bye.
Intro:
[59:45] Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed that as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.
Again, if you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating and review in the podcast of your choice. forget to head over to www.artsandanglerllc.com, to check out the fly trap. Tight lines, everybody.